Traveler and mountain climber from Almaty Andrey Gundarev intends to become the first Kazakhstani to conquer the Volcanic Seven Summits, Tengrinews reports.
Traveler and mountain climber from Almaty Andrey Gundarev intends to become the first Kazakhstani to conquer the Volcanic Seven Summits, Tengrinews reports.
The Volcanic Seven Summits are the highest volcanoes on each of the seven continent. Summiting all of the Volcanic Seven is regarded as a mountaineering challenge.
Andrey Gundarev has already ascended six out of the seven: Elbrus (5,642m) in Europe, Kilimanjaro (5,895m) in Africa, Ojos del Salado (6,893m) in South America, Pico de Orizaba (5,636m) in North America, Damavand (5,670m) in Asia and Mount Giluwe (4,368 m) in Australia. He climbed his first volcano in February 2012. This leaves only Mount Sidley (4,285m) in Antarctica.
Andrey Gundarev. ©Photo courtesy of Andrey Gundarev.
"My Volcanic Seven Summits project is nearing its end. It is about ascending all seven highest volcanoes on the seven continents. Only one summit remains before I can become the first Kazakhstan citizen to complete the challenge. I need to conquer the highest volcano in Antarctica - Mount Sidley (4285 m). This is the most expensive part of the project that requires 70 thousand dollars. I intend to complete the project in the end of this year or in the end of next year, because climbing season in Antarctica begins in December," Andrey Gundarev said.
Andrey Gundarev. ©Photo courtesy of Andrey Gundarev.
He has just returned from a trip to Georgia, Armenia, Iran and Turkey in the course of which he climbed the tallest volcano of Asia Damavand (5670m).
Andrey Gundarev. ©Photo courtesy of Andrey Gundarev.
The Volcanic Seven Summits is pretty popular in the West, but is only becoming to attract climbers from the post soviet space that Kazakhstan is part of. Andrey Gundarev became the first Kazakh to climb the tallest volcano of the world Ojos del Salado (6,893m) in South America, and once he is done with Antarctica he will become the first Kazakh to complete the whole challenge.
Andrey Gundarev. ©Photo courtesy of Andrey Gundarev.
Reporting by Roza Yessenkulova, writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina