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Japanese climbers believed to have died on McKinley glacier.

 By KYLE HOPKINS. Anchorage Daily News. Published: June 17th, 2012 06:52 PM

Update: The search for four climbers presumed dead in an avalanche on MountMcKinley has been suspended, the National Park Service said Sunday.

"A two-day ground search of the debris path from afatal avalanche onMt.McKinleyhas been suspended after clues were found confirming the likely location of four deceased climbers," the Park Service said in a written statement.

"An aerial hasty search took place on June 14 followed by an initial four-member NPS ground search the following day. On Saturday, June 16, an expanded 10-person ground crew consisting of NPS rangers, volunteer patrol members, a dog handler, and a trained search and rescue dog probed and further investigated the debris zone.

"During the search, NPS mountaineering ranger Tucker Chenoweth descended into the same crevasse that the survivor Hitoshi Ogi had fallen into during the avalanche. While probing through the debris roughly 30 meters below the glacier surface, Chenoweth found a broken rope end that matched the MWAF team's rope. He began to dig further, but encountered heavily compacted ice and snow debris. Due to the danger of ice fall within the crevasse, it was decided to permanently suspend the recovery efforts."

Earlier story: Four Japanese mountain climbers are believed dead following an avalanche early Thursday morning onNorth America's tallest peak.

The 800-foot slide came at about 2 a.m. as the five-person team was roped together, descending a popular route down Mount McKinley, according to the National Park Service. Four of the climbers, all in their 50s and 60s, disappeared in the snow.

The lone survivor is a 69-year-old man who fell about 60 feet down a crevasse -- a deep crack in the ice -- but scrambled to safety with no significant injuries.

"The rope had broken so he was separated from the rest of his team members," said Maureen McLaughlin, a Park Service spokeswoman in Talkeetna.

The slide appears to be the most deadly single accident on the mountain since four Canadian climbers were killed in a 1992 fall high on the mountain, according to Park Service records.

The avalanche began at about 11,800 feet, according to the Park Service. It was about 200 feet wide, piling roughly three to four feet of snow and debris on the glacier, McLaughlin said.

The survivor, Hitoshi Ogi, was the last climber on the rope line and the highest on the mountain when his friends vanished. He walked and climbed to the surface of the crevasse following the fall, McLaughlin said. When he found no sign of his companions he spent much of the day making his way another 4,600 feet down the mountain reporting the accident at the Kahiltna base camp shortly after 4 p.m.

"I don't know if he had a radio. He lost quite a bit of his gear in the crevasse," McLaughlin said.

"His hand was wrapped up and I'm not sure if that was frostbite or injury," she said.

A subsequent aerial search by Park Service rangers that evening found no sign of the missing climbers or their gear.

A team of about 10 searchers, including an avalanche rescue dog named Sisu, was on the mountain Saturday looking for the remains of the other four climbers, McLaughlin said. They are presumed dead because of the time that has passed since the slide.

The missing climbers, two men and two women, were identified as:

• Yoshiaki Kato, 64

• Masako Suda, 50

• Michiko Suzuki, 56

• Tamao Suzuki, 63

All are from Miyagi Prefecture,Japan, and members of a Japanese alpine club called Miyagi Workers Alpine Federation. McLaughlin said she did not know if Michiko Suzuki and Tamao Suzuki were husband and wife.

The Consular Office of Japan inAnchorageworked to provide information to the climbers' families following the accident, an official with the office said Saturday.

All five mountaineers appeared to be making their first attempt to climb the 20,320-foot peak, according to the Park Service. Some of the group listed prior experience on peaks such as Kilimanjaro andMount Fuji, McLaughlin said.

The climbers were descending an area known as Motorcycle Hill on the main route ofMountMcKinley's West Buttress

"It's about a 35-degree slope, just a gradual climb. Generally snow and ice fields," McLaughlin said.

While not a particularly treacherous portion of the climb, the area is "prone to some avalanche activity," she said. McLaughlin was not aware of any previous avalanche deaths in the area.

