Our dear friend, Andrey Barbashinov, from Almaty, Kazakhstan, the first person to climb Denali (Mt. McKinley) this year (and millennium!) was killed just before 5 a.m. on Tuesday, June 26, when the motorcycle he was driving back from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks was hit by a truck. He would have celebrated his 28th birthday on July 13.

Andrey was the Deputy Director of the Women and Children's Protection Against Violence Crisis Center, and Deputy Commander of the Mountain Rescue Squad in his country. He received degrees in International Law from Moscow State University, International Tourism from the Kazakh State Academy, and Cinema-Video Engineering from the Central Asian Institute of Cinema and Television. He was President of the Kazakh Climbers' Sport Club, and had been a guide at the International Festival on the 7,010 meter (23,000 foot) peak Khan Tengri in the Tien Shan Mountains.

Andrey had been traveling around the western U.S. with old and new friends after being unanimously selected as an exchange participant for the Anatoli Boukreev Memorial Fund. Pictures from Andrey's trip are included below.

A fund is being arranged for Andrey's family, and to return Andrey and his belongings to his home. Contributions may be made to the Anatoli Boukreev Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 737, Boulder, CO 80306 a 501(c)(3) organization, to be applied to the Andrey Barbashinov Memorial.

After returning from Denali, Andrey had participated in a U.S. climbing guides course in Durango, taken a 10 day raft trip on the San Juan River, visited the Marin Headlands and Mt. Diabolo with friends in the Bay Area, climbed the West Face of Mt. Olympus in 3 hours (roundtrip), visited Timpanogos Cave, Dinosaur National Monument, Flaming Gorge, Hill Air Museum, Yellowstone and the Tetons, and was greatly looking forward to climbing El Capitan in Yosemite. He had recently helped a friend unveil the "Snow Spirit" sculpture at the opening of the National Ability Center in Park City, and a plaque in his memory will be placed by the marble snow angel.

Andrey seemed to take in as much as ten others in every day of his life, and give back that much more. His openness and appreciation for his friends was always apparent in his attention to sharing his past experiences with new friends, and interest in communicating his latest adventures and the friendships he made with all those he had met here, and with the many who loved him and awaited his return in Kazakhstan.