Russia

Russia🏔️ 1 Peak

Boris Delone

Boris Nikolayevich Delone (Delaunay) was born on March 15, 1890, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. A brilliant scholar of algebra, geometry, and number theory—most famous in mathematics and computational geometry for inventing Delaunay triangulation—Delone was equally devoted to the mountains. Introduced to climbing in the Swiss Alps and the Western Caucasus, Delone became one of the foundational figures of early Soviet mountaineering in the 1920s. In the summer of 1926, Delone organized a pioneering expedition to the Katun Range in the remote Altai Mountains. Mount Belukha (4,506 m)—the highest mountain in Siberia—had been summited only once before in 1914 via an arduous snow route. Delone sought to demonstrate that technical alpine climbing was possible on Siberian peaks. Reconnoitering from the Mensu Glacier, Delone identified a direct line up a steep, 300-metre snow and ice gully leading to the high col between Belukha and Peak Delone. In August 1926, cutting ice steps and driving steel pitons, Delone and his team climbed the sheer couloir to gain the 3,400-metre pass (now officially named Delone Pass / Pereval Delone) and traversed the glaciated plateau to summit Mount Belukha East Peak. In 1930, Delone wrote The Peaks of the Western Caucasus, one of the earliest Soviet mountaineering guides, and was awarded the title of Master of Mountaineering in 1934. He remained active in mathematics and mountain leadership until his death on July 17, 1980, honored in both science and mountaineering.

Kazakhstan / Russia / Poland🏔️ 6 Peaks

Denis Urubko

Born on July 29, 1973, in Nevinnomyssk, Soviet Union, Denis Urubko relocated to Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he joined the Central Sports Club of the Kazakh Army under legendary coach Ervand Ilyinsky. Urubko rapidly established himself as an elite high-altitude powerhouse, completing the Snow Leopard award by scaling all five 7,000-metre peaks of the former Soviet Union in an astonishing 42 days during the summer of 1999. In May 2009, he became the fifteenth person in history, and the eighth without supplemental oxygen, to summit all fourteen 8,000-metre peaks. Urubko is revered worldwide for his commitment to alpine style and new routes. In 2005, he established a new route on the Southwest Face of Broad Peak with Serguey Samoilov, followed by a new direct route on the Southeast Face of Cho Oyu in 2009, earning two Piolets d'Or. His partnership with Simone Moro yielded the historic first winter ascents of Makalu (2009) and Gasherbrum II (2011). In January 2018, while participating in the Polish winter K2 expedition, Urubko volunteered alongside Adam Bielecki to execute a desperate night rescue on Nanga Parbat, sprinting 1,200 vertical metres up the Kinshofer Route in pitch darkness to save French climber Élisabeth Revol.

Russia🏔️ 2 Peaks

Evgeny Abalakov

Evgeny Mikhaylovich Abalakov was born on February 17, 1907, in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Like his elder brother Vitaly, Evgeny began climbing on the volcanic cliffs of the Krasnoyarsk Stolby. Possessing extraordinary physical stamina, grace, and an artistic soul, Evgeny graduated from the prestigious Surikov Moscow State Art Institute as a master sculptor, creating monuments that celebrated the heroic human spirit. In 1933, as a key member of the Soviet-German Pamir Expedition, 26-year-old Evgeny accomplished one of the greatest feats in twentieth-century mountaineering. While teammates collapsed from severe altitude sickness and exhaustion on the unmapped slopes of Peak Communism (7,495 m, now Peak Ismail Somoni in Tajikistan), Evgeny pressed on alone into freezing gales. On September 3, 1933, he summited the peak solo, fixing a meteorological radio station on the roof of the Soviet Union. In 1936, Evgeny joined Vitaly on the second ascent of Khan Tengri (7,010 m). When severe frostbite crippled his teammates on the descent, Evgeny shouldered superhuman burdens, breaking trail and carrying injured companions through blizzards down the Inylchek Glacier to safety. During World War II, Evgeny trained Soviet mountain warfare troops in the Caucasus. He tragically passed away in Moscow on March 24, 1948, honored as one of the bravest mountaineers in Soviet history.

