All news: April 2010

I am writing to you from paradise. I'm sitting at 5 meters from the pool among the vines, palms and acacias. Around me, marabou and other birds. From time to time a light breeze drives off the clouds, there is blue sky and I think, just about, and you will see just over a immensity of Kilimanjaro.

By the way, a few hours before we have seen the summit from the height of 7000 m, on the flight from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro. While the four of us: 2 leaders (Ludmila Korobeshko and Volodya Lavrinenko) and 2 members of the expedition - Stas Gradov and Natalie Adler. The remaining 7 members, headed by Vladimir Khristenko arrive tonight directly from Amsterdam, where they began the solemn celebration of May Day. We hope to continue already here, all together, among the coffee plantations on the slopes of Kilimanjaro.

Ludmila Korobeshko

In Namche Bazaar, we purchase a product, and some equipment. Then we noted the so-called "garbage deposit". Tomorrow at 8 am we leave in Pangboche.

Everything is OK. Vladimir Khitrikov

 Yesterday, the group celebrated the meeting trying Moroccan beer. Then we opened the season of swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. In the evening we moved to a restaurant, try the local cuisine, which contributed to final consolidation of the group. Now we're in Marrakech, and drive towards the beginning of the trek - in the village of Imlil.

The search for Laszlo Varkonyi has ended. Today morning according to the informations of the Hungarian embassy in Beijing, the Ministry for foreign affairs informed us, that by the report of the Chinese contact officer they finished searching for Laszlo Varkonyi. The local authorities will fill out a document on the lethal accident. The decision was made because after searching for two and a half they presumed that they won't find him dead or alive. In the area of the searching the ice is not stable and the weather was adverse.

David Klein told by phone that he would rather talk about his from Kathmandu. Now he only said: 'There was an avalanche accident, an icefall. My friend Laszlo Varkonyi has died, I was lucky, the safety rope held me.' David will start off to Kathmandu today afternoon or tomorrow morning and hopes to reach it tomorrow evening.

Statement of David Klein, April 27, 2010

Yesterday around noon we were on our way down from the North Col (7000 m) to the Advanced Base Camp (6400 m), when at half way, at a relatively easy area the ice started to fall, which means that the ice-wall above us fell down. The ice took Konyi and me off our legs. The ice threw me onto an ice-wall, cross an edge, and I stopped hanging at the vertical wall, on the fixed rope. I didn't know what happened to Konyi, he was behind me. I hoped that the avalanche missed him.

Later I was rescued from above, with the help of a rope, and I learnt that Konyi was missing. They searched for him yesterday and today with big teams, but they didn't find him. According to the eyewitnesses, while I was carried away by the avalanche, Konyi was caught by it 15-20 meters behind me, and the ice fell on him directly.

I have few bruises on my right arm, it was already reinstated by a Mexican doctor here on the mountain.

I will go down from the mountain the day after tomorrow.

I would like to emphasize that these are only the first impressions! I will give a more accurate description of what happened later.

Last photo from Everest

Today Annapurna relented and took a large group of climbers have long dreamed of meeting with this summit. First of all, it should be noted the ascent of Koreans Oh Eun Sun, who went in history as the first woman who ascended to all 14 eight-thousanders. Reporting on its landmark ascent was on Korean television.

Except Koreans and her team (5 Sherpas + 2 cameramen), the peaks reached by Romanians Horia Colibasanu, then a team of Peter Pustelnik, King Baranovskaya (Poland) and Peter Hamor (Slovakia). Thus, Peter Pustelnik also completed a program of 14 eight-thousanders. Later, our honored, great climber Sergey Bogomolov and Eugene Vinogradskii reached the top. Both, close friends of the club 7 Summits, traveled with us and worked as guides with our groups. We hope that the descent of the company's to base camp will take place without incident. Then we could raise a glass for them.

At 2:30 p.m., Chinese time, a big avalanche came down from the North Col of Everest. In the opinion of witnesses, a snow cornice was broken on the crest above the North Col. At this time, about 100 people were on fixed ropes. The avalanche grazed the edge of fixed ropes. According to an eyewitness, sirdar "7 Summits Club" Mingma Gelu, they could see from the camp ABC that search and rescue operations began.

