Lukashenko congratulated on election victory by Belarusian mountaineers from top of world’s highest volcano
Belarusian mountaneers Konstantin and Anastasia Lapko have climbed the highest volcano on the planet: Ojos del Salado. On February 6th, holding the Belarusian flag in their hands, they congratulated Aleksandr Lukashenko on winning the Presidential election from a height of 6,893m: ‘Dear Aleksandr Grigorievich, today, standing on the highest volcano of the planet, Ojos del Salado, we hasten to congratulate you on winning the election. Congratulations on your victory from our family and from the Belarusian Mountaineering Federation!’
In mountaineering there is no concept of conquering peaks, although the term ‘conquering’ is used everywhere in the media: in mountaineering you climb to the top and thank the mountain for allowing you to climb its peak and letting you go alive. The Lapko couple is sure to thank the Source of the Salt River, as the name of the highest volcano in the world and South America, Ojos del Salado, is translated from Spanish. If getting a chance, be sure to ask them if it’s true that the view of the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, is unforgettable.
There is not a single continent on our planet that does not have at least one volcano. Famous volcanologist Aleksandr Goncharov claims that there are volcanoes even in Belarus, only they have long been extinct and are so ancient that they are deeply buried in the earth’s crust. And how can volcanoes attract ordinary Belarusians in general? Not scientists, not volcanologists, but the most ordinary citizens, who, like everyone else, go to work every day, bring up their children and help their parents. It turns out they can.
As the Chairman of the Belarusian Mountaineering Federation proudly points out, the family of Konstantin and Anastasia Lapko is raising two sons. Anastasia works at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences as a senior researcher and is the winner of the 100 Ideas for Belarus national contest. Konstantin is a top manager of a large trading company. Meanwhile, volcanoes are present in this family like in no other family in our country. Konstantin and Anastasia are mountaineers and the first Belarusians to take part in the famous mountaineering challenge: the Volcanic Seven Summits. The essence of the challenge is to climb all the highest volcanoes of the continents. If the project is successfully completed, Anastasia and Konstantin Lapko will become the first Belarusians and the first married couple in the world who managed to do it.
They have now had six successful ascents of the highest volcanoes. They climbed Elbrus (5,642m) in 2017, Kilimanjaro (5,895m) in 2018, Iran’s Damavand (5,610m) in 2019, Mexico’s Orizaba (5,636m) in 2020 and Papua New Guinea’s Giluwe (4,368m) in 2023. Only Sidley, the highest volcano in Antarctica (4,181 m), is missing to complete the picture.
On each of these peaks the Lapko family hoisted Belarus’ national flag. After the challenge, Anastasia dreams of presenting this flag to President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
It all started in winter 2017, when the Lapko family was watching TV. Before that, Anastasia and Konstantin had already had a little experience in independent travelling: they had already discovered Asia and the Middle East. That evening a programme about Elbrus and the Caucasus Mountains was on. Having seen only a third of it, Anastasia asked if it would be interesting to see the Caucasus Mountains in person, to go higher. And Konstantin answered that he would do it with great pleasure and visit places that are significant for his family, because his grandfather participated in battles there during the Great Patriotic War, and Konstantin himself carefully keeps his grandfather’s Medal For the Defence of the Caucasus. On that winter evening, it was decided to try to climb Elbrus in the summer. On July 20th, 2017, they celebrated the ten-year anniversary of their relationship on the highest point of Russia...
