All news: May 2019

Greetings from Everest!  Today our recreation time is over. For three days we slept, ate, drank, fished and relaxed. Tonight we are holding a party in honor of May 9th at the Base camp.

Boris Yegorov, a guide of the 7 Summits Club from USA:

Hello, dears!  Today we made the final ascent in Utah. We climbed the Castleton Tower, it's symbol of the region. Very beautiful freestanding rock tower, among other things, she is often glimpsed in American westerns. Climbing was quite interesting, a lot of different caliber cracks and chimneys. And very cool feeling on the top, 360 degree view! Tomorrow is our last day in Moab, and the plan is to go rafting on the Colorado river.

Dmitry Yermakov, a guide of the 7 Summits Club:  7 Summits, Hello! Dmitry Yermakov from Dingboche. Yesterday we climbed Kalapatar. And then we went down the valley. The weather is beautiful. And in the evening we celebrated the birthday of one of members  - Alena. In general, the day was a success.

Andrey Berezin, a guide of the 7 Summits Club:

Greetings from the Elbrus Region!  Part of the group was able to change tickets and make a second attempt to climb Mount Elbrus.  Let me remind you: the first attempt was stopped at an altitude of 5300 meters due to the high avalanche danger. The weather forecast was favorable on the weather Internet resources. In fact, the weather was not what the weather sites said. Tonight a large number of people startede. But in the end on the route to the top we met only a few people. Wind, snow, fog and frost are our companions of this ascent.

Bottom line: we're on the top! Elbrus climbing season is open!

Vladimir Kotlyar, a guide of the 7 Summits Club:

Hello, dear! We climbed Mera Peak! Caught the weather window and did it!

 From April 15 to May 5, the team made three acclimatization rotations: 5800, 6400, 7000 m. All 17 members climbed the Northern Col of Everest and spent a night there in severe weather conditions: wind up to 90 km/h, avalanche-prone slopes, snow up to 0.5 meters. Dozens of other expedition tents were torn by the wind. For the 7 Summits Club 100% tents  were without any loss. All this thanks to the experience of guides Sergey Larin, Artem Rostovtsev and wise intuition of Alex Abramov  - it is his 20th expedition on 8000 m mountains and attempt for  the 10th ascent to the top of Everest.

Tomorrow morning all 17 members going on rest for 3 nights in the village  of Tashijong to a height of 4200m. And May 9 our expedition invites all 160 people from the base camp of Mount Everest  to celebrate Victory Day!!!

Olga Rumiantseva, a guide of the 7 Summits Club:  Hello from Bolivia! Today, our group climbed  a very beautiful Mount Huayna Potosi. Weather at first did not please and even we had doubts whether we will be able to make the ascent according to the plan or have to use the reserve day.  But despite the snow storm that broke out in the evening on the eve of the climb, by night the weather gave us a small window, which was just enough to climb.

The route has changed slightly since I was last here. Now you do not have to go to the top by the terrifying ridge. You can see it only from the top. But the route of climb did not become less interesting. And beauty is still in place.

From tomorrow we will start a fascinating cultural entertainment program.

Hello dears! There are guides Lastochkin and Yegorov from the United States. We and  guys climbed hard route to the Fisher tower. We were surrounded by alien landscapes. We had a special plan for this ascent: we changed roles with members. They were in the lead on the climb, and there, by the way, climbing 6b with our belay points (friends, bookmarks, etc.), and on the descent they were also leaders. Everything turned out just fine! All coped on 5 points. In addition to difficult climbing, a separate adventure was the exit to the top, not difficult physically, but very difficult psychologically. Here it is necessary to control yourself really well and they coped with this task.

Viktor Ershov, guide of the 7 Summits Club:

Hello everyone from Kilimanjaro! Today around 8 am the whole group of “Falcons-2019” climbed the highest free-standing mountain in the world! Than lived up to the name of group - it was fast, clear, a real Express! Now we went down to the camp Horombo, all wildly tired, because not every day you pass about 20 km in the mountains with a large difference in height. Tomorrow we run down and rest! Hurray!

Seven Summits, hi!  Here is a guide Dmitry Ermakov from Gorak Shep. We got here today. The weather improved. We went to the base camp. Everyone is tired and the height is felt, but we do not give up! Left to stand overnight and day hold! At night we go to Kala Pattar. Best regards!

