Everest(8848) - Page 3

The 7 Summits Club has begun filming a new movie called "Space Everest." The main characters are cosmonaut Sergei Ryazansky and businessman Vasily Taradin. This spring, under the guidance of 12-time Everest climber Alexander Abramov, they will go to the summit of Everest - the closest point on Earth to the stars.

Every year everything is more reliable, more thoughtful, with greater convenience, with care for the rest and recovery of the climbers. The 7 Summits Club Base Camp is traditionally considered a benchmark and the envy of other expedition participants. And we do not stop, we work and work, we improve and perfect. Our Sherpas in Kathmandu received new tents for the base camp. They are an order of magnitude larger and more comfortable than last year's. They will have full-size beds. We have no doubt that we will surprise the expedition participants with the comfort of the base camp.

Trailer for the documentary multi-part film Oxygen. Everest! Coming soon to the Premier online cinema!

 After storming the highest peaks in the world and the tragic expedition to Broad Peak, Vitaly Lazo, who has completed more than 40 high-altitude expeditions during his career, including the first ascent in Antarctica, sets off on a new dangerous journey.

 Together with his friend, Anton Pugovkin, they plan to conquer Everest without oxygen and ski down from the summit. But the ascent itself is not an end in itself. There are other reasons why Vitaly goes to the summit...

 This is an adventure on the edge of possibilities, on the edge of reason, on the edge of life...

This year, we invited Ilya Gladkikh, a talented video-operator and film author, to the Everest expedition. We were invited him to make our reporting materials at a high professional level. We received the first results directly from the event sites. Watch our channel. It took time to edit the film, and now a big movie is on the way. The premiere is coming soon – let's wait a little longer.

 Kathmandu is a bright, unusual and very interesting city. The capital of Nepal, from which expeditions to the Summits of the Himalayas start. Kathmandu is a real "mecca" for climbers, a point of attraction for mountain lovers from all over the world.

We invite you to plunge into the atmosphere of this mysterious city with its unique flavor: Buddhist stupas and temples, a kaleidoscope of cars and people, the smells of burning candles and garlands of colorful sacred flags.

You will find all this in our video, and we hope you will feel the mood of the city.

The expedition of the 7 Summits Club to Mount Everest has been successfully completed and has gone down in history. This time we tried to make more video recordings, and professional ones at that. Ilya Gladkikh joined the team for this purpose. We have already published some of the materials in the chronicle of the expedition. Now it's time for the final processing and publication of the part of the filming that could not be processed on site.  Your attention is drawn to the page of the expedition diary. The first acclimatization rotation with the first overcoming of the legendary Khumbu icefall.

Alla Mishina: Interview with Alex Abramov on May 20, 2024. The original is here…

 Alex Abramov: On May 19 of this year, the team of my "Seven Summits Club" descended from the slopes of Everest in full force with the summit…

 And me?  It is on the height of 8000, a couple of hours before the exit. Well, why should I climb to the top for the 13th time? Everything is going according to plan, but in places with a creak. God grant memory... This is my twenty-first Everest expedition and I have been on the summit 12 times. And in January of this year I celebrated my 60th birthday. And it would be nice to celebrate the following years as well. And this is the thirteenth time... Well, at least there are no black cats at an altitude of 8000, otherwise there's something going on with this mountain illness.

 View of Mount 8848 from the South Col 8000

  Well, what should I create? Not a damn thing, but the facts: between the 3rd and 4th camps at an altitude of 7800, I was covered specifically despite the fact that I had been training all year. But then it's worth a little snot to break through, and the writing is gone... Or maybe you should quit smoking after all? Well, wait, I quit smoking for another 7,200, so why did it get covered?

