How MAI graduate discovers new ridges of Pamir

There are people who discover new continents, seas, islands and mountain peaks. Graduate of MAI, chairman of the itinerary commission of MAI tour club, traveler Sergey Romanenkov belongs to this kind of people. This summer he spent 37 days exploring yet undiscovered mountain ridges and peaks of Pamir.

– I come to Tajikistan with great pleasure, people are very hospitable there. We spent the night in Pamir more than once as honored guests in local residents’ homes. When you go down to the valley tired after the journey, and you don't have the strength to put up a tent and cook dinner, you can be sure that in any house you will be accepted for the night and fed. We exchange contacts with the owners, start communicating and are happy to have them as guests in Moscow when they come," says Sergey Romanenkov.

Sergey is an entrepreneur, but mountains, sports and travel play great role in his life. He is the master of sports in sports tourism, a “snow leopard” (the unspoken title of mountaineers), a five-time champion of Russia in sports tourism and a world champion in sports tourism.

On the risk.ru website his team became the winner of the Crystal Peak award in the nominations "best hike of the year" and "best ascent".

In the MAI sports tour club, where Sergey once received his education, he is the chairman of the route commission, with which each tour group coordinates its hike so that it is safe. The athlete is also engaged in ski tourism, making expeditions to the winter high mountains or to the Arctic (Svalbard Island, the Arctic, the Kara Sea, the winter Pamir, etc.).

The road to Pamir

Sergey Romanenkov has been to Tajikistan more than once and is a little familiar with the local Tajik climber and pilot Shams Kakhorov, and reports on hikes and descriptions of routes of the Dushanbe mountain tourist Alexander Rzhepakovsky, who traveled along and across Pamir, helped Sergey a lot in his hikes.

Romanenkov went to Pamir in winter and in summer.

His team crossed the winter Pamir for the first time from East to West in 2011, starting the route from the village of Murghab, through the frozen Sarez Lake, and descending to the Fedchenko glacier. Along the way, they climbed the Peak of Soviet Officers - the highest point of the eastern Pamir of the Murghab district - and the Peak of Independence (the Peak of the Revolution).

In the same campaign, they visited the Kyrgyz Pamir, visited the Alai Valley and climbed Lenin Peak on the border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

And the difficult summer hike was in 2014, with the ascent of Ozodi Peak (Evgenia Korzhenevskaya’s) and the traverse of Ismoil Somoni Peak (Peak of Communism).

The first place in Tajikistan, where Sergey came as a student 18 years ago, was the legendary Fan Mountains. The road itself became a small five-day train journey from Moscow, through Astrakhan to Tajikistan.

– Many guys then visited Central Asia for the first time and saw the beautiful Dushanbe! - Sergey recalls. – And after visiting the Fan Mountains, we went to Penjikent, and then to Samarkand, seeing Muslim shrines. It was great! First I brought souvenirs: caps, wooden backgammon, Asian knives, but now there are so many of them that I don't buy them.

The traveler likes to take pictures. And this is another reason for his love for the mountains, untouched by man. The Pamir campaign of 2022 was long and lengthy, but the team had been in similar areas, and everyone knew that they would reach the goal.

It was a serious strain on the body, and for 37 days of the campaign, the participants lost weight from 7 to 12 kg each. Not only fat, but also muscles, since the amount of food taken was not enough for the body.

After each such hike, a two- to three-week recovery period and re-climatization are necessary, and then the usual training regime - in between hikes it is important to do sports and rock climbing, and run marathons.

Mountains are like a drug

Sergey Romanenkov answers citing of the famous German climber Reinhold Messner: "Because they exist!" to the question why he loves mountains. For him, mountains are a drug that gives a life full of positive emotions and communication with like-minded people.

– Mountains are good because they bring brightness to urban life, – Sergey shares. – During the month of the expedition, you have time to miss home-cooked food, a soft bed and other amenities.

Sergey Romanenkov never thinks about possible injuries and that he may not return from a hike one day, but he realizes what the risks are.

