SNOW LEOPARDS INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS.

There are more than 530 Snow Leopards in the world. They're the climbers who had completed the program and summited all 7000-ers of the former USSR - Communism peak (7495 m), Pobeda peak (7439 m), Lenin peak (7134 m), Korjenevskaya peak (7105 m) and Khan Tengri peak (6995 m, it's his official altitude assumed in Russia). THe program began in USSR in 1961. Exept soviet (later - CIS climbers), Austrian, Bulgarian, Spanish, Canadian, Polish, American, Turcish, French, Japanese, etc. Snow Leopards are registered already in World's statistics.

Those who had completed the program but not registered yet his achivements, please, write to Vladimir Shataev shataev1@rambler.ru (Secretary of Euro-Asian Mountaineering Association) for receiving the Diploma and historical individual-number Honour Sign "The conquer of highest peaks of USSR"

29, May 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. Two days ago one of the strongest Kazakhstan climbers - Serguey Samoilov reported lost during Lhotse summit push. Max and Vassily had found Serguey's body at 6800 near the sleeping bag. It's controversial, because first they said that had found Serguey's body between C3 and C4 attached to the fixed ropes and without injuries. Later they wrote about the body at 6800. It's unclear how did he die (guys saw him at 7500 the last time). Probaby, Serguey was caught by the avalanche. We'll explane the detailes as soon as the team return home.
Max, Vaso, Svetlana, Dmitry and Nickolay arrived in BC after dark yesterday, at 8:00pm, local time. The climb down from camp 1 had taken all day in thick fog and deep snow. The climbers had to feel their way down in the fog; trying to uncover old ropes buried in the fresh snow. This morning the team started the trek back to Lukla. (www.mountain.kz)

26, May 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. The expedition is over. All descended to BC, because the weather's very bad, storm and probably monsoon came to Everest. So, the team is going to Kathmandu and try to be in time for their flight to Almaty May, 30. The head of the expedition Baglan Zhunussov arrived to Almaty this night already. He tried to climb Everest with the guide Serguey Lavrov and had understood how difficult is +8000 climb. He also confirmed that team member Alexander Sofrygin summited Lhotse May, 15 in very bad weather. So, it's not clear now if he'll be able to confirm his climb for Elizabeth Hawley. We hope he will and wait the detailes from Alexander as soon as he return home.

25 May 2009 Denali. Serguey Baranov summited May, 18

25, May 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. Trio Maxut Zhumayev, Vassily Pivtsov and Serguey Samoilov left BC two days ago and ascended to C3 yesterday and C4 today. There're no wind, visibility 200 m. Yeasterday was the strong wind, but it's snowing today. They're going for the traverse. The second group - Svetlana Sharipova, Dmity Grekov and Nickolay Gutnik - began to climb Lhotse and ascended to C2 yesterday. Today they turned back.

21, May 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. Very strange info Maxut wrote yesterday for Mountain.kz: in his story are the words "...It doesn't matter, who's summited and what has he summited. We need only the team success. Somebody was already looking at himself as on the winner..." No detailes, but we know that guys had fixed ropes till about 8500 (as Maxut wrote in another source) so they were very close to the top. Some of guys could summit Lhotse that day. But no comments from the team, only the silence...

21, May 2009 Nickolay Cherny (70) summited Everest today as a guide of "7 summits" team!

21, May 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Two days ago the team decended to BC and began the back trek to Kathmandu. The member of the expedition Vladimir Belous, who's at home already, published at www.angara.net the picture of Camp1 after the 4-days snowfall - the man 's sitting at the level of tent's top, and you can see 2 m of snow above it. So, they had to dig 3 m of fresh snow!!! Incredible!More pictures here

20, May 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpinestyle. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko. The real line of the route.

20 May , 2009 Lhotse. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits, Hirotaka Takeuchi and David Gottler summited Lhotse at 11:00am, local time today.

Gerlinde is now level with Edurne Pasaban: both hold the current female record with 12x8000ers summited; Ralf has become a 14x8000er summiteer. (www.8000ers.com)

IMG Lhotse Expedition has also put three members on top today: Chhewang Lendu Sherpa of Khumjung (on his 3rd Lhotse summit), Gregory Vernovage (USA) and Philippe Robin Arslanian (France).

