The Ukrainian way to the Himalayas.
Presidium FAS of the Ukrainian Mountaineering and rock-Climbing Federation ratified the plan of arrangements and training of the National mountaineering team in the run-up to "Ukraine - Himal 2007" expedition that will start in the spring of this year. The aim of the expedition is opening the first route on the unknown peak (6300 m) South face in Mt. Manaslu massif and the first route on NE face of Himal Chuli (7893 m). In 2000 we already had a reconnaissance of the area by the helicopter during the expedition led by Valentin Simonenko and yours truly. In 2001 we were the first trekked the most beautiful Lidanda gorge and in 2005 we summited Simnang Himal (6200 m), that finally confirmed an urgency and climbing ability of these new walls.
And now, 7 years later, we hope to get to "our" area where we have already climbed Mts Manaslu and Р2. The team consists of famous climbers Mogila V., Lavrinenko A., Pugachev S., Zagirnyak M. (playing coach) and young climbers Verbitsky О., Dubrovin В., Tsushko Т., etc. Also Jury Kruglov (he has recently climbed Eiger North face) and Sergey Kovalev (has subdued Torres del Paine) are invited to the team. The main trainings will run in the Crimea: in winter the weather conditions sometimes are as good as in the Alps and Patagonia there: we plan to run on Ai-Petri (overall 1000 m), to climb Mt. Morcheka, Alupka's Wall and Mt. Shaan-Kaya.
Mstislav Gorbenko