Volcanic Seven Summits Archives - James Stone (clach liath)

Updated list of Volcanic Seven Summiters – January 2019

29th January 2019 by James Stone Leave a Comment

Following my last blog on January 2019’s Sidley expedition, this blog updates the list of those who have now completed the Volcanic Seven Summits.

There are now 19 climbers on the list. Five are women and 11 have also climbed one or other (or both) versions of the seven summits.

Kilimanjaro summit - one of the Volcanic Seven Summits — Kilimanjaro summit

For this list I have now omitted the date of the first summit as I am not sure of the usefulness of this information. I have also added a completion number now that the numbers are increasing. With the last Sidley expedition three people completed the volcanic Seven Summits. So I have noted these as 17^th equal rather than seeking to give any of them preference over the other.

I am aware of a number of people who have just one more volcano to climb. For most, this is Mount Sidley. But I imagine that I am unaware of others who are close to finishing. If anyone reading this blog has any information on those others I would be glad to have it. Likewise if there are any errors or omissions in the list please let me know. I am always happy to correct these.

The V7S challenge becomes more popular. The identification of the highest volcanoes on each continent was probably first published in the internet by Amar Andalkar on his ski mountaineering and climbing site back in 1999. This site is still a good source of information though it has not been updated in recent times.

As a result the challenge is being marketed as such by leading operators such as Jagged Globe, Adventure Peaks, Seven Summits Club and Furtenbach Adventures. I can foresee others jumping on the bandwagon though it is likely always to be less popular than the Seven Summits which has seen over 400 people complete.

The List

	Climber, nationality and age at completion	Date of Final Summit	Final summit
1.	Mario Trimeri (Italy) (58)	24^th January 2011	Mount Sidley
	Crina Popescu (Romania) (16)	24^th January 2011	Mount Sidley
3.	Vyechaslav Adrov (Russia) (50)	18^th January 2013	Mount Sidley
4.	Aleks Abramov (Russia) (47)	13^th September 2013	Mount Giluwe
5.	Olga Rumyantseva (Russia) (36)	9^th December 2013	Ojos del Salado
6.	Vitaliy Simonovic (Russia) (42)	19^th December 2013	Ojos del Salado
7.	Francois Bernard (Fr) (49)	17^th January 2014	Mount Sidley
8.	Sophie Cairns (UK) (32)	10^th June 2014	Elbrus
9.	Paul Nicholson (Canada) (50)	5^th December 2014	Ojos del Salado
10.	Liana Chabdarova (Russia) (28)	12^th January 2015	Ojos del Salado
11.	Andrey Filkov (Russia) (49)	16^th September 2015	Damavand
12.	James Stone (UK) (59)	14^th January 2017	Mount Sidley
13.	Daniel Bull (Australia) (36)	27^th April 2017	Ojos del Salado
14.	Katie Sarah (Australia) (49)	14^th January 2018	Mount Sidley
15.	David Hamilton (UK) (56)	10^th February 2018	Ojos del Salado
16.	Theodore (Ted) Fairhurst (Canada) (71)	9^th December 2018	Ojos del Salado
17	Sándor (Sanya) Tóth (Hungary) (41)	15^th January 2019	Mount Sidley
	Satyarup Siddhanta (India) (35)	15^th January 2019	Mount Sidley
	Vladislav Lachkaryev (Russia) (42)	15^th January 2019	Mount Sidley

Aleks Abramov, Vitaliy Simonovic, Dan Bull, Ted Fairhurst and Satyarup Siddhanta have also completed the seven continental summits (both Carstenz and Kosciuszko versions).

Mario Trimeri, François Bernard, David Hamilton and Vladislav Lachkaryev have completed the seven continental summits (Carstenz version).

Andrey Filkov and Katie Sarah have completed the seven continental summits (Kosciuszko version).

Mount Sidley ascents – update

18th January 2019 by James Stone Leave a Comment

This is my annual update of Mount Sidley ascents. ALE trip number 7 succeeded in putting two guides and three clients on the top of the volcano. All three clients completed the Volcanic Seven Summits with this ascent.

A previous blog highlighted two of them.