20 May , 2009 Everest North side. Japanese climbers summited May, 18: Yasunori Tanaka (57) and Kenta Miyamori (28). Wu Wenhong died on Everest this morning at around 4 am Xinhua reported, quoting CTMA. The mountaineer reportedly summitted as part of a large Chinese group at around 10 am May, 18, but died on descent at around 8,750 meters of altitude exhaustion in spite of his team mates' efforts to administer oxygen and first aid.

19 May , 2009 Pumori (7145), South Face. Nickolay Zakharov, the head of the Krasnoyarsk team, called yesterday: the group of mountaineering veterans summited Pumori via normal route, breaking trail in the very deep snow. Avalanche danger forced the team which wanted to climb via South Face, to turn back 200 m below the summit (www.stolby.ru)

19 May , 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. The team had fixed 600 m of ropes above 7900 (the work of 1-st and 2nd groups) and lifted 250 m of ropes, put them and other gear in the deposit at 8350. The team wrote about very strong wind near the summit and temperature -40C. Now the team rest in BC and hope for the next push... But probably, they had some more reasons to turn back... But we read only official news. (www.mountain.kz)

19, May 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. May 14 only 5 members stayed in the expedition. That day they tried to dig Camp 1 out of 2-meters deep snow. They had a lot of doubts... But yesterday, after the sixth attempt, Alexey Bolotov, Gleb Sokolov and Serguey Duganov summited! Bidzina Gudzhabidze turned back and descended to BC, where Eugeny Vinogradsky waited him.

19 May , 2009 Manaslu. Italian Mario Panzeri reached summit today. Manaslu is Panzeri's 10th 8000er.
Hungarian Zsolt Eross, reached Manaslu’s main summit and Tamara Romero and Inma Garrido, from the Andalusian female Manaslu expedition also topped-out.

19 May , 2009 Dhaulagiri. The climbers from South Korea Kim Chang and Seo Sung Ho from the Dynamic Busan Expedition reached the summit at 3 pm yesterday. This is their second 8000 meter ascent this season after their successful ascent of Manaslu on 28 April. Dhaulagiri marks the 9th 8000 meter peak for Kim Chang Ho (all without aid of bottled oxygen)

19 May , 2009 Kangchenjunga. May, 17 Spanish Ferran Latorre, climbing ahead of the rest, topped-out Kangchenjunga around 2:30 pm, local time. Ferran's mates Edurne Pasaban, Juanito Oiarzabal, Asier Izguirre and Alex Chicon reached the summit about two hours later. Kangch became Edurne's 12th 8000er, and Edurne - the 4th woman climbed this Mount. Congrats!
(www.mounteverest.net)

15, May 2009 Alexander Ruchkin and Mikhail Mikhailov climbed new technical route on virgin top (6205 m) in Sichuan.

15, May 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine

style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko.

NEW ROUTE is climbed on Cho Oyu!

14 May , 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. Two groups ( LE traverse and Lhotse climbers) reached C4 today. They plan to start the summit bid in the night. (www.mountain.kz)

14 May, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Guys rest in BC after the unsuccessful attempt on May, 9. Too much snow, avalanches, some climbers were caught by ot so big avalanche, but all was OK. Now the team hope for the fifth push, if the weather permit.

13 May 2009 Italian K2 pioneer Achille Compagnoni died today in a northern Italy hospital at age 94, media reports. After several failed attempts, K2 was finally summited in 1954 by the Italians, Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni.

photo: www.montagna.org

12 May 2009 Dhaulagiri. Iranian climber Mehdi Etemadfar missed. He fell to his death during the summit bid. Korean team ariived to BC after the successful Manaslu climb - now the plan to reach Dhaulagiri and Annapurna tops. May, 8 six Indian Army climbers summited. (www.mounteverest.net)

12 мая 2009 Kangchenjunga. Edurne Pasaban with her team had acclimatized in C3. They plan the summit bid May, 15. Nives Meroi with Romano Benet had acclimatized at 7000. (www.mounteverest.net)

12 May 2009 Makalu West Ridge. Basque team was forced to turn back after 6500 m - too strong wind.

12 May 2009 Shisha Pangma.Romanian team climb new route close to the British route. (www.mounteverest.net)

12 May 2009 Manaslu. Andaluzian women team. Lina Quesada and Ana fell ill, so the team decended from C3. Ana was airlifted to KTM. Carlos Pauner and Italians were obliged to decsend to BC too. (www.mounteverest.net)

7 May 2009 Makalu. Koreans Kim Jae Soo and the girl Mi Sun Go and two guys summited May, 1. The Basque team started yesterday alpine-style climb via West Ridge. They hope to climb it in 5-6 days.