  Covered and dispersed, let's forget it. It's time to think not about yourself, but about the group. What do people pay me for? For my experience, which will keep them alive, for the fact that I control every little thing on the ascent, keep the best guides and Sherpas as part of the expedition. We have everything from a doctor to a cook, everyone is focused on the result of a small, variously prepared group. My task was to prepare the group for the ascent as much as possible, both mentally and technically. But I can't walk in their place and I can't breathe in their place. Therefore, now it is "H time" for them - they must walk the distance from 8000 to 8848 themselves. And the main thing is to return as stalkers.

 In order for them to return intact, and not be left without fingers or eyesight, each participant needs to have an experienced partner. Everything is clear here, there are 7 proven Sherpa guides for 7 of my members. But what if something goes wrong? If we get stuck in traffic and into oncoming traffic, as it was last year, when due to the many delays of weak climbers in narrow places, instead of 8 hours we went up for as much as 12 hours, wasting oxygen? And if the weather covers us like it did here three days ago? There's Kotlyar and his group barely got out of the storm, people froze.

  And two independent climbers from Mongolia, who got lost on the descent, still cannot be found. What's there to guess - they're corpses. And to prevent all this from happening to mine, we need our small private rescue team, which will drag up and spread emergency oxygen in critical places, and which will instantly participate in rescue operations if someone is covered in the death zone. This is a classic of Soviet mountaineering - we always went to serious mountains only when we were released by the head of the rescue, and he released us if there were rapid response and support groups in the climbing area.

 The group is in the area of the Southern Peak at 8750

 It's now climbing who wants where he wants and with whom he wants — that's the result. But the Soviet classics are ironclad, it's been tested. And my clients in the group — they are not athletes, so they walk at different speeds, which means they will stretch over the mountain. There was a "steam locomotive" for 3 or even 4 hours of difference: who will get into which traffic jam is not to guess. This means that seven reserve Sherpas with emergency oxygen need to be stretched along the mountain at a reasonable distance between the pairs. I can't help them there anymore, there's a real death zone there. Now we need to discuss all the little things with everyone and concentrate their forces, systematize every detail so that they do not deviate from the plan and do not come to the top at the utmost possibilities: the road down is longer. The statistics of Everest are known: more died on the descent than on the ascent. Climbing up at full strength and with euphoria, with a warm heart. What's wrong — turned around and went down. But after the summit, they go down exhausted, often in bad weather and on the last liters of oxygen, with imperceptibly creeping frostbite of the face and hands and feet.

 Well, that means 14 Sherpas, of which 7 go up the mountain and 7 stretch out on the mountain in a support group. They all have walkie-talkies. But I have only 14 Sherpas, and we are in group 7 + 1, so I am left without a partner.

   And you need to carry a lot of oxygen — 5 bottles for each pair at least: two for a sherpa, three for a tourist. And this is 22 kg of weight for two. And he gets 5 more kilos of his personal belongings for small things — the backpack itself also has weight, thermos flasks, food, battery flashlights, first-aid kit, spare glasses, spare mittens... In short, either bring in additional oxygen and arrange the emergency support group correctly, or someone from the reserve team will go with me. Either cargo and belay for the participants, or for my 13th summit. But it hit me specifically yesterday. And now the tourists will count their partners, and someone will be in the red. And then this "minus" does not go away and all his life he will think that this is because he did not receive "his" paid sherpa from me, but I went. What's more important here? Should I go and be relatively close to them, or should I give them 200% success rate? And how can I provide them with 200% if I'm not on the mountain with them? They feel better mentally when I'm around. Nevertheless, my people know and see that those Sherpas — they are getting stupid sometimes and if something is wrong, they run away under various pretexts.

 9 p.m. We have a start at 22:00. It's time to decide. Either I'm going and one of the Sherpas is with me in a rope, and we won't bring enough emergency oxygen, or I'm not going. Well, how is it — I'm not going? I'm coming, of course. But for the 13th time... And yesterday it was covered specifically. Should I throw heads/tails? What nonsense. Is it covering up again? You need to think, not throw coins.