This year, due to the small size of the team, a Twin Otter was used for transport to the mountain. A second plane followed part of the way so a fuel cache could be left. The Twin Otter with the team was unable this year to land in the crater. Apparently snow conditions in the crater had changed since last year so a base camp was set up on the ice sheet at the foot of the mountain.

In another change from previous trips (at least when base camp had been on the ice sheet), high camp was set up via two carries from base camp and sleds were not used. The first carry was undertaken in what became marginal conditions. The team was then confined to base camp for two days whilst a storm blew through.

Once the storm had gone they were able to make the second carry and the top camp was set up. After an “overnight” stay the group made the ascent. Although the modelled forecasts looked promising, the weather was at first cloudy, then the sun came out and then (as the crater was being reached) it became cloudy again. The wind also picked up and it became very cold.

Though Sidley is not a very technical mountain, it is a very cold one. They were able to spend no more than about 15 minutes on top. They summited at about 1am GMT on 16th January (10pm on 15th January Chilean time).

The team was then able to make quick progress down back to top camp.

Satyarup Siddhanta was kind enough to call me using his satellite phone once they had settled back at top camp. The three clients all seemed very cheerful, if tired. In the meantime, back in India, there was a large group following the climb with a few Facebook Live events occurring.

The descent back down to the Twin Otter went without incident. But the return to Union Glacier had a twist to it. When they reached the fuel cache the weather there and at Union Glacier prevented further progress. So they were pinned down for 24 hours at that point. They had to set up camp and Satyarup’s description of the toilet arrangements probably do not bear repeating on a public forum! That’s Antarctica for you.

As I write this, the team are now back safely at Union Glacier with a flight back to Punta Arenas scheduled for later today. Even after this trip fewer than 50 people have ever climbed Mount Sidley.

Congratulations to Satyarup Siddhanta, Sanya Tóth and Vladislav Lachkarev.

I have produced an up to date list below. This should be read together with the commentary in my previous blog here.

MOUNT SIDLEY SUMMIT LIST

(as at 18^th January 2019)

	Date	Name	Group	Nationality
1.	11/01/1990	Bill Atkinson	Panter Group	New Zealand
2.	12/01/1990	Bill McIntosh	Panter Group	USA
3.	12/01/1990	Kurt Panter	Panter Group	USA
	21/01/1994	Bill McIntosh (second ascent)	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
4.	21/01/1994	Nelia Dunbar	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
5.	21/01/1994	Thom Wilch	Dunbar/ McIntosh	USA
6.	21/01/1994	Tony Teeling	Dunbar/ McIntosh	NZ
7.	23/01/2011	Scott Woolums	ALE #1	USA
8.	23/01/2011	Aleks Abramov	ALE #1	Russia
9.	23/01/2011	Crina “Coco” Popescu	ALE #1	Romania
10.	23/01/2011	Mario Trimeri	ALE #1	Italy
11.	01/01/2012	Mike Roberts	Roberts Group	New Zealand
12.	01/01/2012	Jennifer Erxleben	Roberts Group	USA
13.	01/01/2012	John Paul O’Donnell	Roberts Group	Ireland
14.	01/01/2012	Andrew Lloyd	Roberts Group	USA
15.	18/01/2013	David Hamilton	ALE #2	UK (Scotland)
16.	18/01/2013	Olga Rumyantseva	ALE #2	Russia
17.	18/01/2013	Vyacheslav Adrov	ALE #2	Russia
18.	18/01/2013	Vitaly Simonovich	ALE #2	Russia
19.	18/01/2013	Paul Nicholson	ALE #2	Canada
20.	28/12/2013	Dylan Taylor	ALE #3	USA
21.	28/12/2013	Andre Filkov	ALE #3	Russia
22.	28/12/2013	Ilya Bykov	ALE #3	Russia
23.	28/12/2013	Sophie Cairns	ALE #3	UK (England)/ Hong Kong
24.	28/12/2013	Liana Chabdarova	ALE #3	Russia
25.	17/01/2014	Rob Smith	ALE #4	UK (Northern Ireland)
26.	17/01/2014	Jean Frederik Paulsen	ALE #4	Sweden
27.	17/01/2014	Francois Michel Bernard	ALE #4	France
28.	17/01/2014	Christian de Marliave	ALE #4	France
29.	17/01/2014	John Dodelande	ALE #4	France
30.	17/01/2014	Joachim Marte	ALE #4	Austria
31.	17/01/2014	Philipp Lehner	ALE #4	Austria
32.	17/01/2014	Alexander Svaetichin	ALE #4	Sweden
	17/01/2014	Scott Woolums (second ascent)	ALE #4	USA
33.	14/01/2017	Tre-C Dumais	ALE #5	USA
34.	14/01/2017	Christoph Hoebenreich	ALE #5	Austria
35.	14/01/2017	James Stone	ALE #5	UK (England)
36.	14/01/2017	Dan Bull	ALE #5	Australia
37.	14/01/2017	Jarryd Commerford	ALE #5	USA/UK (England)
38.	14/01/2017	Robbi Malandreniotis	ALE #5	UK (England)/Greece
39.	14/01/2017	Michael Guggolz	ALE #5	Germany
40.	14/01/2018	Nate Opp	ALE #6	USA
41.	14/01/2018	Theodore Fairhurst	ALE #6	Canada
42.	14/01/2018	Katie Sarah	ALE #6	Australia
43.	14/01/2018	Cheryl Bart	ALE #6	Australia
44.	14/01/2018	Nikki Bart	ALE #6	Australia
45.	15/01/2019	Maria Paz (Pachi) Ibarra	ALE #7	Chile
46.	15/01/2019	Fred Alldredge	ALE #7	USA
47.	15/01/2019	Satyarup Siddhanta	ALE #7	India
48.	15/01/2019	Sándor (Sanya) Tóth	ALE #7	Hungary
49.	15/01/2019	Vladislav Lachkarev	ALE #7	Russia