6, May 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine

style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko. Denis and Boris are in ABC at 5300. They'll start to the route tomorrow. Good luck to guys!

5 May 2009 Manaslu. Italian team led by Mario Merelli, had troubles - one of the members, Marco Rusconi at 8,000m fell ill and his condition worsened in C3. His mates had to drag him down to C2, where they learned of Giuseppe’s death. Merelli reports that Carlos Pauner’s doctor, the Andalusian female team and parts of the Val Valesia expedition all collaborated in Marco’s rescue and tried their best for Giuseppe. Two Iranian climbers, on their way up, simply turned around in order to help Marco down. ( www.mounteverest.net )

5 May 2009 Dhaulagiri. Czech climber David Fojtik summited Dhaulagiri on May 1st. He skied down from the summit – except for a crystal ice section between 7,300m and 6,700m. Dhaulagiri is David’s second 8000 m summit (first was Everest, on May 2006- both without supplementary O2.

Korean had reached the top that day too, while the other Korean didn't find the way to the tent and spent night in qouloir, get frostbites. ( www.mounteverest.net )

5 May, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. All rest in BC. EXpedition pictures are available on Russian expedition page.

5 May 2009 E-Gongga, 6618 м. Photo album from Sasha and Misha, who live in the mist in Sychuan and try to find their object...

5 May , 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. May, 1 guys put the deposit at South Col, the second group set the tent at 7900 on Lhotse. May, 2 all three groups decended to the BC for the rest. Now all are ready for the summit bid. There were guests in BC - threkkingers led by Igor Karabin. May, 3 all athletes went down to Dingboche for the rest in the green zone at 3700. Iljinsky, Zhumayev, Lavrov and Baglan Zhunussov stay in BC to meet next guests from Almaty. May, 3 was Baglan's birthday. The best wishes! The weather has worsened after the dinner. Today trekking group reached BC - they were Alexey Raspopov (leader), Ljudmila Savina (Master of Sports in Mountaineering, Everest climber (97), doctor A. Chechulo and journalist Adam Kaparov. Gerlinde Kaltebrunner came to Kazakh BC in afternoon and discussed the joint work on Lhotse. All are expecting that Kazakhs will be firsts, who will prepare the route to Lhotse summit. (www.mountain.kz)

5, May 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko. The weather's not good, but the duo decided to leave BC tomorrow and to go to the bottom of the wall.

4, May 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko. Guys are back to BC from the valley, and prepare to the climb.

30 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. Maxut Zhumayev, SMS: All members are in C3 (some at 7400, some at 7300). The weather was changed. it's snowing. Gerlinde's tents are near us, she's going to Lhotse with her team. Then she'll try to climb K2 via Chesen route.(www.mountain.kz)

30 April, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. All are in BC.

29 April 2009 Manaslu. Joao Garcia and Koreans Kim Chang-Ho, Seo Sung-Ho, and Lhakpa Tsering Sherpa summited Manaslu! But the same day Italian Giuseppe Antonelli, who was lost to HAPE while retreating from C3. ( www.mounteverest.net )

29 April, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Yesterday Eugeny Vinogradsky called to Russianclimb: Lena, we're in C3 (7100). We can't contact with Alexander Lutokhin (he's in C1). Help us, please, Call, please, to Serguey Bogomolov (he's at home, in Saratov - ed note) and ask him to call by sat phone to Lutokhin (he knows his number) and to say that Bolotov has successfully descended to C3 and is now in uor tent. All's OK.

Ed note: all"s been done. That's example of relations on the Mount: Manaslu- Saint Petersburg - Saratov - Manaslu.

27 April, 2009 Pumori (7145), South Face. Krasnoyarsk team set the Base Camp (5180 m) yesterday. The weather's good. The team prepared to the acclimatization push. It's unusual situation in Himalaya in spring: very few snow, rivers are empty. (www.stolby.ru)

27 April, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Today Bolotov and three climbers reached 7100. Dmitry Moskaljov with three climbers are at 6800 m. Others are at 6400. Tomorrow they will climb to 7400.