 The stratosphere. Everything is frozen

How much oxygen can I really carry on my own? I can, of course, have my 3 cylinders. A total of 20 kilos with a first aid kit. But then I'll walk slowly and I'll be of no use. That means 2 cylinders, as usual. And that means I won't have enough oxygen. Well, somewhere at the top of the support group, something is twitching. Then we return to option 1: I'm going, but I won't fully provide belay for the participants.

 Stupidly. What am I playing with now? With the lives of other people who believe me. How fucked up all these corpses are here! Every year at least one of the guides or organizers will screw up, and then instead of analyzing the causes of the accident by specialists, as was customary in our time, we have an analysis on the Internet by sofa experts with hundreds of repostings by "peek-a-boo bloggers" with photos the wrong mountain, the wrong year, and the wrong corpse.... in short, some nerves are due to the many unwelcome cases of Sherpas. At least hire a triple supply...

  Stop. An interesting thought flashed through my mind. I'll go with two cylinders, at the back of the group, without a partner, and I won't take anything from the emergency. On the third day, people frostbitten in a storm were running down from the middle of the mountain, they probably left half-empty cylinders on the trail. Maybe I find something, if I don't find it, I'll turn down. In any case, I'll get to the middle and be reasonably close to the group and reasonably safe to return if I'm left without oxygen.

 And there is also a better idea! Either I go and find the abandoned oxygen, or I go until mine runs out at the rate of two ends, or I go to the first corpse. Well, these two Mongols have gone somewhere. And where can the corpses go? They're lying along the rope, I guess. And we are just the first group after the storm, so we will find it.

 Well, here's the first one. And above, my team members climb up and the Sherpas - well, they have stretched out competently. The mountain turned out to be empty after the storm — those who got into it were dumped down from the middle, those who were going to sit it out - they are sitting in the base camp, my plan is to climb through intermediate camps in a storm so that on the first fine day to reach the summit — it worked. It doesn't blow as much on the intermediate раrts as on the saddle and above, where people froze. In short, the plan worked. We are alone on the mountain and the guys are walking fast, without traffic jams on the oncoming lane, I can't catch up with them.

 I didn't find any abandoned oxygen, but I found a corpse — as I expected. One of the Mongols, probably. There have been no others this year yet. The height is 8700, it's time to go down, so as not to lie down next to it.

 The First Mongol

The road down at a minimum of oxygen is not fast, I freeze specifically. Oxygen is the fuel for the body to create heat, without it fats do not burn. And when there is not enough of it, the brain turns off peripheral blood circulation and drives blood only to critical points, turns off the arms and legs.

 Oh, suddenly there's a second one. He was not visible at night. So both Mongols have been found. We need to tell their team to take it off before the people go. The day after tomorrow there will be a crowd here - early tonight, from 5400 from base camp, a caravan of people moved out. Someone sat out the storm in the first 6200, so you need to shoot the Mongols quickly. Well, fortunately, this place is not difficult to organize the descent of bodies, four will cope.

 The second Mongol

 7 a.m. That's it, my friends are all on the summit and the whole support group is stretched along the route. Lord, bear with us a little longer by your side, we're leaving!

 — Yes, Andrey, I'm in touch! What happened? Can't you walk? What happened? Are you blind? How much? At all? What is the height? As under the top at 8800... Right on the Hillary step drops? ...

 God, I told you to put up with us a little longer...

 To be continued…

Successful ascent of Mount Everest as part of the 8000 Club group (head Viktor Volodin) Denis Grachev has completed a program of ascents to the highest peaks of all continents -The Seven Summits. Congratulations! Denis did it "according to Kosciuszko's version." Therefore, we not only congratulate him, but also invite him to join our expedition to the summit of the Carstensz Pyramid next year.

