Hey Harry you guys are going to be busy this year on Everest!
Alex Abramov's Everest 2006: 30 clients served by a staff of 43
Abramov's expeditions require skilled climbers, yet Alex is not your regular low budget guy. He does his best to provide the best logistics he can, in spite of the low cost he offers. Image of courtesy of Harry Kikstra, 7summits.com.
12:24 am EST Mar 06, 2006
You might have noticed his ads here last spring: Abramov offered Everest for 10 thousand bucks. Seems it did the trick, for last week Alex sent over his list of 2006 clients and it's a pretty impressive one.
Abramov's expeditions usally require self-sufficient climbers but Alex is not your regular low budget guy. He does his best to provide the best logistics he can: As an example - ALL the expedition oxygen is pure POISK. This year's guides include Piolet d'Or winners, and there is an ABC doctor on the team which totals 30 clients catered to by a staff of 43 people. Abramov has gone a long way in a few short years.
Here goes Alex & Harry's 7summits.com/7 Summits Club Everest 2006 crew and client list:
List of expedition guides
Expedition Leader: Alexander Abramov
Expedition Guides: Alexander Abramov (Everest summit), Harry Kikstra (Everest summit), Nikolay Cherny (Everest and 6 other 8-thousenders), Valery Babanov (2 Piolet d’Or), Bolotov Alexei (2 times Everest summiter, without oxygen from the North , 5 other 8-thousanders, 2 Piolet d’Or), Mingma Gelu Sherpa (Sirdar, 5 times Everest Summiteer).
Assistant Guides: Sergey Kofanov, Ludmila Korobeshko, Andrey Selivanov (doctor and ABC manager) Maxim Onipchenko (mountain ranger, BC manager), Sergey Chistyakov (internet project manager).
List of expedition members
Everest summit:
Lande Vladimir Russia
Rozhkov Ilya Russia
Ryzhenko Arkadiy Russia
Plyushkin Igor Russia
Pushkarev Vladimir Russia
Lorenzo Gariano UK
Kirk Wheatley UK
David A. Lien USA
Ron Morrow USA
William Hazelton Tyler III USA
Slate Stern USA
Ronald Kevin Muhl South African
Noel Richmond Hanna UK
Petter Kragset Norway
Torbjorn Orkelbog Norway
Henrik Andre Olsen Denmark
Johnny Brevik Norway
Thomas Weber, Germany
Vince Bousselaire USA
Richard Harris Australian
Christopher Harris (son)Australian
Michael Charles Dillon Australian
Lincoln Ross Hall Australian
Everest North Col
John Delaney Ireland
Frode Hogset Norway
Nagapetianc Rafael Russia
Milan Collin, Netherlands
Kevin Augello, UK
Patrick Singh, Canada
ABC
Barbara Tyler USA
Patrick Hugh Flynn Ireland
Gariano Giuseppe Italian
Nemirova Marina Russia
20 Sherpas
6 cooks
6 kitchen boys
Total: 76 (33 clients, 43 staff)
Expedition start date : April 10
Expedition end date : June 10
200 oxygen bottles
Alexander Abramov with part of the staff arrives in Katmandu on March 20 to start the preparations for the climb. 200 oxygen bottles are already purchased for the expedition.
"Some facts we are going to do for the first time in the history of Everest expeditions:"
- a full-service North Col Base camp (with kitchen-tent, dining-tent, cook, kitchen-boy, radiostation, electricity)
- 2 web-cameras will be set in BC and ABC and will send BC and Everest view into the cyberspace once a minute during 2 months)
No matter where they go, Alex Abramov's expeditions are anything but boring. Recently Abramov led one team after another up to Vinson's summit - on one of those summit bids they got lost in a blizzard and managed for two nights in a snow cave without gear or gas.
This year, the low cost 7summits.com/ 7summit-club is returning to Everest with 30 clients, after a large number of climbers from the team (co-organized by Alex Abramov and Harry Kikstra) summited Everest through the North side in 2005. The first group succeeded on May 31. Harry was part of the second group and he reached the summit on June 2.
The expedition provided news on an almost daily basis: From the sad death of one team member, to the Maoist bomb attack suffered by Alex and one of his guides, Harry Kikstra’s close call on descent from the summit, the crazy BC parties, and a great deal of information on other teams and events.
However, before Everest 2005 expedition Alexander Abramov had already made quite a name for himself here at ExplorersWeb. He was the one to drive a Land Rover to the top of Elbrus and crashed it coming down; he was the one who slaughtered his own BC food on Everest two years back, and finally the expedition leader of our team mate's climb to the summit of Mount Everest in Spring 2004.
Harry Kikstra has climbed the Seven Summits. Before joining Abramov for Everest, he attempted the peak in fall, 2004.