Two more Volcanic Seven Summits hopefuls

30th December 2018 by James Stone Leave a Comment

It’s that time of the year again when various people will be preparing for their expedition to Mount Sidley. Mount Sidley, by way of reminder, is the highest volcano in Antarctica and therefore one of the Volcanic Seven Summits.

As I have previously blogged, the Volcanic Seven Summits challenge is becoming more popular and this year’s expedition is likely to see at least two more people complete the challenge. Up to now Russians and those from predominantly English speaking nations have dominated.

We may now be starting to see a change in this.

The first of the two to whom I refer is Satyarup Siddhanta. He is a 35 year old Indian who currently lives in Bangalore but is originally from West Bengal. He is a software engineer. Satya has been focused on the Volcanic Seven Summits since completing the continental Seven Summits on Mount Vinson in December 2017. So he has made quick work of the remaining volcanic summits, even climbing Kilimanjaro for a second time in June 2018.

Assuming he summits Sidley he will become the first Indian to complete the Volcanic Seven Summits. He will also be the youngest person to do the Volcanic Seven Summits/Seven Summits combination, beating Australian Dan Bull. He will also be only the eighth person to have done the Volcanic Seven Summits together with the Carstenz version of the Seven Summits.

Satyarup Siddhanta on Pico de Orizaba - December 2018 — Satyarup Siddhanta on Pico de Orizaba – December 2018 (copyright Satyarup Siddhanta – used with permission)

So much for the stats. From a UK perspective it is interesting to see how much interest the press in India are taking in Satya’s endeavours. There is a large degree of national pride which is rarely seen in the UK – or perhaps Satya just has a good PR machine behind him. But a Google search reveals numerous articles in both national and local press on each climb he undertakes.

His sixth volcano was Pico de Orizaba in Mexico, which he summited earlier this month. That climb was quite an epic. Snow conditions on the Jamapa glacier, which covers much of the upper northern reaches of the mountain, were a bit lean. On the descent rockfall struck him and his guide and his guide broke his pelvis. Satya escaped with fairly superficial injuries. A third member of the group was unhurt.

Another interesting fact about Satya is that he was, unwittingly, the centre of a controversy regarding an Everest ascent. He had shared his Everest summit photos. During the same 2016 season, a husband and wife (who were also Indian as it happens), claimed an ascent of Everest. They photoshopped an image of the wife on to Satya’s photo as “evidence” of their ascent. The husband did the same on someone else’s photo. The couple were soon rumbled. Nepal imposed a 10 year ban on climbing on the couple.

The true photo of Satyarup Siddhanta on Everest

The second person is Sándor (Sanya) Tóth, a 41 year old Hungarian. Sanya started out by climbing Kilimanjaro in January 2016 with his sixth volcano being Mount Giluwe in August 2017. So Sanya is hoping to be the first Hungarian to complete the challenge.

