The world has lost a Legend. The loss of Alexey Bolotov on Everest yesterday serves as a sad and poignant reminder, to all of us, that the mountains don’t care who you are or how much experience you bring into this game. It is important to know that Alexey wasn’t just the average Joe in the climbing scene. He took part in a string of well publicized and outstanding expeditions of the highest level, but two of these especially stand out for me. The Russian ascent of Jannu’s North Face [“The Wall of Shadows”] in 2004 redefined big wall climbing in the Himalayas. A 3,200m line through the centre of the face, graded “ABO”. He was also a member of the team of Russian legends, and one of the summiteers, that put a new line up the Direct West Face of K2 in 2007; probably the most difficult climb in the last two decades. Most of us can’t even begin to fathom the outstanding nature of climbs like these.
The world has lost a Legend.