The Snow Leopard Peaks

The Snow Leopard Peaks

Eric Gilbertson and Andreas Frydensberg

July 2021 – Auguest 2023

There are five 7000m peaks in the former Soviet Union and they are collectively known as the Snow Leopard peaks. Since Soviet times mountaineers have worked on the peakbagging objective to climb all five peaks. If you climb all five you are recognized as a Snow Leopard, which was a great honor in Soviet times and is still so today.

The names of the peaks have changed over the years but the most commonly used names by mountaineers are Lenin, Khan Tengri, Pobeda, Korzhenevskaya, and Communisma. Pobeda is by far the hardest, even harder than K2, and mountaineers joke that becoming a Snow Leopard is 60% climbing Pobeda and 10% climbing each other peak.

The Snow Leopards peaks is a subset of the Highpoints of the ‘Stans, with three peaks country highpoints (Khan Tengri, Pobeda, and Communisma). The remaining two peaks, Korzhenevskaya and Lenin, are excellent acclimation peaks for the country highpoints. Thus, any mountaineer completing the Highpoints of the ‘Stans will likely also become a Snow Leopard mountaineer.

While there are only five peaks on the Snow Leopards list, climbing all five is still very difficult. As of 2023 around 550 people have completed the list of all five peaks.

Note: there are officially around 700 Snow Leopard mountaineers, but many of these finished during a period in the 1980s during a border dispute with China when Pobeda was removed from the list. Pobeda is by far the hardest peak on the list, so a distinction is made between completers with or without Pobeda. The official up-to-date list of completers is found at http://www.russianclimb.com/snowleopard/table.htm

Three of the peaks – Lenin, Khan Tengri, and Pobeda – are on country borders and are generally climbed from Kyrgyzstan, and the other two – Korzhenevskaya and Communisma – are completely within Tajikistan.

On August 14, with our ascent of Pik Communisma, Andreas and I completed the Snow Leopards list. I became the third American to finish (after William Garner and Randy Starrett in 1985) and Andreas became the first Dane to finish.

In September, after finishing our Highpoints of the ‘Stans project, we applied for the Snow Leopards award, but were rejected. The problem was with our ascent of Peak Pobeda. We climbed to the Central and East regions of the main summit. The snow leopards committee said we needed to climb to the West region for the ascent to count. They said the West region of the main summit was the highest point of Pobeda.

To argue our case that we reached the true summit of Pobeda, I conducted extensive research and analysis on all existing 11 elevation measurements of Pobeda, including two of my own measurements.

I concluded that the main summit of Pobeda is a 700m ridge with three key locations – East, Central and West. Each location has been highest or tied for highest in at least one measurement in at least one year. This is likely because the three locations are so close in elevation that yearly variation in snowpack depth and cornice formation determines the highest location in any given year, and that changes from year to year. I wrote up a technical document and submitted it to the committee.

I also discovered that another climber had climbed to the East and Central regions but not the west region, exactly as we had, and he was given the snow leopard award in 2014. I submitted this information to the committee.

The committee said they agreed with my analysis and conclusion, but that I still needed to reach the West region of the main summit because that is where Abalakov went on the first ascent. (This was incorrect since Abalakov actually went to the Central and East regions and never visited the West region). They said they would let the other climber keep the snow leopards award, but not give it to us.

I contacted several Russian mountaineering friends, who helped me draft an appeal letter to the Russian Mountaineering Federation. They also talked to members of the snow leopards committee in person at the annual Russian Mountainee

ring Federation awards gala in Moscow, Russia in late November.

They told me there exists a governing body that in fact supersedes the snow leopards committee. This body is composed of one member from each of the former Soviet Union countries, generally the president of that country’s mountaineering federation. If that body ruled that we should get the snow leopard award, then that would overrule the snow leopard committee decision.

One member of that committee was told about our situation, and told the snow leopards committee to change their ruling and give us the award. The day after the awards gala the committee officially changed its ruling and gave Andreas and me the snow leopards award.

Later, with help from Russian mountaineering friends, I compiled a detailed report of the first five historical ascents of Pobeda between 1956-1969. This showed the first ascent team led by Abalakov visited the Central and East regions, the second ascent team visited the East region, and the third ascent team visited the West and Central regions.

I compiled all the elevation analysis and historical research in a single document, found here: The True Summit Location of Peak Pobeda

List of the peaks and summit dates, in the order we climbed them:

1. Pik Lenin (7134m) – July 20, 2021

2. Khan Tengri (7010m) – August 1, 2021

3. Pik Pobeda (7439m) – August 9, 2021

4. Pik Korzhenevskaya (7105m) – August 6, 2023

5. Pik Communisma (7495m) – August 16, 2023