Sanya Tóth on Elbrus - August 2016 — Sanya Tóth on Elbrus – August 2016 (copyright Sanya Tóth – used with permission)

Even the Hungarian press is taking some interest in what Sanya is looking to achieve. Like me he has not attempted the Seven Summits. He is also not a professional mountaineer. He is a stonemason by trade and married with kids.

Best of luck to the two of them and the others on the Sidley trip. The weather in Antarctica has been a little abnormal during the early part of the season. ALE only managed one flight to and from Union Glacier during two weeks in the middle of this month. Whilst delays of two or three days are common, this is unusual. Anyone contemplating journeys into the depths of the continent needs to have flexible arrangements!

Another Volcanic Seven Summits Completer!

13th December 2018 by James Stone Leave a Comment

I am able to report on another person who has completed the Volcanic Seven Summits. That person is Ted Fairhurst from Canada.

Regular readers of my blog will recall that I mentioned in February that Ted was having difficulties with the weather on Ojos del Salado. Ultimately the weather defeated him at that time.

But Ted has been back to Chile and he managed to reach the top of Ojos on 9^th December 2018. In so doing, Ted has become the oldest person to complete the Volcanic Seven Summits and also the oldest person to complete the Volcanic Seven Summits/Seven Summits combination at the age of 71. Yes 71! He is also the second Canadian to complete the Volcanic Seven Summits after Paul Nicholson.

Ted Fairhurst on Ojos del Salado (c) Ted Fairhurst (used with permission)

Here is a short video he took at the summit.

Posted by Theodore Fairhurst on Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Ted’s original hope was to climb all seven of the volcanoes whilst he was 70. He started out by climbing Elbrus for a second time (it is also one of the Seven Summits) on 2^nd June 2017. So he has actually climbed all seven volcanoes in around 18 months.

So I have updated the list of completers and this is set out below.

We can anticipate at least two more completers in January when ALE run their trip to Mount Sidley. I will post another blog or two about this trip later in the month.

[Note that this list has since been updated here]

Climber, nationality and age at completion	Date of final summit	Final summit	Date of first summit
Mario Trimeri (Italy) (58)	24^th January 2011	Mount Sidley	23^rd August 2005
Crina Popescu (Romania) (16)	24^th January 2011	Mount Sidley	23^rd July 2008
Vyechaslav Adrov (Russia) (50)	18^th January 2013	Mount Sidley	8^th January 2010
Aleks Abramov (Russia) (47)	13^th September 2013	Mount Giluwe	3^rd May 1991
Olga Rumyantseva (Russia) (36)	9^th December 2013	Ojos del Salado	14^th August 1994
Vitaliy Simonovic (Russia) (42)	19^th December 2013	Ojos del Salado	26^th February 2012
François Bernard (Fr) (49)	17^th January 2014	Mount Sidley	Not known
Sophie Cairns (UK) (32)	10^th June 2014	Elbrus	28^th December 2013
Paul Nicholson (Canada) (50)	5^th December 2014	Ojos del Salado	7^th August 2005
Liana Chabdarova (Russia) (28)	12^th January 2015	Ojos del Salado	29^th August 2013
Andrey Filkov (Russia) (49)	16^th September 2015	Damavand	2^nd May 2007
James Stone (UK) (59)	14^th January 2017	Mount Sidley	23^rd February 2014
Daniel Bull (Australia) (36)	27^thApril 2017	Ojos del Salado	6^thMarch 2006
Katie Sarah (Australia) (49)	14^th January 2018	Mount Sidley	3^rd September 2010
David Hamilton (UK) (56)	10^th February 2018	Ojos del Salado	April 1992
Ted Fairhurst (Canada) (71)	9^th December 2018	Ojos del Salado	25^th January 2012

Aleks Abramov, Vitaliy Simonovic, Dan Bull and Ted Fairhurst have also completed the seven continental summits (both Carstenz and Kosciuszko versions).

Mario Trimeri, François Bernard and David Hamilton have completed the seven continental summits (Carstenz version).

Andrey Filkov and Katie Sarah have completed the seven continental summits (Kosciuszko version).