Passion for the unknown

Mountain tourists are attracted by white spots on the map — unexplored places. Such places are rare, but there are peaks, mountain valleys, and untrodden ridges, and the more difficult the place, the more interesting it is to look for a safe and feasible route. In the "commercial mountains" (in Tajikistan — the peaks of Ozodi and Ismoil Somoni), often visited by tourists, there are ready-made alpine camps with guides at the foot, and, to Romanenkov, this is not so interesting.

– In such places, the ascents are difficult, and the weather can be different, but someone has already hung ropes for you, trampled a path to the top, pitched a tent. It's hard to feel like a real tourist," explains Sergey. – And my team has climbed four new peaks this year, which are not visited by anyone, and these are great emotions: you are the first to see such beauty! And 100-200 years ago, when the Arctic and Antarctica, remote islands and continents were being discovered, it was possible to be the first there, but now we got only mountains.

Climbing to the top, described and photographed by someone, is psychologically easier, and with the first ascent you never know what lies ahead. According to Sergey, we should try to foresee everything and get ready for any situation. And if it didn't work out - come back in a couple of years with a different outfit and try again.

– I always plan big routes, which, as we joke, are visible on the globe. The thread of the Pamir crossing at 500 km is clearly visible on the map! – says Sergey. – In the winter of 2015, we crossed Kamchatka from North to South, walking 700 km on skis, last year we were in winter on the Putorana plateau (north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory), where a very harsh and beautiful winter with frozen waterfalls. The air temperature was about -40 degrees, and we walked a route 600 km long. We give names to new passes and peaks, and these are our little discoveries.

Sergey Romanenkov visited the Alps, the Arctic, the Caucasus, Kamchatka, the Tien Shan, the Alps and the Pamirs. He dreams of visiting the Andes, Transbaikalia, Eastern Siberia, the Himalayas and Alaska and conquering the peak of more than 8 thousand meters.

Mountain tourism by inheritance

Sergey Romanenkov's parents, masters of sports in mountain tourism, regularly took their children hiking from infancy. And now Sergey and his wife Nastya go to the mountains with their children, and they met each other once in the Caucasus mountains. They take their son Petya (12 years old) and daughter Katya (9 years old) on simple hikes, and do it every year.

– We did not have any fears that the mountains could be dangerous for children, since by the time of their birth we were already experienced tourists-athletes, - explains Sergey. – We were not afraid of the weather, difficult terrain, or anything else. With the first-born Petya, we first went out into the forest with an overnight stay in a tent when he was only two weeks old. It was summer, the baby was born healthy, and there was no reason for concern.

Today, Sergey Romanenkov's tourist life is divided into sports expeditions (more than a month) with complex routes, with the intersection of geographical objects and ridges, and trekking routes with children. At first, children were carried to the mountains from 3-4 months in ergos. Such carrying backpacks are convenient: the child sits behind his mother and enjoys the beauty of nature.

– We and our friends have a rule: no sports while hiking with children! The main goal is to have a good time in nature, so that everyone has fun, and the children play with each other. If something goes wrong, you just need to change the route," Sergey explains.

In hiking, children learn from an early age to overcome difficulties, help their parents, organize their life (sawing firewood, putting up a tent, cooking, etc.), which makes them independent in urban life.

During such hikes, sports tourists visit regions with simple mountains, but unique nature, waterfalls, canyons, forests, lakes, as well as cities. Sergey and Nastya's children have already seen the cities of Italy, Armenia, Turkey and Georgia, but they have not been to Central Asia yet.

In general, it is not cheap to be a tourist-climber, but sports tourists prefer to spend their holidays this way. They save money and prepare for it for a whole year to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and do what they love.

Sergey Romanenkov is the ambassador of "Sport Marathon" store and receives part of the equipment for free. You can earn money on tourism and mountaineering by organizing mountain hikes, but this kind of work is not suitable for everyone. It will definitely not suit a family man, Romanenkov believes.