Friendship on High Mountain

Alexei Bolotov (49), a Russian.  He tried Lhotse without supplemental oxygen this season, which ends up with unsuccessful.  

Spending one night with him at the last camp (7890m) we become friends.  Continuous snow-shower onto the one-person tent we two had barely been able to take pieces of nap.  Although I greatly appreciate the Polish leader who lent me the tent, which made by his own company and which be without a water-proof cover, this leads into a difficult situation, in which it snowed inside of the tent overnight.  What I was quite surprised was his ability by which he made naps inside of the snowing tent with his thin pants.

Alexei tried twice the summit bid, both finalized unsuccessful, while he climbed up to 200 meters near the top.  It was too cold to climb to the summit without additional oxygen as well as fixed rope.

Myself and Alexei Bolotov.

I fortunately had a time to visit him at a hotel in Kathmandu he stayed after arriving back from the mountain, and enjoyed a couple cups of beer.  Maybe we can see on another mountain in the future.

Later, I have found that he is one of the famous climbers among Russians, climbed 11 peaks among the 14 eight-thousanders and participated in the expeditions including climbings the west face of Makalu (8463m) in 1999 as well as the north face of Jannu in 2003, the climbing praised as recipient for the Piolet' d'Or 2005.