Cherkasy in Himalayas
Ukrainian mountain climbers name Himalayan peak for Ukrainian town
A team of Ukrainian mountain climbers from Cherkasy oblast got to an unnamed Himalayan peak in Nepal in eight days, at an altitude of 5,963 meters above sea level. Their expedition was part of the long-term project “Cherkasy Flag on the Highest Mountains of the World.”
Says Viacheslav POLEZHAIKO, President of the Cherkasy Regional Alpinism and Mountaineering Federation: “We used a 3D virtual chart with all the peaks with names. In Nepal, we checked out the unnamed peaks that we could climb and name. We chose three peaks, but were told we couldn’t climb them because one was closed for religious reasons, the second one because it marked the borderline between Nepal and Tibet, and the third one was too dangerous. We were offered several peaks in the vicinity of Peak Ukraine. We got there and named it after Cherkasy.”
This calls for red tape, says Polezhaiko. Getting Peak Ukraine took a long time, with the Federation addressing a letter to the King of Nepal, signed by President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine. For the time being, Peak Cherkasy is only for the climbers’ community, for our media, and public debate.
After the name becomes common knowledge, documents will be composed, signed, and forwarded in due course. Another problem, Polezhaiko warns, is that topographic companies do not conduct research, and reprint charts with old place names.
As it is, the climbers’ team plans to climb mountain peaks every month, mounting the Cherkasy oblast flag on top of each one. The next point on their agenda is a 7,000-meter-high peak in Kyrgyzstan. Their project includes 24 mountain peaks. Some will be reached using the classical routes. Others will have to be conquered for the first time.
According to the veteran climbers, such projects are meant to get the younger generation interested in this sport, so they can live a better, more active kind of life. Besides the Flag of Cherkasy, there are also Donbas Coal and Coal Miners’ Peaks projects underway in Ukraine, along with the Lviv team’s “Ukrainian Heroes on the Highest Peaks of the World.”
