All news: 2 May 2024

Nastya Kuznetsova: news from Nepal, the Everchess 2024 team or "Your own board".

Greetings from the magical Himalayan valley leading to Everest! It is magical because wishes are fulfilled here and because it is beautiful. I would like to remind you that a team of chess players with a support group is climbing to the Everest base camp in order to take part in the world's first high-altitude chess tournament organized by the Russian Chess Federation.

The team is in good shape and in a good mood! Today our way lay from Phakding to the main city of the valley - the capital of the Sherpas Namche Bazaar (3450 m). We gained about 800 m in height, left at 9.00, arrived around 17. That is, it is clear that they were in no hurry, but with jokes and jokes they smoothly gained altitude.

The chess team wasted no time, the participants played several games "blindly". Along the way, exclamations like E2, G5 were heard every now and then, and when the others decided to clarify what this meant, it turned out that the guys were playing on the move without boards, keeping the whole game in mind. Was it possible? Something incredible! I didn't know until now that it was possible!

According to Andrey Minkov, and according to the results of the Russia - Nepal chess tournament, possible favorites for the upcoming match have already been determined. These are Alexander Ryazantsev, the grandmaster and coach of the Russian national team, and Yuri Kalinichenko, who decided to join the team at the last moment and ascends to the Everest summit with his charming wife Anastasia.

Along the way, we soaked up the beauty of the valley and felt the energy and special atmosphere of the Hillary Bridge, the name of a man revered among climbers.

In the evening we walked through the streets of Namche Bazaar at sunset, after dinner we divided according to interests.

A team of chess players trained their brains, but no longer with chess, a card game with some interesting name.

Another part of the team spent the evening playing dixie and talking about the peculiarities of brain activity depending on the height factor and not only with comments from our participant, Professor of neurology Eduard Yakupov, who runs his blog and helps people with sleep disorders.

Tomorrow is the day of acclimatization and the second night in Namche Bazaar.

Your guides are Valery Myasoedov, Andrey Berezin, Anastasia Kuznetsova.

Greetings from the Koniyaki group from Dibuche!  We are climbing higher and higher, and beautiful views are beginning to open up. The beautiful Ama Dablam accompanied us all the way.

Today we spend the night in another beautiful loggia, eat lard and do not stop admiring the Ama Dablam, which is visible from the window of our dining room.

My mood is great and I feel great too!

The guides Sergey Avtomonov and Daria Goryacheva are in touch.

Alexander Abramov, head of the Everest expedition of the 7 Summits Club, reports from the Base Camp:

The rest of the 7 Summits Club team under the leadership of Alexander Abramov has ended. Today we held classes on the use of oxygen equipment. Live Internet broadcasts were set up the day before.  We had a good rest. The team is going out for a second acclimatization rotation tonight. According to the plan: camps 1-2-3 at an altitude of 7,100 meters. It's getting colder. The weather has deteriorated. Strong winds began to blow. However, no one in the team is coughing yet. It's even strange.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, the guide of the 7 Summits Club, reports from Nepal:

 Greetings from our team from Dhaulagiri Base Camp. I finally managed to get to BC. Despite the ongoing fires around Pokhara, a helicopter dropped me off at BC today, May 2, around 11.30 am. And literally 5 minutes later, my whole team came down here after the second acclimatization rotation.

We celebrated our reunion with a festive lunch. The members have a lot of impressions. The route is very difficult - there are many cracks, seraks, avalanche outflows and objectively dangerous places. And yesterday, a very strong wind of 50-70 km/h rose and visibility dropped to almost zero. In such bad weather, they had to go from 5800 to 6500 and survive a windy night in Camp 2. But the team went through all the tests with honor. We shot a lot of beautiful and interesting videos from the route.

Now we will have a long rest in the BC before the assault. The weather, by the way, is deteriorating. The wind increases, and then snowfall is promised for almost a week. It will be just possible to have a good rest.

All the participants are alive, healthy, washed and full of energy!

Greetings from Papua New Guinea (PNG)! The guides Boris Egorov and Olga Rumyantseva are in touch. Today, our group spent almost the whole day in the village of Paya, where we got acquainted with the locals and their traditions.

The visit to the village began with a pig cooking ceremony. A pig in PNG is a great value, which is prepared only for special occasions. For example, for a wedding. Well, or if tourists come. The pig is being prepared very slowly. First, it is burned and cleaned, then cut up, then wrapped in banana leaves. Sweet potatoes and bananas are also put there, as well as various herbs. After that, everything is wrapped in leaves again and laid with red-hot stones. And leave to bake for several hours.

While some watched the pig cooking, others got to know the villagers, talked about the place where we came from, asked questions about life in PNG, took pictures, watched the local strange animals - a tree kangaroo and a cougar bird.

The locals dressed up in traditional costumes and prepared a program for us - they sang, we danced and took pictures. Actually, many tourists go to PNG for such colorful photos.

But that's not all we're after. Tomorrow we will embark on our journey to the top of Giluwe, the highest volcano in Australia and Oceania.

During a short tour of the village, we were told about ancient customs, about how people used to live and showed artifacts of bygone days. Shields, spears, magical figurines and the skulls of dead chieftains. It was a tradition to preserve the skulls so that the leaders would help their community even after death. They gave her wisdom.

In general, the day turned out to be eventful and interesting. We moved from the village to the mountains, from where, after spending the night at the lodge, we will go to the beginning of trekking tomorrow.