Russia🏔️ 1 Peak

Killar Khashirov

Killar Khashirov was born in the late 18th century in the northern foothills of the Caucasus in Kabardia (modern-day Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia). Renowned throughout the Baksan and Malka river valleys as an intrepid hunter, horseman, and mountain scout intimately familiar with high alpine terrain, Khashirov possessed exceptional physiological resilience and natural route-finding instinct. In the summer of 1829, General Georgi Emmanuel, commander of the Russian Caucasus Line, organized an ambitious scientific expedition sponsored by the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences to ascend Mount Elbrus. The expedition included distinguished European scientists: physicist Heinrich Lenz, astronomer Adolph Theodor Kupffer, botanist Carl Anton von Meyer, and zoologist Édouard Ménétries. General Emmanuel recruited local Circassian and Balkar mountain hunters to guide the caravan through treacherous glacial moraines. On July 22 (July 10 Old Style), 1829, a summit assault team set out from a high camp at 3,800 metres. As the thin air, biting cold, and steep volcanic ice exhausted the European scientists and Russian soldiers, one by one they turned back. Only Killar Khashirov pressed upward alone through the blinding glacial glare. In the afternoon, while the expedition watched through telescopes from base camp, Khashirov reached the summit of Elbrus East Peak at 5,621 metres. He placed a stone on the summit crater rim and brought back a specimen of volcanic rock to General Emmanuel. For this extraordinary pioneer feat, Khashirov was awarded a reward of 400 silver rubles and immortalized as the very first conqueror of Europe's highest mountain.

Russia🏔️ 1 Peak

Nikolai Korzhenevsky

Nikolai Leopoldovich Korzhenevsky was born on February 18, 1879, in Vitebsk Governorate and dedicated his entire adult life to the geographical and glaciological exploration of Central Asia. Between 1903 and 1928, Korzhenevsky led eleven arduous scientific expeditions into the uncharted ranges of the Pamirs, mapping more than seventy glaciers, discovering the Trans-Alay crests, and assembling the first comprehensive Catalogue of Glaciers of Central Asia. His most celebrated discovery occurred during his 1910 expedition along the Muksu River valley and Fortambek Glacier, where he sighted a massive, snow-covered pyramid towering above the surrounding ridges. Korzhenevsky measured its elevation at over seven thousand metres and named it Peak Korzhenevskaya after his wife, companion, and expedition photographer Evgenia Korzhenevskaya. His meticulous cartography and photographic documentation laid the scientific foundation for all subsequent Soviet Pamir mountaineering.

Russia🏔️ 2 Peaks

Vitaly Abalakov

Vitaly Mikhaylovich Abalakov was born on January 13, 1906, in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russian Empire. Raised near the towering granite spires of the Krasnoyarsk Stolby nature reserve, Vitaly and his younger brother Evgeny developed into formidable rock climbers from boyhood. Trained as a mechanical engineer at the Moscow Mendeleev Institute, Vitaly combined relentless athletic power with an extraordinary inventive mind. In 1934, Vitaly led the first Soviet ascent of Peak Lenin (7,134 m) in the Pamirs. Two years later, in 1936, Vitaly and Evgeny conquered Khan Tengri (7,010 m). On the descent, trapped in a blizzard, the team endured horrific frostbite; Vitaly lost thirteen fingers and toes, as well as part of his foot. Defying doctors who insisted he would never climb again, Vitaly engineered custom prosthetics, orthopedic boots, and training apparatus, returning to the highest levels of Soviet mountaineering. In 1956, at age 50, Vitaly led the triumphant Spartak expedition that achieved the maiden first ascent of Peak Pobeda (7,439 m), the most lethal and northernmost 7,000-metre peak in the world. Vitaly's greatest enduring contribution to global climbing was his invention of the Abalakov Thread (V-thread)—an anchor drilled through solid ice with a tubular screw and threaded with webbing—which remains the universal standard for ice abseiling worldwide. He died on May 26, 1986, universally recognized as a titan of world alpine history.