27 April, 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko. Many fears about the route, but we're in brave mood yet...

27 April 2009 17-th Piolet D'Or awarded to: (Spirit of exploration) Kazuya Hiraide ad Kei Taniguchi, Каmет, 7756m, South-East Face, 26.09 – 7.10, аlpine style, first climb Samurai Direct, (1800м, M5+, лёд 5+); (Commitment) Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato и Kazuki Amano, Каlаnkа, 6931 m , North Face, 1800 m, М5 mixt.; ( Technical difficulty) Ueli Steck and Simon Anthamatten, Теngkampoche, 6500 m , 21-24.04.08, route Checkmate (2000 м, мixt М7, ice 5, rocks 6/А0; Walter Bonatti -for lifetime achievement .

25 April 2009 E-Gongga, 6618 м. It rains in Sychuan. Mists... Thuraya doesn't play. Alexander Ruchkin and Mikhail Mikhailov set base camp.

25 April, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Gleb Sokolov called today morning: Bolotov with three climbers are in BC. All is OK. THe weather is good now but they aren't sure that it will be the same soon. And ask of the weather forecast.

25 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. The team ascended to 7400. They've found good places for the tents. Very strong wind. Group 2 will climb to 7400 today. Baglan and Seguey Lavrov ascended from C2 to 7000 and then descended back. (www.mountain.kz)

24 April, 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko. Photogallery from Andrew Starkov.

24 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. "We're in C3(7100м), the strong wind blows all day. Tomorrow we'll stay here in C3, and will find more comfortable place for C3. There's very few snow. Sherpas had fixed ropes already ".(www.mountain.kz)

23 April, 2009 Annapurna, Valery Babanov: "We decided to stop our climb because of too much of snow this year. The ascent to Annapurna to the west and north sides is objectively dangerous, that does not allow us to obtain the necessary acclimatization for a serious climb" (www.babanov.com)

22 April, 2009 Cho Oyu (8203 m), South-East Face. First climb in alpine style. Denis Urubko and Boris Dedeshko.

20 April, 2009 Pumori (7145), South Face. Russians (Krasnoyarsk team) are going to new route (Anton Pugovkin, Eugeny Beljaev, Igor Loginov and Vladimir Starov) The second team (veterans) are going to normal route - Alexander Kuznetsov, Valery Kohanov, Nickolay Smetanin,
Vladimir Karataev (who climbed Lhotse South Face), Eugeny Bakaleinikov.
Saint Petersburg climbers are also in this expedition:
Alexey Paskhin, Alexey Klimin, Dmitry Pulinets.The first ever Pumoru climb: Gerhard Lencer (1962) South Face Right rib has been climbed by Czhech team in 1966 Central part of South FAce is unclimbed yet.

20 April, 2009 E-Gongga 6618m (Mt. Edgar) SE face, Minya Konka massif, Sichuan. Alexander Ruchkin and Mikhail Mikhailov. First climb in alpine style.

16 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. SMS from Maxut Zhumayev: We ascended to C2 already, set the tents on the moraine, and built the stone wall behind them against the strong wind. Lavrov and Zhunussov also ascended to C2 and descended to C1. Groups 1 and 2 are going to climb to C3 after the dinner and then return back to C2.

15 April, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Yesterday Alexey Bolotov with
Rozhkov, Ryzhenko, Frolenko, Belous and Duganov went up to C2.
(Other mates returned to BC). They spent night at 6400 (the new dislocation for C2) and today are back to BC.
Dmitry Sinev and Alexander Lutokhin are going to start from BC on 3
a.m. to reach C2 and go up further to 6800 m.
The weather forecast is good for next 3-4 days, but it'll be windy.
Koreans tried to summit, but had to turn back on the plateau 7400-7500.
Now they're sitting in the mess tent and seeing the films. Heavy
snowfall stopped a week ago (as a result - about 2 meters of the fresh snow,
which is melting actively now). Climbers can ascend without crampons above C1. Joao had fixed 300 of ropes, but now ropes are
under the deep snow, and nobody can use them. There're two sites in the upper part of the icefall, where we need new fixed ropes
crossing the crevasses. It's too heavy snow above the icefall, very difficult to break the trail. Above 6400 we can see the
route to the col (6800). Icefall is calm now, no ice and rocks
falls, in spite of the warm weather - but we see as stones are
falling around the icefall!