Another slide was reported earlier in the week higher on Denali, at about 15,500 feet, she said. That avalanche resulted in injuries but no deaths.

On McKinley, falls kill climbers far more often than snow slides, according to Park Service records. Descents high on the mountain are particularly deadly, said Daryl Miller, a retired mountaineering ranger who worked in the area for 17 years.

So far this season, 234 people have reported reaching the 20,320-foot summit. The weather recently turned against mountaineers, however, and Park Service officials assume the Japanese expedition did not summit.

Winds of 25 to 45 mph and cumulative snowfall of about two feet over the past week or two has thwarted climbers' attempts to reach the mountaintop, McLaughlin said.

"The same rough weather conditions led to the avalanche conditions," she said. Overall, the weather was not unusually bad for Denali and began to clear up on Thursday, McLaughlin said.

Including the Japanese climbers, six people have died on Denali this season.

A Finnish mountaineer skiing down a 40- to 45-degree slope called The Orient Express died May 23 after tumbling 2,000 feet. The 36-year-old landed in a crevasse at 15,850 feet, according to the Park Service.

On May 18, a climber fell more than 1,000 feet to his death after trying to grab a sliding backpack at about 16,200 feet.

The Japanese expedition began its climb on or about May 26, according to the Park Service. The average expedition takes about 17 or 18 days, she said.

The climbing season on Mount McKinley peaks in late May and early June, she said. As of Saturday, there were 395 climbers on the mountain. Most are on the West Buttress route.

Here Olga Rumyantseva from Iran. Today, all members of our team climbed Mount Damavend. The ascent took place in very difficult weather conditions. We tread the road to his knees in the snow all the way. So we walked as much as 8 hours, instead of the usual 5. But that did not stop us.

Here Olga Rumyantseva from Iran. Today, all members of our team climbed Mount Demavend. The ascent took place in very difficult weather conditions. We tread the road to his knees in the snow all the way. So we walked as much as 8 hours, instead of the usual 5. But that did not stop us. We have dedicated our ascent to Ernesto Che Guevara, whose birthday is today.

Victor Bobok sent photos from Morocco. 10 th of July a group of the 7 Summits Club climbed the tallest peak of North Africa - Jebel Toubcal. Then our team continued their trip all around this formidable country...

Alpari-life.ru:

After our trio made it through Stage III of “Alpari: On Top of the World” with a successful climb of Mount Everest, we decided it was time to hold another press conference to let them share their stories. The event, which was held June 6, drew in journalists, Team Alpari partners and renowned Russian climbers.

Alpari Head of Marketing Vladislav Kovalchuk was there to speak on the company’s behalf: “Our employees were there with the team as they climbed Kilimanjaro and next they’ll be heading with them to Mount Elbrus. I think this says something about what this company is all about. And that’s the pursuit of achievement and success.” As it just so happened, our team made it to the summit of Everest exactly 30 years after the first Soviet expedition to the Himalayas. The climbers from Team Alpari proved themselves worthy successors, demonstrating the style, tactics and teamwork that have come to characterize Russian mountaineering.

Everest, the longest and most difficult climb our team will face, really took a lot out of the three of them. After two months of toil and overcoming numerous obstacles, the team finally got to share their tales. Their stories were emotional and filled with vivid detail.

Team captain Lyudmila Korobeshko started by explaining the intricacies of acclimatization on Everest, then confessed how worried she was during the final stretch of the climb, when she was running a fever of 38 degrees (having a temperature this high on a mountain this high can be extremely dangerous). She described how difficult it was making the decision to go ahead with the climb, given the enormous responsibility she bore as the leader. “It was really important to make the right decision. I didn’t want to risk having my body fail on me up there, but I didn’t want to let everyone down either.”

This was Ivan Dusharin’s third time on Everest, but as he pointed out, “Mountains always feel a little bit different, even if you take the same route.” Dusharin believes that it was his persistence and his ability to push through discomfort that helped him this time around. He is planning on writing a book where he will reveal a side of mountain climbing that goes unnoticed by the public at large, including the psychological component. Working on a mountain for 22 hours at an altitude more than 8,000 meters above sea level requires a tremendous amount of willpower. “Your body is going to rebel, but you just have to push through it.”