More precise information in one hour: no member of the expedition 7 Summits Club was next to these accident. According to preliminary information, 2 Hungarian climbers fell under the avalanche. One of them have taken already to the camp ABC, he is alive. The second climber has not yet been found.

Our Everest team approved the following plan of action.

28.04 - Intermediate Camp.

29.04 - go to camp ABC

30.04 – rest and training at Camp ABC

May 1 - climb to the North Col. (overnight stay at an altitude of 7000 meters)

May 2 - descent into the camp ABC

May 3-4 - rest in ABC

May 4 - the rise in the North Col. (overnight)

May 5 - exit at the height of 7800 meters and descend to camp ABC

May 6 - descent to the Base Camp.

   North Col never looks safe

 View from the ABC camp to the North Col

Pune, April 25 (IANS) Braving strong gales and temperatures below minus-20 degrees Celsius, Pune mountaineer Krushnaa Patil Sunday scaled Europe’s highest peak, Mt. Elbrus (5,642 metres).

Accompanied by a sole guide, Vladimir from Russia, Krushnaa started the treacherous climb in a blanket of 20 cms snow at 6 a.m. Sunday.

“Owing to heavy snowfall, low temperatures and strong winds, she had to wait for three days at the base camp for the weather to clear. Luckily, she got a window today to finally attempt the climb and succeeded in reaching the summit by 1 p.m.,” her mother Ranjana Patil told IANS here Sunday night.

By late afternoon, Krushnaa started her descent and is expected to reach base camp - at around 3,694 metres - by early Monday morning, Ranjana, herself an avid mountaineer, said.

With this, Krushnaa has scaled six of the world’s seven tallest peaks in all the continents and her eyes are now set on Mt.McKinley in Alaska (6,194 metres).

Incidentally, last month (March 13), Krushnaa and Ranjana both scaled the 2,228-metre Mt. Koscinszko, the highest Australian peak.

A couple of months before that, Krushnaa summitted South America’s highest peak Mt. Aconcagua - 6,961-metres high - in January this year.

Earlier, in May last year, Krushnaa reached the summit of the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest (8,848 metres), followed by Africa’s tallest mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro (5,895 metres) in October and the highest peak in Antarctica, the 4,897-metre tall Mt. Vinson massif, in December.

Ranjana Patil said her daughter plans to conquer even Alaska’s Mt. Mckinley within the next few months. She added preparations are already underway for the effort which will make her the first Indian to scale all the seven peaks in the seven continents of the world.

Krushnaa, who is pursuing Bachelor of Arts (BA) at Pune University, is a professional Indian classical dancer and choreographer. She also designs dance costumes, jewellery and home interiors.

One day members of the expedition visited the monastery of Rongbuk. There our Dr. Igor Pokhvalin performed miracles with the help of simple tablets. And the other team members trained on the sacred rock. So we all deserve a miracle. And in the evening the miracle happened… at the base camp. Huge glowing pylon rose up between the tents. It was a miracle worthy deeds of the Gods. If it had happened a hundred years ago, all of Tibetian fell to the feet of Alexander Abramov. But even now, we feel that respect for our leader among Tibetans have risen.

Alex Abramov wants to climb Everest on bike

To the monastery for a miracle

Miracle 1: Our Doctor help to a monk

Miracle 2:  8d + on-sight

 Main Miracle

 Our Wizard - Uncle Kolya

 Woa !

Today, a guide and leader of our expedition to fabulous Ama Dablam Vladimir Khitrikov fly from Kiev to Kathmandu. For two days he will be devoted to the preparation of equipment, products and formalities before the arrivals of main group. April 26 Pavel Laktyushkin should arrive in Kathmandu. He is one of the most active members of the 7 Summits Club. With our Club he has already traveled to the following programs: Kilimanjaro, Ecuador, Mont Blanc, Elbrus, Aconcagua. And now – to Ama-Dablam. A day later, on April 27 Ilya Kovalev and Dmitry Nikitin arrive to join the team.