Denis is 50 years old, a Muscovite, a veteran of law enforcement agencies, and professes a lifestyle that is sympathetic to us. That is, adventures of various kinds. Motorcycle, parachute, mountaineering…

All namaste from the Himalayas! Due to the lack of communication, and sometimes even strength, it was not possible to transmit information. So, the 8000 Club group went to Camp 1 on May 12 and, having successfully overcome the Khumbu icefall, reached its goal. On May 13th, we slowly move to Camp 2, the weather is pleasant and hot. On May 14th, the march is simple at first, and then we arrive at Camp 3 on steep ice. What is pleasing is that there are practically no people on the route. May 15th is one of the hardest and longest days, but nevertheless, we reach the South Col. However, not all of us.  Leonid, before the Camp of Route 4 on Lhotse, decides to stop climbing and go down. Everyone else reaches Camp 4 safely on a Saddle. And then it began: a strong wind tearing the tents that day does not even allow us to stick out our noses, let alone go out to storm. On May 16th, in the morning, we sit and hold tents, the wind has played out in earnest. According to the forecast, there should be a lull in the evening, and we decide to start a storm at 21 o'clock. Unfortunately, as often happens, the Hydrometeorological Center slightly failed. The wind is still strong. We don't have the energy, time, and everything else to wait any longer. And we decide to move out into the night. The frosty wind, burning our face and fingers, tries to stop us, but the thirst for victory and the desire to see the whole world from a height of 8848 m pushes the team to the top. And at 7.40 Nepali time on May 17th, Adrian, Denis, Konstantin and Sergey, as well as the Sherpas accompanying them, climbed to the top. Further, the strong wind does not stop and the long but pleasant road down to home, family and friends. Descent to Camp 2 and 1, Base camp, flight to Lukla and Kathmandu. The team's guide is Viktor Volodin.

Alexander Abramov, Expedition Leader, President of the 7 Summits Club: We're all at Base Camp. And we are already waiting for the helicopter in Kathmandu. Everyone is happy. The team is great!

Dmitry Moskalev on Lhotse

The Everest climbers from the 8000 Club team with their leader Viktor Volodin safely descended from Camp 2 through the icefall and arrived at the Base Camp. A solemn meeting was arranged for the heroes here and in the evening they received diplomas on climbing the highest peak in the World. Alex Abramov's team descended from the summit of Mount Everest after successfully climbing to Camp 2 for the night. Dmitry Moskalev came down here from the summit of Lhotse.  We are waiting for everyone at the Base Camp tomorrow!

 This morning, the ascent on the summit of Mount Everest was made by members of the 8000 Club group Adrian Ahritculesei (Romania), Denis Grachev, Sergey Mikhalev and Konstantin Simon. Now this group, together with Viktor Volodin, spends the night in Camp 2 at an altitude of 6500. Alex Abramov's group went up to the assault camp and was already supposed to go on the ascent. Dmitry Moskalev also went up to the assault camp. But he has a different aim and a different camp. He must go out to storm the summit of Lhotse. Good luck to everyone!

News from Everest. Viktor Volodin's group (8000 Club) is going to storm Mount Everest from Camp 4 on the Southern Saddle at 9 p.m. today. The wind, due to which there have been no ascents for three days, is subsiding. As it was predicted. Unfortunately, Leonid decided to end the expedition. He has already safely descended to the base camp.

 Alex Abramov's group (the 7 Summits Club) in full force went up to Camp 3 and is now resting.

Alex Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

There's a very strong wind up there today, it's been blowing all night. Our team decided to spend another day at an altitude of 6500m in Camp 2.

Viktor Volodin's team went to Camp 4 on the South Col. I think there is a strong wind there now.

We will go to Camp 3 tomorrow. We are resting today.

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

The Everest-24 team, led by Alexander Abramov, finished their vacation in Namche Bazaar.

On May 12th, we all fly to the Everest Base Camp. On May 13th, we have rest and preparation. On May 14th we will start at Camp 2. On May 15th - Camp 3. On May 16th - Camp 4 on the South Col and on the night of May 16th to 17th we go out to storm Everest. Wish us good luck!

Valery Babanov and Eduard Kubatov also rested here in Namche Bazaar. Valera plans Everest without additional oxygen, Eduard – Lhotse, also without additional oxygen.