Team cameraman Maxim Shakirov, who dropped the most weight of the three over the two-month expedition (12 kg!), was asked why there was so little footage from the mountain. Maxim was honest. It was too cold and he was too tired. All of his effort went towards self-preservation. Just falling asleep is tough up there. As he explained, it’s really tough to get to sleep in a cold sleeping bag. To warm your sleeping bag up, you have to heat yourself up first – and that’s not always possible. Maxim jokingly noted, “I was very pleased to find out that I do have willpower.”

Seeing as how there have already been more than ten fatalities on Everest this year, a reporter from the Russian site Sport-Express-Extreme asked the team what they thought about the fact that virtually anyone can get a permit to climb Everest. The growing crowds of climbers on Everest have led to dangerous traffic jams along the main climbing routes as well as increasing environmental problems. Ivan Dusharin, with his years of experience climbing and organizing expeditions provided a little bit of insight on the matter. He pointed out that just a couple of decades ago, getting a permit to climb Everest from the Chinese or Nepalese government meant not only filing a formal request to have your expedition approved, but also providing evidence of your climbing ability. These days Nepal is more interested in the income that the recent inflow of climbers and tourists is bringing to the country.

So what do climbers eat on Everest? This was another question that came up. What does Ivan Dusharin carry in his backpack? During the team’s final 22-hour stretch of the climb, in the extreme conditions of Everest, Ivan took only 1.5 liters of tea and a handful of dried fruit (keep in mind that you typically lose around 6 liters of fluids a day when climbing). Is this some sort of special climber’s diet? Nope. As Ivan explained to the reporters, you don’t really think about eating or drinking when you’re up there. As a side note, when the team returned to Base Camp, they were surprised to discover that the Tibetan chefs there had learned to prepare borscht!

A representative from the Russian Mountaineering Federation asked the team what they were planning to do to recover after a hellish stretch of mountain climbing. Maxim answered that he is returning to his village, where he’ll spend his time mowing the lawn and digging up potatoes. Lyudmila is going to spend most of her time before McKinley at the doctor’s office, trying to get better. Ivan Dusharin doesn’t have time to relax either. He has a lot of work to do in Moscow.

Olga Vasilchikova, a representative from the sporting equipment company Red Fox, after congratulating the team on making it through the tough part, asked how their equipment is holding up. This may have been a strange question coming from someone else, but not from Red Fox, the official outfitter of Team Alpari, who has been there for us every step of the way.

At the end of the press conference it was announced that Lyudmila Korobeshko had already made her way into the record books. It turns out that she is the only Russian woman who has climbed Everest twice.

A journalist from Expert magazine wanted to know how many kilometers our team has climbed so far. We did the math, and as it turns out, they have climbed around 15 kilometers vertically and covered around 150-200 kilometers of ground.

And there’s much more ahead…

Video:

Today, the team fromTyumenflew fromMoscowtoCasablanca. Guide of the 7 Summits Club Victor Bobok leads a group of 10 people. The expedition members are planning to climb the highest point of the Atlas Mountains - Toubkal (4167m), after which they go on a fascinating journey through theSaharadesert. At the end of the program, the team will rest on the Atlantic coast.

Team: Fedortsov Vladimir, Fedortsova Helena, Fedortsov Ilya, Fedortsov Igor, Tabarintsev Eugene, Krasnov Dmitry , Malkov Leonid, Shulga Roman, Romanov Eugene, Novosadovaya Irina. Guide: Victor Bobok.

Redbull.com. by Jack Frost, Jun 5, 2012

Russian climber and BASE jumper Valery Rozov recently added another highlight to his incredible career in extreme sports by performing a wingsuit jump from the top of Shivling, a 6543m mountain in the Indian part of theHimalayas.

