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Russian Everest team sounds off on doping
14:48 p.m. EST Feb 23, 2004
Perhaps the most exciting expedition on Everest this spring will be the Russians. A crack team will be attempting Everest via the center of the North Face.
Anna over at Mountain.ru talked to some of the teammates, whose names were just recently announced, about the climb. Yury Ermachek and Victor Volodin sounded off about the possible use of ‘dope’ or using drugs. Here’s what they had to say:
"..we as the Soviet people will reject any dope preparations. We will have necessary analysis...we will work supported exclusively by a factory, 'Crystal' (the famous Vodka factory in Russia). It is our military secret. Let other people be tormented how much the Russian can drink on the Northern Face of Everest."
And the funny thing is, these guys aren’t BS’ing either. They are going to Ama Dablam ahead of time to get well acclimatized and will be very ready for their new route on E. On the North Side base camp this is the tent to be in at night. There’ll no doubt be some guitars, many liters of Vodka, and perhaps an accordion if you are lucky. The Russians will be the hardest working team on the North Side and also the guys who know how to have the most fun!
Edward Myslovsky, the former President of Russian Mountaineering Federation, spoke to RussianClimb.com, "This team is really the national team of Russia. This is our third big Himalayan expedition - after two soviet expeditions in 1982 and 1989. I'm very proud of Victor Kozlov - his efforts in organizing the expedition are great!”
As for oxygen, the team plans to have it, and the decision hasn’t been made yet whether or not to use. The feeling we get from the team’s comments is that they’d rather not use it, but also realize they might have to use it and if told by the team’s leader to use it, they will.
This is a Russian dream team. There is previous Everest summiters, Golden Ice Axe winners, and many, many 8000m veterans. Koshelenko, who just made the first summit of Nuptse East will be on the team as well. The Russians also have a young 22 year old – Alexey Bukinich – Koshelenko pulled for him, and he made the team.
They’ll be setting off and plan to climb Ama Dablam in March for acclimatization. Once in Everest’s Base Camp the team will also have live television coverage on Russian TV. This will be the expedition to watch this spring.
The Russian state-sponsored team will be on the North side of Everest attempting a new route. The team is as follows.
Victor Kozlov (Moscow)- leader
Nickolay Cherny (Moscow)- senior coach
Serguey Shakuro (Novokuznetsk)- cameraman
Igor Borisenko (Moscow)- cameraman
Vladimir Kuptsov (Moscow)- photocorrespondent
Serguey Bytchkovsky (Yekaterinburg)- doctor
Eugeny Vinogradsky (Yekaterinburg)- climber
Yuri Ermachek (Yekaterinburg)- climber
Nickolay Zhilin (Yekaterinburg)- climber
Victor Bobok (Moscow)- climber
Victor Volodin (Moscow)- climber
Yuri Koshelenko (Rostov-Don)- climber
Andrew Mariev (Togliatti)- climber
Pawel Shabaline (Kirov)- climber
Iljas Tukhvatullin (Podolsk)- climber
Gleb Sokolov (Novosibirsk)- climber
Piotr Kuznetsov (Кrasnojarsk)- climber
Vladimir Arkhipov (Кrasnojarsk)- climber
Alexey Bukinitch (Sochi)- climber
Alexander Pjatnicyn (Rostov-Don)- coach
ExplorersWeb archive image of Yury Ermachek (on right), team member and Khan Tengri Base Camp director, showing the Westerners how things get done.
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