Vladimir Khitrikov (55) is one of most experienced sport mountaineers of ex-USSR. He was a member of great expedition Lhotse South Face 1990.

Hi, we are in Namche Bazaar. Some member of our group ran, some crawl, but at least everyone is alive and well. Especially information for friends and relatives Oleg Pak announced that the goat was not mad. So no one was hurt. Such sacred goat bites, we were told by locals, only the elect, and it is considered as a good omen.

In the evening we have scheduled training sessions, we will deal with the equipment.

Olga Rumyantseva

Half an hour later two groups under the guidance of Uncle Kolya and Noel Hanna went on acclimatization to the advanced base camp.

All these things have to move to a height of 6400 m.

 Morning flight to Lukla. After landing, we started up. By lunchtime, we came to the village of Phakding. Everything is good: the weather, and mood. After dinner the group went to acclimatize to the local monastery, 600 years old. We met local monks and beat drums.

Island Peak expedition: 13 members, 2 leaders (Olga Rumiantseva and Sergei Timofeev).

Sergei Timofeev (52) from Yekaterinbourg is a well-known Russian climber, many-times Champion of Russia. He knows Nepal perfectly, has climbed Everest and three separate peaks of Lhotse.

Yesterday team 7 Summits left Base Camp for the first time to move for the night up to the intermediate base camp (IBC) at 5800 meters (approx 19,000 feet). Under the new expedition concept developed by Abramov over the past two years, the group moved in lock step, slowly to the destination. The new concept is part of Abramov's safety first initiative, to ensure that no one is lost on the mountain, and should an unfortunate accident occur, guides, sherpas, and team members are around to help.

 The team left after breakfast yesterday at 11:30 local time, with everyone arriving around 18:00, just before dinner. The slow pace was designed to keep everyone together and allow everyone to arrive fresh and without any major altitude issues.

 Having been in Alex's Everest program in 2005, I noticed immediately the improvement in IBC services; new tents, heated dining facilities, electricity, and toilet tents. I must say that I dreaded always going through IBC, because it was always cold and the accomodation, spartan. It was a shock to come back to IBC and see that although the camp had shifted 50 meters up the glacier, almost a world of difference exists in the services there.

 We had a grand dinner, and sat around the table discussing in comfort various topics; cutting the ropes on our least favorite teammates seemed to come up quite often :) ... Some in the group played cards and others quietly drank tea until approximately 22:00 when we turned out the lights and cut off the heaters.

 Fully hydrated and well fed, the team slept through the night until the sun hit our tents at around 09:00 today. Again a great meal was prepared and we packed our things and returned to Base Camp. The team left IBC at 10:00 and we wound our way back down the East Rongbuk Glacier descending 600 meters over 12 kilometers under blue skies. Just past the Yak camp where the East Rongbuk meets the main Rongbuk glacier, we had wonderful views again of Pumori and Everest's North Face. A giant Lenticular Cloud had formed over Everest's peak, causing pause and photographs to be taken.

 We are now back in Base Camp, having just finished a late lunch, everyone queueing for the showers. We will have the next three nights here to complete stage 1 of the acclimatisation process in the expedition. Afterwards, our plan is to head up to Advanced Base Camp and spend 1 night there and return. While I would love to share the rest of our plans with you, I want to make sure everyone knows that there must be some flexibility in expedition planning, therefore I will only communicate 3-4 days of plans in advance.

 Another small announcement is that Alex and the 7 Summits corporation have agreed to support the charity Global H2O, a global clean water initiative. The charity, Global H2O, was founded in 2009 and raises money to create sustainable clean water sources and sanitation facilities for those in need. The first project was completed in February of this year, bringing clean water to over 1500 people in Uganda. The charity is looking for support globally either via fundraising, volunteers, donations, or corporate sponsorship. You can find out more atwww.globalh2o.org.

 Other than that, everything is running smoothely here and the spirits are high.

