All news: 31 October 2016

The President of the 7 summits Club Alex Abramov has long sought to complete the programme Grand slam (seven summits plus two poles).

... So it turns out that the short season of traveling to the Pole coincides with a slightly longer, but also strictly limited, to the duration, season of Everest expeditions. And Alex is the head  Everest expeditions each year since 2003. Everest Expedition is  the most important event of the year for the 7 Summits Club, so it stands in the foreground.

 Therefore, in 2017, the leader of the expedition to Everest will join his team later than usual. He will  be a leader of  our program  at the North Pole that ends on April 16th.

 Now there's a real possibility for any person to reach the North Pole in various ways. We know the best, the optimal way.

It is our Last degree ski program.

 The last degree is a really difficult test, a test of endurance, character, struggle with the cold and struggle with the drift, this is a real danger of falling into ocean water in ice-holes and cracks a chance to meet the polar bear.... But the victory will be ours! It has always been, it always should be!

 The last degree route is changing from year to year. In theory it is about 110 km. However, near the Poles, there is always the strong drift that is difficult or even impossible to predict in advance. Therefore, in the process of movement on skis you can just take it back and have to go a greater distance.

 Camp Barneo (Russian: Лагерь Бaрнео) is a private Russian temporary ice base established annually since 2002 on an ice floe relatively close to the North Pole used largely for tourist excursion purposes.

 The first Ice Camp Barneo was established in 2002. Since that time, the camp has been rebuilt from scratch every year because of the constantly drifting Arctic ice. For example, in 2007 Ice Camp Barneo was located at about 89°31.5′N 30°27′W. However, northerly winds caused the Ice Camp to drift towards the southeast at a speed of 0.8 kilometres per hour (0.5 mph).

 The ice camp works under the patronage of the Russian Geographical Society and normally lasts for the month of April.

 Ice Camp Barneo should not be confused with the sequential Soviet/Russian "North Pole" drifting ice stations established by the Russian Academy of Sciences Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI).

 From 2002 to 2016, the starting and final point of all expeditions to Barneo has been Longyearbyen, the capital of the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. The city has necessary facilities including an airport, hotels of different levels, restaurants, a post office, a bank, and a supermarket.

 In 2016, following military exercises by Chechen paratroopers on Barneo, Norway enacted a flight embargo, which it later lifted. As a result, the 2017 event is expected to take place with a base in Russia.

The couple have fulfilled their plan, and for just two days climbed to the highest point of Morocco and North Africa, Jebel Toubkal. The weather was sunny, which made it possible to enjoy the panoramic views during the climb and do a lot of photos.

Now Lyudmila and Mikhail meets a beautiful Moroccan city, the ancient Marrakesh. Tonight, they are scheduled to go back to the hotel on the beach, where you can calmly reflect on everything that happened...