It is our great pleasure to announce yet another guest speaker at the 7th edition of the EHO Film Festival, coming from Ukraine, Nikita Balabanov (born in 1989). This young Ukrainian alpinist has received the prestigious award Piolet d'Or (The Golder Ice Axe) 2016 for the first ascent of the difficult north-northwest pillar of Mt. Talung (7348m) in the region of the Kangchenjunga mountain, Nepal, together his partner Mikhail Formin. 

The route is 2350 meters long, and they called it Daddy Magnum Force (M6 AI6 A3; with an overall route difficulty of ED2). The ascent lasted from 18-25 October 2015. Earlier in 2014 they did another first ascent of the northwest pillar of the Langshisa Ri peak (6427m). Balabanov will talk about his ascent on Talung and his participation in several other international expeditions. He will also talk about alpine climbing in Ukraine, and will discuss a topic which is of interest for any young, ambitious alpine climber, which he refers to as “How get to the Himalayas with a small budget”. 

His presence was made possible by the Ukrainian Distribution Center (www.udc-trade.com) and the enormous effort of Rostyslav Palagusynets from the Embassy of Ukrain, in Skopje.