Valery Rozov is a superstar in the world of BASE jumping and wing suit flying, an extreme sport which involves jumping from objects such as bridges, buildings and towers. The 47-year-old Russian’s breathtaking feats, such as flying into an active volcano in Kamtschatka (2009) and jumping fromUlvetannaPeakin the Antarctic (2010), have made him famous the world over.

Thanks to his exceptional climbing skills, Valery recently took things to the next level by completing one of the most challenging BASE jumps ever performed.

After a 30-day expedition, including a six-day ascent, the ‘BASE climber’, as he calls himself, and climbing partners Alexander Ruchkin and Victor Volodin stood on the summit of Shivling in the Indian part of the Himalayas at precisely 13:30 on 25 May. After stopping to catch his breath, Valery found a perfect take-off spot at 6420mt. Just 90 seconds later, having hit speeds of 200km/h as he sped through the air, the Russian landed 2200m further down on the glacier.

The other expedition members took three whole days (!) to complete the descent.

“This was my first project in theHimalayas,” commented the two-time skydiving world champion after his record-breaking flight. “We had a few difficulties along the way, so I am really pleased that we were able to complete the jump successfully.”

By reaching the summit, Rozov, Ruckhin and Volodin also became the first ever Russians to successfully climb Shivling (literally the “phallus of Lord Shiva”, Shiva being the Hindu deity of destruction and transformation), a mountain renowned for its difficult and dangerous passages. Indeed, it was not until 1974 that the peak, which is often referred to as the ‘Matterhorn of the Himalayas’ due to its shape and is looming over the largest source of the Ganges River at Gaumukh, was conquered for the first time.

On May 26, the Nepalese embassy in Moscow held a special event to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the first Soviet expedition to Everest.

The Nepalese ambassador to Russia gave some opening remarks. In his speech, he pointed out that Nepal and Russia have long enjoyed friendly relations.

Many of the climbers who took part in the first Soviet expedition to Everest were there to reminisce on their climb three decades ago. Unfortunately, some of the climbers from the team aren’t with us anymore. Adorning the halls of the embassy were pictures of the team and photographs from the expedition. The pictures took those in attendance back to the dawn of Soviet mountaineering, back to the months of training for the expedition and back to their time on the mountain in 1982, when the team rewrote the history books by opening a new route on the mountain; one that no expedition has taken since.

The leader of the team, Anatoliy Georgivich Ovchinnikov also spoke at the gathering, telling some stories from the expedition and describing some of the problems he had to deal with as the team captain.

Edward Vikentevich Myslovskiy, also spoke at the event, sharing some of the emotions he experienced as the first Russian to reach the peak of Everest. Myslovskiy, who turned 75 this year, was actually part of a two-man team with Vladimir Balyberdin, who died in a car accident. Two of the other climbers from the expedition also celebrated their 75th birthday earlier this year: Vladimir Shataev and Roman Giutashvili.

Andrey Volkov, president of the Russian Mountaineering Federation, also addressed the crowd. Volkov, who is among the few in Russia who have climbed both Everest and K2, mentioned his friend, mentor and climbing partner, Ivan Dusharin, in his speech. Volkov then informed the audience that they were in for a real treat: Ivan Dusharin of “Alpari: On Top of the World” was on the line, calling all the way from Kathmandu! Dusharin, fresh off completing his third expedition to Everest, congratulated the Soviet team on their 30-year anniversary and wished them many more years full of life and new achievements. He spoke some about his own experience on Everest and expressed his regret that he wasn’t able to make it back to Moscow in time for the event.

The dinner to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Everest expedition was organized by the Russian Mountaineering Federation and the Nepalese embassy.

alpari-life.ru

Every year, thousands people make a pilgrimage to Kailash, following a tradition going back thousands of years. Pilgrims of several religions believe that circumambulatingMountKailashon foot is a holy ritual that will bring good fortune. The peregrination is made in a clockwise direction by Hindus and Buddhists.

