A message in a bottle thrown into the sea in 2009 by a Russian crew of seafarers near Cape Horn was found this month half a world away by an 83-year-old diver in Australia. A crew of eight, headed by prominent Russian adventurer Fyodor Konyukhov, sailed in a yacht from Australia to South America and the Falkland Islands, Konyukov’s son Oskar, a participant of the expedition, told RIA Novosti on Monday.

This year is an anniversary year for the country’s mountaineering:  it’s been 30 years since the successful ascent of Mt. Everest by the USSR team (May 1982), and it’s been 20 years since the first Russian expedition to the top of Mt. Everest (May 1992).  Fedor Konyukhov was a member of the latter expedition that consisted of four Russian mountain climbers.  Paired with Eugeny Vinogradsky (Yekaterinburg), he ascended to the top of the world on May 14^th at 13:15 Katmandu time.

In the months of November and December of 2011, together with “Ramidus Ethiopia Tour,” Fedor Konyukhov went on a trekking expedition to Ethiopia. The main goal of “9 – Heights of Abyssinia” expedition was to climb the following 9 peaks of the Ethiopian Highlands.