Alexander Abramov, leader of the Everest expedition of the 7 Summits Club:

Greetings from 6400 – from the ABC camp on Everest! During the day we descended from our last acclimatization rotation, after spending a night on the North Col.  Altitude 7000m.  Yesterday in the evening the weather deteriorated.  All night long our camp (all members and guides) groaned and coughed under snow. But this was not heard, because of the strong wind and heavy snow.  In the morning we were forced to punch the trail down and pull the rope out of the half-meter layer of snow.  It wasn't easy. But no one tent of our camp was tumbled down. In previous days, dozens of tents were demolished and torn down by many expeditions. Tomorrow we go down to the Base camp…

 Greetings from Elbrus!  Today, according to the program, we had a day of ascent. After looking at the weather forecast for the main and reserve days, we decided to go climbing today. Wind and snow were our companions all the way.  Eventually we reached the saddle, where the snow on the trail was about 80 cm.   Climb higher was  too dangerous.  We decided to come back. The principle is known: the mountains stood and will stand. And we will come back and climb to the top of the highest point of Europe next time.

Guide the 7 Summits Club Artem Rostovtsev:

Team Everest-2019. We have adopted for it the name of "Change the bottle!"  We'll climb up for acclimatization from Base camp to the North Col. Today there will be climb from ABC camp to the Saddle, there we will spend a night at 7000 meters. The wind is blowing very strong, which worries us.

Seven Summits, hi! Here is Dmitry Ermakov from Tiangboche. We got in pretty late last night. Rather, we were divided into two groups. Denis Abramov and half of the members reached  according the plan.    But we got a little late.  This is due to the fact that one of the members we sent home by helicopter. He's sick.

We have, in principle, all according to plan. Today we go further, to the village of Periche.

Vladimir Kotlyar, a guide of the group: Hi, 7 summits! “The Magnificent Seven” group continues to climb. Today we  reached the village of Tagnak, at an altitude of 4270. Weather pleases! Health and conditions of  group are excellent!

Guide Viktor Ershov: Hello from the wet  Tanzania from the group of Sapsan-2019! In the morning we started from the hotel to the entrance of Kilimanjaro National Park under heavy rain.  On the way we stopped at the supermarket for batteries and repellent. Then we checked in at the Park reception.  The rain stopped and we moved to the camp of Mandara.  We got there quickly in 3 hours, but the shoes were soaked through. In the evening we passed the medical check, all the members have excellent performance and good health, and  we tasted a delicious dinner. We hope that there will be no more such heavy rains..

Hello, 7 Summits! Guides Lastochkin and Yegorov report from the States. Today we spent the second day on the rocks. Our friends climbed already quite difficult and long  routes, 5.10 category. That's just it can not be compared with our usual scale for determining the difficulty of climbing. Crack 5.10 - this is not 6A as we are used to, but simply a completely different phenomenon on the rocks. For two days we had been rubbing the skin on the back of the palms, and there was a slight fatigue. Tomorrow we plan an active day of rest, we will go to trekking to look at the famous Sandstone arches.

Two groups of the 7 Summits Club climbed for acclimatization rotation on the Pastukhov Rocks. They slept in different refuges and climbed in different ways and at different times.  May Elbrus showed itself in all its glory: it is a bright sun, and the wind with snow grains, and clouds, and frost. From the Rocks of Pastukhov (4600m) climbers could see the Western and Eastern peaks and the saddle between. After admiring the magnificent panorama, all people went down to rest in the camp.

Hello from Bolivia! Our group successfully mastered the altitude of 3200 meters in La Paz and today moved to the legendary lake Titicaca. On the lake we stopped to visit the family who helped Thor Heyerdahl build boats for his expeditions. When you imagine how these boats went across the ocean, you realize that this was fantastic.

Our next target was the island of the Sun.

We took a boat to the island of the Sun. Forty minutes on the beautiful Titicaca and after a traditional lunch we walked the first small but very beautiful trekking to our hotel.

A sunset we met at the observation point with a beautiful view…

Our very long day ended with a wonderful dinner.

Today there was the last day of rest in our comfortable Base camp.   And tomorrow we go to ABC camp and then to the North Col (7000 m) of Everest.

Also today it marks exactly 20 years since the wedding of Igor and Natalia Smirnov. We congratulate them!