Club 7 Summits provides a special program for Russians traveler to make this KORA. It was a great trip ! A group led by our guide Dmitry Ermakov had visited this country in the beginning of May. See below…

The whole team crossed the border. Now we're sitting having breakfast in Kodari. Here we met Vladimir Zaitsev, who came to make a film about Fyodor Konyukhov. In the evening we will be in Kathmandu. May 28 the first part of the expedition arrives inMoscow. Alexander Abramov and the group of Alpari arrives May 31.

News from the Alpari team’s Everest expedition

Lyudmila Korobeshko reporting from ABC (6,400 meters)
Yesterday, on May 19, our team took the summit of Mount Everest. Honestly, two or three days ago I had doubts as to whether it would happen. On the North Col (7,100 meters) there were serious doubts as to whether we would all make it up together: I had a temperature and wasn’t feeling well, Ivan was being bothered by a cough and Max had gotten a little discouraged at the sight of us. If we hadn’t started feeling better he would have had to have gone alone and plant the flags and bring them back all by himself.

I even started to question whether it made sense to go up to 7,700, thinking it might be better to just head straight down from the North Col. That I wouldn’t make it above 7,700 seemed almost certain to me. When on the North Col my temperature shot up to 38.4, the guys thought I might have malaria (I was in African recently where on the last days there I began to get a temperature each evening. On the North Col I was literally shaking for about an hour). Surprisingly, however, when we made it to 7,700, I started feeling better. And the higher we went, the better I felt. Ivan’s cough, however, was only getting worse. By the way, he had told us much earlier that he has had some problems with his lungs for a long time. His doctors even forbid him from making high altitude climbs.

We spent the night at 7,700 meters without any problems. That’s of course if you don’t count sleeping at a 30-degree angle where you and all your stuff are always sliding down, and you need to use ropes to go to the bathroom, which is in full view of the whole camp.

The trek up to 8,300 meters turned out to be difficult: it started snowing and was windy. The tents at 8,300 are even more slanted than the ones below due to the terrain being steeper. Sleeping is out of the question: the best you can hope for is 3-4 hours of relative rest (drink tea, dry your boots, and gather your belongings). The plan was to set out at 22:45. By the way, in order to set out on time you need to start getting dressed at least an hour before you’re supposed to leave.

We started our ascent in total darkness. And just about immediately we came to a steep face which leads right to up to the summit ridge. Ivan was out in front and, it seemed to me, breathing quite heavily. Max was behind, shaking out his frozen hands. And heading up the mountain from behind was a procession of other climbers hoping to make it to the top on this first (and perhaps only) day with good weather. So we had to hurry and not let anyone pass us otherwise we could get stuck in ‘traffic’ at the difficult final pass — we could get too cold and our oxygen could run out. It’s a tough game!

It was freezing cold and gusts of wind just about knocked us off our feet. There were a lot of places where the ground crumbled under your feet, making slipping down the rock face a real possibility. At one point I fell. My ropes weren’t taut and I fell down a couple of meters and tore my down pants. The rest of the way I was walking in a cloud of the down feathers of my pants.

We made it to the top around 5 a.m. It was dark, early and cold. We stopped about 50 meters short of the peak in the hopes that we could wait and catch the sunrise from the peak. But after about 25 minutes we were frozen stiff. We ended up just going to the very peak. And there it was – shrouded in Nepalese prayer flags. We tried to shoot some pictures but the camera didn’t work. Our fingers were freezing and it was still dark.

The wind kept getting stronger and we had only limited supplies of oxygen. We started our descent. For safety’s sake, we needed to try to descend as much as possible, ideally to 6,400 meters. And here some problems began: we kept running into climbers making their way up. You can’t go around them, particularly in the steep places where you have to rappel*-especially at the Second and Third Steps. We waited for 25 minutes above the Third Step, letting other climbers pass. Then we managed to descend, somehow managing without ropes to get around other climbers. Below 8,300 meters, the weather is much worse. At 7,700 meters, high winds tear at the tents. At the North Col we ended up in a snowstorm. By evening we made it down to 6,400 meters. And that’s it.

We did it. It probably won’t hit us until later what we’ve done.

Hi to everybody.

