Sidley(4285) - Page 4

A young Romanian climber Crina (Coco) Popescu and her father Ovidiu arrived December 26 in Punta Arenas, with a day late. The same day, the Polish part of our new team got (also adventure) to this Chilean town. This Zygmunt Wladyslaw Berdychowski, Roman Ludwik Dzida, Daniel Mizera, Malgorzata Bozena Pierz-Pekala. Such is the international composition of our next team, that goes to the highest peak in Antarctica. A guide of 7 Summits Club Max Bogatyrev looked for all them in the local airport two days. In the sky of the planet happen terrible things, flights delayed and extended, this information does not manage to reach. So Max spent a lot of time at the airport before he could tell us "all fed, put to sleep. " Prior to departure of the ice continent, the group will be at least three days. To purchase products and take a course "antarkticologia" in the company of ALE...

Coco and Ovidiu Popescu

Yesterday we said “good by” to our leader, President of the 7 Summits Club Alexander Abramov to Antarctica. He flew out on Saturday morning, as a minimum, for two months. For a modest table there were spoken high words that connection with him will not be interrupted. Even in the hours and days when modern means of communication will not be able to support it. In the near future, Alexander arrived at the extreme south of Chile, the city of Punta Arenas. December 3, his team plans to fly in Antarctica. It seems to be that an airplane bridge "Continent - Union Glacier” works well and we hoped that the flight will be made on time. We will wait for messages.

At the beginning of next year's a team of 7 Summits Club will participate in a climbing expedition to the highest volcano in Antarctica - Mount Sidley. In middle of January, an aircraft Basler, traditionally used for flights to the South Pole, is to land in the vicinity of the volcano. Conditions of the landing will be available only upon arrival. This expedition is an initiative of the 7 Summits Club. Initially, our club was planning to send four climbers and one guide. However, the injury of one of participants reduced it to four people. And the Antarctic operator Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE) collected on this program a few more people.

Team of 7 Summits Club: expedition leader Alexander Abramov, the Russian climber Igor Grishkov, Italian mountaineer and explorer 58-year-old Mario Trimeri and a Romanian girl Crina Coco Popescu, who in December will be 16 years old. In the case of success, Trimeri and Popescu, will become the first people who climbed seven of the highest volcanoes in the seven continents. They had already visited six of the list:

Ojos del Salado (6893m) - the highest volcano in South America. Located in Chile.

Kilimanjaro (5895m) - the highest volcano in Africa. Located in Tanzania.

Orizaba (5700m) - the highest volcano in North America. Located in Mexico

Demavent (5671m) - the highest volcano Asia. Located in Iran.

Elbrus (5642m) - the highest volcano in Europe. Located in Russia.

Giluve (4,368 m) - the highest volcano in Australia and Oceania. Located in the eastern part of the island of New Guinea.

And nobody else in the world, have not yet done.

Scientists had visiting a region of Mount Sidley several times, but with climbing plan only in 1990. It was a scientific expedition from USA. An experienced New Zealand guide-climber Bill Atkinson participated in this expedition. Americans used a powerful C-130 Hercules and they were able to land 28 kilometers from the volcano Seeley. Thanks to the power plane, Americans brought with them many goods and, in particular, tracked snowmobiles.

The goals were academic and focused on the collection of rocks, Geophysical and glaciological studies. Scientists have been there for quite a long time and underwent several geophysical routes. Along the way, they made two ascents. First, they climbed a nearby volcanic cone of Mt. Waesche, 3292 meters. They climbed up on a snowmobile to almost the highest point. Climbers ascended in crampons only final 20 meters. At Sidley, scientists and guide Atkinson crossed the crest of the crater. Probably, they reached the highest point. But Atkinson can not remember any details.

In accordance with a plan of our expedition, we will climb on skis. It will be special touring skis for polar expeditions, which used for the program "Last Degree". Crampons will probably need only for the final stage, as the north-western slopes of the mountain are very gentle. It is unclear now, where our plane could landed. At what will be distance to the mountain. Altitude of the ice dome at this site is about 2000 meters. We assume that the ridge of Mount Sidley consists of several peaks with almost equal height. We would like to climb all the highest ones and give them names. Determinate the main summit, the highest point to make this trip fully ready for the following climbers who go on the program "Seven volcanoes.

Program “Seven volcanoes”, it is climbing the highest volcanoes all continents over the world, Club Seven Summits organized in early 2011 the first mountaineering expedition to the highest volcano in Antarctica Mt. Sidley. Head of expedition - Alexander Abramov. Among confirmed participants: Dmitry Moskalev, Italian Mario Trimeri (who can become the first person climbed the seven volcanoes), Romanian climber Crina Popescu, which in December will celebrate 16 years (she also ends the program "Seven of the Volcanoes").

Mount Sidley is located in the mountain massive Executive Committee Range. This is chain of volcanic mountains in Antarctica, called the Marie Byrd Land. The thickness of the ice cover in this part of the continent achieves two kilometers. In the case of complete disappearance of the ice covered at this site will be an archipelago of volcanic islands such as Japan.

The height of the Mountain Sidley - 4,285 meters, the foot of the volcano has an altitude of about 2500 meters. Coordinates: 77 ° 02 'S 126 ° 06'z. E..

Mt. Sidley - a gigantic volcanic massif, a huge bulge dominates the uniform ice surface of the surrounding area. One side of the mountains form a huge caldera crater with a diameter of 5 km, its walls towering about one km altitude. And there may be found difficult climbing routes. On the other side there is only a gentle slope and the path to the summit can be maid on skis. However, the question with the highest point is still not fully clear. There may be several points in the ridge

We will have to check several points in the long summit ridge, with GPS, make sure a correct climbing line for next climbers. So we have to climb with the elements of a full exploration, as we have no high-quality report from first climbers.

 American base in 2000 and Mt.Sidley

The mountain was discovered by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd on an airplane flight, November 18, 1934, and named by him for Mabelle E. Sidley, the daughter of William Horlick who was a contributor to the 1933–35 Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Despite its lofty status, the volcano languishes in obscurity due to its extremely remote location. It is little known even in the mountaineering world compared to the far more famous Mount Erebus, the second highest Antarctic volcano which is located near the U.S. and New Zealand bases on Ross Island. The first recorded ascent of Mount Sidley was by New Zealander Bill Atkinson on January 11, 1990, whilst working in support of a USAP scientific field party.

For the first time the foot of the volcano Seeley was reached by scholars of the American Antarctic Expedition ATV in the season 1958-59. The leader of expedition a Scottish glaciologist John Pirrin climbed up its slope nearly to the top, but to the highest point is not reached.

Under the program of studies US-ITASE American scientists visited the volcano area Seeley in 2000. Then they have a large collection of rocks and minerals, which enabled them to reconstruct the geological history of the volcano.

The route of our ascent involves a standard flight Punta Arenas - Patriot Hills on the big plane and then to the base camp on Mount Sidley on a small plane. What is the ascent to the summit, we can only guess. But we hope that our expedition will go down in history in many ways. And above all, accurately establishing the route, identifying the highest point of the ridge, taking pictures of all this and widespread throughout the world of information.

Russkaya station at Cape Berks on coast of Marie Byrd Land worked in ten years (1980-1990), it is only 300 km from Mt. Sidley.