14 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. Kazakh climbers are actively preparing to the first high-altitude push. The team number 1 (climbers, who are going to the traverse - Pivtsov, Zhumayev, Samoilov, Shutov, Skopin and Sofrygin) are going tomorrow to C2 (6400), then April, 16 - radial push to C3 (7100), then April, 17 back to BC. The team number 2 (climbers, who are going to Lhotse - Grekov, Sharipov, Gutnik and Rudakov) will do the same as team#1. The team number 3 (climbers, who're going to Everest - Zhunussov, Lavrov and two Sherpas) are going to C1 tomorrow, then next day to C2, and next day back to BC. (info www.mountain.kz)

Kazakhs try to be in C3 asap, because there's no big room for 60 expeditions's tents, and very steep slope.

13 April, 2009 Manaslu. Bolotov's team. Alexey called that the whole team had puja in the BC today morning, and then went up to C1 (5700m). Yesterday the duo Dmitry Sinev - Alexander Lutokhin climbed till C1. They're tired, and it's not surprised - on the second day after arriving to BC.

12 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. The team reached the Base Camp.

9 April, 2009 Manaslu. The team led by Alexey Bolotov today had to reach BC. But the snow storm forced them to stop on the place 150 m below the BC. POrters left all loads and returned back to the village Samagaon. We should note that they were not groomed porters from Kathmandu, but strong ones from the local villages. So it was the reason to did so. Dmitry Sinev and Vladimir Lutohkin stay in the tent near the loads, but other team returned to Samagaon too.

The team has got sad news about Peter Morawski's death (two Peters were in the common permit with Bolotov's team). The team mourn...

8 April, 2009 Piotr Morawski perished on Dhaulagiri.

At 8.40 am local time this morning, Polish Piotr Morawski fell to his death in a crevasse. At only 33, Piotr had summited six 8000ers, and made the first winter summit on Shisha Pangma (together with Simone Moro in January, 2005). Peter Hamor and Piotr Morawski were climbing Dhaulagiri as a preparatory ascent before attempting to open a new route on Manaslu’s west face.
Morawski fell in a 20 meter-deep crevasse at 5,760m - just 80 meters below C1. He was on his way down from C2, together with Slovak Peter Hamor and Justyna Szczepieniec. A group of fellow Polish climbers - Mazik (expedition Doctor), Pawlikowski and Witkowski - belonging to the Tatra Rescuers Association was on their way to C1. Together with Hamor, they got Morawski out of the crevasse, after which Dr. Mazik could only confirm Piotr’s death. (www.mounteverest.net)

8 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. After waiting for three days stuck in KTM due to bad weather, the Kazakh Lhotse-Everest Traverse team flew to Lukla on April 5, ExWeb's contributor Andrey Verkhovod reported from Almaty.

Before departing on the trek, the team found that a duffel containing valuable comms equipment was missing. A search by the climbers, local helpers, Assian Trekking and the police failed to locate the gear. The climbing team reached Namche on Monday and remained there for an extra day, hoping to recover their lost equipment.

“The team’s cook Tsakat Limbu tried to negotiate with the local branch of the Maoist party to help in the search,” Andrey wrote. “However, the duffel only appeared after a fat reward was offered in exchange.”

The climbing team and their caravan left Namche today for the final leg towards Everest BC.

6 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. The team is in Namche Bazar. Tomorrow they'll stay there, play football, and the day later will go to Tiengboche.

1 April, 2009 Lhotse-Everest traverse. The team had brifing in KTM, met with Elizabeth Hawley and preparing to fly to Lukla. Beside of the traverse team there's some mates in the expedition: Svetlana Sharipova (Kazakhstan), Dmitry Grekov (Kyrgyzstan) and Nickolay Gutnik (Kyrgyzstan) are going to Lhotse. Baglan Zhunussov is going to Everest with his guide Serguey Lavrov. Other members are Artjon Skopin, Alexander Sofrygin and Alexander Rudakov.