The Alpari Team.
*Rappelling – descent using ropes and a special device called a figure-eight. The figure-eight attaches to the climber’s harness and allows climbers to make rope descents. By controlling the pressure on the rope, the climber can control the speed of his descent.

Camp 8300 м

Up to 8300 м

North Col

Alex

Aznor Khadjiev

Sergey Larin

Gulme and Luda

Max Shakirov

Luda next morning

Fyodor Konyukhov

The pair Victor Bobok (guide 7 Summits Club) and Andrey Filkov attempted Baruntse. he climb stoped near the top due a bad weather condition. See below some best pictures from 20 days expedition.

May 17, 2012 Mikhail Turovsky climbed the summit of MountMcKinley . This was his final climb in the program 7 summits . Our congratulations to Michail, who was in our team last year, climbing Everest and Vinson. It should be noted that Michail climbed solo and in a rather difficult weather conditions. It was only the fifth ascent of the season on Mount McKinley.

Summit photo

The project team "Alpari on the tops of the World" launched the flags on the highest point of the planet - Mount Everest.

Maxim freeze your fingers, the doctor makes his shots in the stomach. The most difficult, the third, the mountain let go of our project team with minimal losses.

Here is the Everest is very early in the morning:

Famous Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov ascended Mount Everest at the age of 60, for the second time in his life, his son Oscar said on Saturday.

"Fyodor Konyukhov as a member of the Seven Summits Club team climbed to the top of Everest in 6:15 local time on May 19, 2012," Oscar Konyukhov told RIA Novosti.

The current climbing is timed to a 20-year anniversary of Russians' first ascent of Everest in May 1992. The famous traveler was among the first Russians who reached Everest top in May 11 twenty years ago.

An extensive traveler, Konyukhov has reached the North Pole three times, the South Pole, the Pole of Inaccessibility. He has set world records by crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat in 46 days, as well as crossing Greenland on a dogsled in 22 hours. He has also made several round the world trips alone on yachts.

Today, the second group of 7 Summits Club expedition reached the summit of Everest. Joe Pratt and Noel Hanna were the first, followed closely by Leila Albogachieva and Vladimir Korenkov (team of Ingushetia). Sergey Bogomolov and Igor Kadochin reached the summit after about half an hour. Now they are going down. We are waiting for them at thecamp ABC.

Seven climbers of 7 Summits Club expedition reached the summit of Everest. It happened at about 5.30 Tibetan time. Alekandr Abramov (4th ascent of Mount Everest), Sergei Larin (5th, it seems), Ivan Dusharin (65 уеars, 3rd time), Fyodor Konyukhov (60), Maxim Shakirov, Ludmila Korobeshko (for all 2-nd), Aznor Hajiyev (1 - s ascent, the first Ingush – north Caucasusmountain people). They were with seven Sherpas. Also, two climbers from Donetsk (Ukraine) went with them in the group.

The second group of our expedition is preparing for summit push next night.

Hello! Alexander Abramov from the camp at an altitude of 8300 meters. We are OK, a few hours later we're going to start our summit bid. The entire first group of seven members and seven Sherpas is here. All are feeling well. There are about 100 climbers are preparing for climb here. Now it would be a meeting of guides in Chinese camp.... We will decide who, when will start. It is necessary that pushed the crowd.

--

According to Max Shakirov, the group will start at 8:00 p.m. Nepal time.

The first group of 7 Summits Club expedition reached the camp 7700 meters. Everyone feels good. Sunny, calm, no wind. Beautiful scenery. We drink tea.

This is our team; Alex Abramov, Sergei Larin (guides), Fyodor Konyukhov, Aznor Hajiyev, Luda Korobeshko, Ivan Dusharin, Max Shakirov and seven Sherpas. Sherpas start tomorrow very early, to set a camp at 8300 meters. We follow them starting about 4 hours later.

The second group stay to the North Col. This is Sergey Bogomolov, Noel Hanna (guides), Leila Albogachieva, Vladimir Korenkov, Joe Pratt, Nathan Schneider and Igor Kadochin.

The route