 All the best from Everest Base Camp, Tibet, China,

James Wilde

(on behalf of the 7 Summits team)

Today we farewell to a long trip leaders of the expedition to Island Peak Olga Rumyantseva and Sergei Timofeev. They will ensure climb of this trekking peak for 13 climbers of different qualifications, combined with a dream to enjoy a view on beautiful Himalayan peaks of the world headed by Everest. And also they pass on the legendary trail from Lukla airport to the upper Khumbu valley and climb the mountain of Kala Patar. Few people can tell about Nepal as much as Sergei Timofeev, a master of sports from Yekaterinburg. For example he climbed all three summits of Lhotse in the three different expeditions by three different ways.

Team members:

Adinyaeva Aelita

Akhmetshin Rustem

Barsukov Stanislav

Belousov Gleb

Bermisheva Pauline

Ganzha Alexei

Kiselev Sergey,

Nebuchinov Roman

Nosov Mikhail

Oleg Pak,

Salnikov Marina

Dmitri Seliverstov,

Andrey Shlyapnikov.

Sergey Timofeev    Master of Sports in mountaineering, "Snow Leopard", winner of two gold and silver medals of the USSR championships, three gold, three silver and four bronze medals at the championships of Russia, member 5-Himalayan expeditions

The team arrived yesterday at Everest Base Camp (5200 meters). All of us were dizzy from the gain of over 1000 meters from Shegar. However, we were welcomed with a great lunch, and then got busy finding our gear and unpacking for the move up to ABC in a few weeks.

 For some out there, Everest Base Camp is something very hard to comprehend. 5200 meters is higher than Mont Blanc, and the barometric pressure (oxygen level) is about 60% of that where most of us normally reside. Nights at base camp are warm in the group tents, and people think that with all the luxury provided on such an expedition that this is an easy undertaking. The truth is that we must all head back to our tents and sleep in sub zero temperatures for the next 40 days!

 The one great thing going for us is that we have Alex and his guides looking out for us. We have a good level of comfort. The food is well prepared and the corners are not cut here. There are two doctors with us and we are all being monitored closely. The program is well structured and the first rule here is all about safety.

 So what is base camp like to live in? Well, currently there are 100 people waiting and acclimatising. There is a LOT of gossip going around. The big talk this year is of the boy who wants to climb Everest. Some think it is a publicity stunt, some who know the family think it is pressure from the parents to pick up where they left off, and some really dont give a damn. In any case this is the story on the north side.

 During our time in base camp, we will go for short walks, eat, read books, watch movies and avoid getting ill. There will be much speculation as to what teams have the best acclimatisation schedule, when the weather window will come, and which team is strongest.

 Our base camp is pretty well up the Rongbuk, just below the morraine dam. This keeps us isolated well from both the fierce Everest wind as well as rumors. It also is a shorter walk up to IBC, which is a great benefit...

 In any case all is well and we are all settling in. I am sure that everyone in the team wants to thanks their friends and family for allowing them the opportunity to pursue this great dream. We are all thinking of you.

 Best regards from Everest Base Camp, Tibet, China,

Jamie (on behalf of the 7 Summits Club Team)

Let’s hydrate the world!

James Wilde
Managing Director & Founder
Global H2OAbout the Foundation

Even the easiest route to the North Pole, with helicopter was in this year challenging. Severe storms, extremely low temperatures - all of this introduces an uncertainty into the plans of flights, as well as a very strong drift, which is constantly shifting point of poles on the ice surface. What to say about those who go skiing! The difficulty of the campaign surpassed the worst expectations. So that our members have reached the extreme northern point of the planet can be proud of. Club North Pole explorers replenished our friends Vyacheslav Adrov (by helicopter), Irina Klimova (by skiing) and Igor Grishkov (by skiing, the program "Last Degree") .... Congratulations!

Also the North Pole was reached (dog sledge program) by our friends Vasily Kolesnikov and Alexei Soloviev.

During the past few days, the 7 Summits Club team has seen a lot of the Tibetan culture, traveled across the plateau to reach Shegar, and begun to bond as a group. Of all these things the most interesting questions coming from friends and family are: “What are the hotels like?” and “What do you guys eat every day?” That said this entry is not about Everest but about the food we are eating and what we will plan to eat.

