The Snow Leopard award () was a Soviet

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

award, given to highly skilled mountain climbers. It is still recognized in the

Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...

. To receive this award, a climber was required to summit all five peaks within the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

with elevation greater than .

The peaks

Peak Korzhenevskoi Pamir from Borodkina ridge at sunset

The Snow Leopard peaks include: #

Ismoil Somoni Peak Ismoil Somoni Peak ( Tajik: Қуллаи Исмоили Сомонӣ, ''Qulla-i Ismō‘il-i Sōmōnî/Qullaji Ismojili Somonī''; fa, قلّهٔ اسماعیل سامانی; russian: Пик Исмои́ла Сомони́, r=Pik Ismoíla Somon ...

Jengish Chokusu Jengish Chokusu ( ky, Жеңиш чокусу, , ; en, Tomur Peak, zh, s=托木尔峰, t=托木爾峰; russian: Пик Победы, ''Pik Pobedy'', ) is the highest mountain in the Tian Shan mountain system at . It lies on the Kyrgyzstan– C ...

Ibn Sina Peak Lenin Peak or Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Peak ( ky, Ленин Чокусу, ''Lenin Choqusu'', لەنىن چوقۇسۇ; russian: Пик Ленина, ''Pik Lenina''; tg, қуллаи Ленин , ''qulla‘i Lenin/qullaji Lenin'', renamed қулла� ...

Peak Korzhenevskaya Peak Ozodi (russian: Пик Озоди), (until 2020 Korzhenevskoi Peak, russian: Пик Корженевской) is the third highest peak in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. It is one of the five " Snow Leopard Peaks" in the territory of the ...

Khan Tengri Khan Tengri is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range. It is on the China—Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan tripoint, east of lake Issyk-Kul, Issyk Kul. Its geologic elevation is , but its glacial icecap rises to . For this reason, in mounta ...

In Tajikistan's

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...

there are three Snow Leopard peaks,

Ismail Samani Peak Ismoil Somoni Peak ( Tajik: Қуллаи Исмоили Сомонӣ, ''Qulla-i Ismō‘il-i Sōmōnî/Qullaji Ismojili Somonī''; fa, قلّهٔ اسماعیل سامانی; russian: Пик Исмои́ла Сомони́, r=Pik Ismoíla Somon ...

(formerly Communism Peak) ,

, and

(formerly

Lenin Peak Lenin Peak or Ibn Sina (Avicenna) Peak ( ky, Ленин Чокусу, ''Lenin Choqusu'', لەنىن چوقۇسۇ; russian: Пик Ленина, ''Pik Lenina''; tg, қуллаи Ленин , ''qulla‘i Lenin/qullaji Lenin'', renamed қулла� ...

) on the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border. In the

Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...

there are two Snow Leopard peaks,

(formerly Peak Pobeda) in Kyrgyzstan (divided by the border with China), and

on the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. Khan Tengri's geologic elevation is but its glacial cap rises to . For this reason, it is considered a peak. In order of difficulty, Peak Pobeda is by far the most difficult and dangerous, followed by Khan Tengri, Ismail Samani Peak, Peak Korzhenevskaya, and Lenin (Ibn Sina) Peak.

Recipients

There are more than 600 climbers, including 31 women, who have received this award between 1961 and 2012 (although not all of them completed the five peaks).

Records

Boris Korshunov Boris may refer to: People * Boris (given name), a male given name *:''See'': List of people with given name Boris * Boris (surname) * Boris I of Bulgaria (died 907), the first Christian ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, canonized after his d ...

(Russia) – nine times Snow Leopard (1981 – 2004) * Boris Korshunov (Russia) – last award at the age of 69 *

Andrzej Bargiel Andrzej Leszek Bargiel (; born April 18, 1988 in Rabka, Poland) is a Polish ski mountaineer, backcountry skier, mountain runner and climber. Raised in Łętownia, he is a three-time Polish ski mountaineering champion and held third place in the ...

(Poland) – all five ascents in 29 days 17 hours 5 minutes (time counted from leaving the Advanced Base Camp under Lenin Peak, 15 July 2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snow Leopard Award Mountaineering awards Soviet awards Mountaineering in the Soviet Union

The peaks

Recipients

Records

Further reading

References