A conversation with the Kazakh mountaineer attempting to summit Everest

As the Northern Hemisphere prepares for the summer months, April and May hold special significance for mountaineers before the weather gets too hot; this is because April and May are the most suitable times to climb the world's highest peaks above 7,000 and 8,000 meters. This April, a Kazakh Everest Team has already set out to help a Kazakh female mountaineer reach the summit of Mount Everest for the first time. Since the beginning of April, the team has started trekking at the foothills of the Himalayas for their Everest adventure and has set up camp at the Everest Base Camp.

The seven-person team, which is currently continuing its climbing expedition, is led by legendary Kazakh mountaineer and Major Maksut Zhumayev of the Special Operations Forces Mountain Training Center of the Kazakh Ministry of Defense. In addition to Maksut Zhumayev, the most famous Kazakh mountaineer who managed to become one of the 50 people to successfully climb all 14 of the world's mountain peaks over 8,000 meters, the team includes Kazakh parachutist and athlete Anar Burasheva. As we mentioned, the main goal of this adventure is to have Anar Burasheva reach the summit as the first female Kazakh mountaineer.

Burasheva believes that gender equality should be promoted in mountaineering, where women are just as capable as men of climbing the world's highest peaks. Among the achievements of Burasheva, who wants to be among the 799 women who have managed to climb Everest to date, are ascents to local peaks between 3,450 and 4,315 meters and the conquest of the 4,979-meter Talgar Peak. She has also participated in climbs such as the 4,809-meter Mont Blanc and the 5,895-meter Kilimanjaro. Anar Burasheva is also an experienced athlete; she has completed the 42-kilometer Thian Shan race, the 35-kilometer Tengri Ultra race, the Almaty Half Marathon, the 42-kilometer Irbis race, the 30-kilometer Red Planet race, the 42-kilometer Almaty Marathon, and the 60-kilometer Madeira Island Ultra Trail. She says that Everest will be a unique experience of concentration, willpower, and self-transcendence, stating, “I feel ready to complete this route. I believe that women in the modern world should conquer new territories and expand the boundaries of their own dreams and opportunities.”

I HAD ALSO MET HIM

I also had the opportunity to meet Maksut Zhumayev, the leader of the Kazakh team continuing the Everest Expedition. We met and took a photo together last March during the meeting of the International Ski Journalists Association (SCIJ) at the Shymbulak Ski Resort in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Zhumayev, born in 1977, is an agile and very successful athlete and mountaineer.

Zhumayev both shared his experiences with about 100 foreign journalists who met in Almaty and gave a presentation consisting of photos of his mountaineering adventures. I asked Zhumayev, who is known for climbing the world's 14 mountain peaks over 8,000 meters and is one of the 49 mountaineers to have achieved this, the following question: "As someone who climbs the peaks of mountains and knows these places closely, have you seen and witnessed the negative effects of global warming firsthand?"

Interestingly, Zhumayev said he did not believe that global warming had such a negative effect; according to him, what is happening is a temporary weather event and nature will overcome it.

Personally, I do not agree with Zhumayev's perspective; this view ignores the negative effects of global warming, but that is what he thinks. In the end, we will live and see, and I wish Zhumayev were right...

In the meantime, let us convey our best wishes to Maksut Zhumayev and Anar Burasheva on their way to Everest; I hope they complete this adventure successfully and return safe and sound.

As is known, Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world with its 8,850-meter summit. On Everest, where I also had the chance to trek to the 5,400-meter-high Everest Base Camp, weather conditions such as stormy winds, -50°C frosts, avalanches, rockfalls, ice cracks, and snowfall are very challenging. According to the Kazakh team's plan, the climb will take 12-16 hours, and the descent will take 6-8 hours.