Victor Volodin, the guide of the 8000 Club, reports from the Everest base camp:

 Very big greetings from Everest Base Camp, from the 8000 Club team!  Today is the deadline for preparation. Everything is in the collection, everything is thought out to the smallest detail. There is an acquaintance with the Sherpas, a discussion of the movement schedule, overnight stays, and most importantly, this is the day of the assault. All participants are in a good mood and ready to start. Wait for news from the vastness of Mount Everest!

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

 Yesterday, on May 9, our team was able to fly from Everest Base Camp to Namche Bazaar with great difficulty in very bad weather. The flight was extreme. In conditions of very poor visibility, we flew very low. We are currently vacationing in Namche. Bars, massages, food and sleep.

Victor Volodin, the guide of the 8000 Club, reports from the Everest base camp:

Good afternoon! Today, the 8000 Club team went up to the helipad from morning to early, after a rest, hoping to fly to the base camp. At first, there was no light and no hint that we would get to the base camp today. But less than an hour later, our yellow helicopter loomed in the sky. And within an hour, the whole group was delivered to the Base Camp. Here, as usual, we were warmly and well received, and accordingly, we were well fed. Then we held another class on the use of oxygen equipment. Each participant independently tried this wonderful device on himself. Tomorrow we have a day of preparation and training for entering the high-altitude area.  And on the night of May 12th, we go out to storm. All feel good. Wish us an easy and safe road, and an easy descent to the base camp, and then home!

The expedition members relax in the club room and share their impressions with the hosts. And outside the tent windows there is a view of the base camp and the bad weather. In the final part of the broadcast, the head of the expedition, Alexander Abramov, appears. It is time for chess tournament that will day after tomorrow.

Alex Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club, Head of the Everest expedition, reports from Nepal:

Christ is risen! Today, Alexander Abramov's team on Everest made an acclimatization climb to the base of the section of the route called "Lhotse wall". It started snowing. Visibility is gone. We went down to Camp 2 and celebrated Easter here.

The entire Lhotse wall was covered in ice. And stones were flying down the slope. Now everything is covered with snow. It's good. The stones will not fly. But it will be avalanche-prone.

Victor Volodin, the guide of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

Good afternoon, dear friends!

  For some reason, I couldn't transmit the information in time, but we, the 8000 Club group, are doing well. So, I'm reproducing the chronology of current events. At that time, when everyone was still asleep, our group of workers went to the parade at the crack of dawn on May 1 with the slogans "peace, labor May", but got lost and climbed the Khumbu icefall at night. So with jokes and a good mood, and favorable weather, we came to the first camp. In the evening, the wind picked up, which fluttered our tents and banners all night. By morning, the vestibule of only one tent had burst. Marching so joyfully and merrily, we met our holiday. 

 May 2 turned out to be a good day too, the weather is not very hot, otherwise you can roast yourself on this section of the way. The site is quite simple and safe, we come to the second camp (6500), everything is organized at the highest level and plus faster Internet.

  May 3 turned out to be a good day too, we're just lucky.  We get up slowly, have breakfast and go to the third camp. The task is not easy, it is necessary to overcome a steep ice slope, and most importantly, do not get hit by free-flying stones. But it bypassed us, and we successfully cross the boundary of 7 thousand above sea level. We safely descend to Camp 2 and have a second overnight stay at 6500. The third camp has not been set up due to strong winds and will be set up just before the assault. 

  On May 4, we collect our clothes, ourselves, have breakfast and slowly begin the descent to the base camp, where we are met by the camp administrator Lena, a hot shower, and delicious food.

  May 5 is a holiday - Christ is risen, and we are greeted festively in the morning by Sherpas with decorated Easter eggs. After a long and hard work, especially since the weather is starting to deteriorate, we decided to fly to Namche Bazaar for a vacation. The loss of height of two kilometers and the restoration of strength is necessary for high-altitude ascents. The participants feel great.