UKC

Remembering accomplished Ukrainian mountaineer and climber Alexandr Zakolodniy, who died defending his country in Soledar on January 21.

Alexandr Zakolodniy had experience of hostile environments and encounters. In 2013, he descended from an acclimatisation rotation on Nanga Parbat and arrived at Base Camp to witness the aftermath of a massacre. Taliban-affiliated militants had shot dead eleven people, three of whom were Zakolodniy's Ukrainian teammates from his hometown, Kharkiv. A decade later, Zakolodniy would confront terrorism once again - this time closer to home, as he defended his country from invading Russian forces.

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A truly heartbreaking article. Brilliantly written and important. Thanks, Natalie and team - UKC at its best.

A very moving article and a sad reminder of the cost of the war to Ukraine.

Since it's an obituary, shouldn't voting buttons be removed? In case any more odd downvotes 

(Very well written article btw...  sounds like we're all a bit poorer for that loss)

Thank you (from a Polish long-time reader) for this article. Many thousands of people died defending their homeland from fascist ruSSian invaders. People who had normal lives, jobs, hobbies, people who could have fled, but remained.

The war in Ukraine is unfortunately a non-existant subject in vast majority of climbing media and there are still lots of useful idiots (those more visible are surely "influenced") for example defending right of ruSSian sportsmen to participate in competitions..

Here is an article with nice photos showing how "apolitical" is sport in ruSSia.

https://wspinanie.pl/2023/04/sport-jest-poza-polityka/

Again, thank you very much and - as the Roman Cato used to say - f..k cowardly and degenerated ruSSia.

Very moving article thank you. 

I still can't believe that when I come back to Kharkiv from England, I won't meet Sasha there... it's just impossible...
His wife Olha became a widow twice.

I'm crying again...

I took a kid climbing at our wall who is from Kharkiv and used to train at that wall. She was a super keen young climber. I have lost touch with her mum, I hope she managed to keep getting her girl climbing, it was the thing she most wanted to do once they got here.

Such a sad story. 

a rough and moving article. many thanks, natalie & team!

it’s wild, in a way, how even if you’re purely a boulderer, you get used to certain conversations around loss in rock climbing. even though it mainly affects people who climb big walls, free solo, go on expeditions, are outright alpinists, and so on. there’s still that feeling of kinship – they’re one of us. and while the circumstances and decisions leading up to their death have no direct analogue in our lives, we know how some of our decisions seem completely outlandish to others. it must have been a bit like that, for them.

but this hits different. it has all the same elements of kinship, but none of our ways of making it make sense work. he was one of us, senselessly caught up in the violence a too powerful madman’s ego trip imposed on his life from far away.

Yes, on reading this the situation in Ukraine really hit home for me – it’s desperately sad. Again thanks for publishing this important story. 

A powerful article that rather puts everything else into perspective. Thank you.

Long live Ukraine