All news: 6 November 2025

 Greetings from the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania! Everything is on schedule; our group is descending to the gates of the national park and should be back at the hotel today for a celebratory dinner and party celebrating the end of the program.

While we wait for details and photos from the group, we are publishing the travel diary of Sergey Sedov, who reached the summit of Kilimanjaro in three days.

 Sergey Sedov:

Arriving a day late, I decided to catch up with the group immediately. The expedition organizers were understanding and provided me with a local guide, porter, and transportation, for which I am eternally grateful. My physical condition allows me to undertake long treks upward, and in the end, Francis and I ran from the entrance to the national park to Horombo Hut in one day—or more precisely, six hours—covering 19 km and gaining 2,300 meters in altitude (from 1,450 to 3,750 meters).

 Having met the group there, the guides and expedition organizers and I discussed the option of continuing the climb separately at our own pace. Francis supported my idea of going to Base Camp the next day and immediately attempting the summit. This was his first attempt, but he was confident in both himself and me. I had arrived on Kilimanjaro after the Nepalese mountains and was well acclimatized with plenty of altitude to spare.

 The next day, when the group set out on an acclimatization radial hike, we continued our trek and reached Kibo Base Camp in three and a half hours. There we had lunch, held a briefing, and headed off to prepare for the summit push.

 We set out for the summit push at precisely midnight. We walked at a steady, confident, and steady pace, taking our time. We took our first short break at 3:00 AM, rested at 4:00 AM at Gilmansa Point, and then leisurely trudged to the summit, reaching it precisely at 6:00 AM. A blistering gust of wind awaited us there, so after quickly snapping a couple of photos, we descended at 6:15 AM. We had plenty of energy, the sun was warm, and our legs ran naturally down. In the end, the descent took only 1:40.

 At Base Camp, we changed clothes, packed our things, and set about executing another daring plan: to descend to the very entrance of the national park not just in one day, but before 5:00 PM.

 On the way back, we met our guys and wished them a successful summit push. In Horombo, we took a quick lunch break, in Mandara we treated ourselves to another half-hour rest, and by 4:40 PM, Francis and I were hugging at the entrance to the national park.

 I won't lie, the last few kilometers were incredibly difficult. By this point, everything was aching, but we persevered, kept up the pace, and continued down. It's no joke, we covered 40 km that day, including the summit push.

 In total, the entire program took us just three days. In short:

44 hours from start to summit.

4,450 m – elevation gain during this time.

34 km – ascent.

40 km covered on summit push day.

Total time: 54 hours 40 minutes.

Total distance: 68 km.

 Also on the descent, halfway between Horombo and Mandara, we met a legend of our mountaineering, Uncle Vitya, whom we had recently seen in Namche Bazaar and Kathmandu.

 In conclusion, I want to say that I didn't initially plan to set any records or chase time. It just happened that way. Appetite comes with eating. I want to thank the 7 Summits Club team for their flexibility and prompt problem-solving. I especially appreciate the exceptional level of organization—I had access to exactly the same facilities as the rest of the group the entire time.

And Francis and I became very close during this time. It even felt like we spent much more time with him than just three days.

 To be continued!

Photos and videos by the author - Sergey Sedov

The 7 Summits Club Guide Olya Rumyantseva reports from Mexico:

Greetings to everyone from Mexico, where we are beginning the climbing season on Orizaba! Today, the first large group, with the very Mexican name "Axolotl," began their journey to the summit of North America's highest volcano. We began our journey by exploring Mexico's most famous pyramids—the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon in the ancient city of Teotihuacan. Or rather, we tried to begin with a hot air balloon ride over the pyramids. But, alas. There was fog all morning, so the flights were canceled. And those balloonists who did manage to take off saw nothing but fog. We weren't too upset; we did some exercises with the hot air balloons as a backdrop, and then went for a walk around the pyramids and listened to amazing stories. Later in the evening we moved to the La Malinche volcano, which we will visit tomorrow for acclimatization.