 The staple of the Nepali and Everest Climb diet is the famous Mo Mo. Mo Mos come in a variety of shapes and flavors and resemble what most people will recognize as a Spring Roll. The are Yak MoMos, Chicken MoMos, Mystery Meat MoMos, and, my favorite, Veg MoMos. MoMos can be steamed or fried. Any which way you have them, MoMos are great and have an even better name.

 The standard Everest breakfast has many variants (the Russians love to use this word), but there some standard building blocks. The building blocks are chapatti / pancakes, eggs, some form of meat, and bread. Sometimes there is porridge. The variety of egg styles changes every day. Sometimes they are fried, sometimes they are scrambled, sometimes they are boiled.

 Dinner is also always very good. Fresh meat and vegetables are served every day. Sometimes we have pizza even. All in all from a food perspective we are well taken care of at the main camps. Above the North Col, we will be eating tea crackers, soup, chocolate, and drinking lots of hot tea and water--- as will most other at the high camps.

 Today the group went to Shegar and walked through the new and old parts of the village. We made our way up to the monastery. After a short visit to the monastery, the team proceeded up to the top of the hill. Everyone was in good form and made the top.

 Now we have free time until dinner at 8 and will begin tomorrow at 8 o’clock on the ride to base camp. The truck is filled with all sorts of goodies for base camp, and the team is anxious to get there.

Best regards from Shegar,

Jamie (photo in the middle)

On behalf of the 7 Summits Club team

April, 8

Early in the morning 16 Sherpas and 3 guides of 7 Summits Club (Cherny, Larin and Hanna) left Kathmandu. In the evening they crossed the border into the City Dzhangmu on the Tibetan side. Afternoon flight Qatar Airways brought the remaining members team - all 16 people. They landed with a delay of 8 hours, committing an additional landing in India.

In the evening we had a "Familiarization briefing”, goes into a festive dinner. Alexander Abramov showed participants a slide show with their nearest future. Then the team members a little drunk, but happy, had gone to rest in the famous Hotel Yak and Yeti.

April, 9

In the morning we all went to the bus tour of Kathmandu, along with the best guide, whose name was Varvara. That evening there was the distribution of team jackets and shirts. Then we moved to the best restaurant in town named "Kaiser" ...

Tomorrow, April 10, according to the plan we purchase of personal equipment and packing goods. April 11, we must fly to Lhasa.

Our best guide Victor Bobok and his group has reached the North Pole. Despite the heavier than usual weather, bitter cold and wind, our skiers have made "last degree" programme, i.e., the last 111 km, in perfect tempo. In reality, they were about 12-15 km more, because every day the ice drift carried them in the opposite direction.

Our congratulations to Victor, who made the Grand Slam - a collection of 7 summits and two poles. Before him, in Russia only Fedor Konyukhov did it.

China and Nepal have agreed a solution to a long-running disagreement over the height of Mount Everest.

They agreed that the world's highest mountain - which traverses the border of the two countries - should be recognised as being 8,848m tall.

The Chinese previously argued it should be measured by its rock height. Nepal said it should be measured by its snow height - this is four metres higher.

During talks in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, China accepted that claim.

This means the official overall height of Everest is now designated as 8,848m. Nepal also recognises China's claim that the rock height of Everest is 8,844m.

Correspondents say that while thousands of people have climbed the mountain since the first ascent in 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, its exact height has been disputed ever since the first measurement was made in 1856.

The broadly-accepted height of 8,848m was first recorded by an Indian survey in 1955. It measured the mountain's snow cap, rather than the rock beneath it.

But geologists say that the estimates of both countries over the height of Mount Everest could be wrong.

They say that the mountain is becoming higher as India is gradually pushed beneath China and Nepal because of shifting continental plates.

In May 1999 an American team used GPS technology to record a height of 8,850m - a figure that is now used by the US National Geographic Society - although it has not been officially accepted by Nepal.

BBC News