Kazakh President Tokayev Awards Highest Honor to Legendary Mountaineer Ervand Ilinsky

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has awarded the title of "Kazakhstan's Hero of Labor" to mountaineer Ervand Ilinsky. The high honor was bestowed for outstanding achievements in alpinism, a significant contribution to the development of sports in the country, and active participation in public life.

Ervand Tikhnovich Ilinsky was born on August 25, 1940, in Krasnoyarsk and moved with his parents to Almaty in 1949. A Soviet and Kazakhstani mountaineer and coach, he served as the head coach of the Kazakhstan national mountaineering team—the first team in the world to conquer all 14 of the planet's eight-thousand-meter peaks between 1991 and 2010.

Ilinsky is a conqueror of Everest (1990) and was the first person from Kazakhstan to join the "Seven Summits" club (2007). He is also a multiple champion and prize-winner of USSR championships. Since 1973, he has held the position of senior coach for mountaineering at SKA SAWO.

His coaching career is marked by numerous accolades: Honored Coach of the Kazakh SSR (1975), Honored Coach of the USSR (1979), and Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1982). His influence on generations of climbers is profound.

In 1971, after third-category climbers Kazbek Valiev and Valery Khrischaty joined his section at KazPTI and following a victory at the USSR championship by the TurkVO team, Ilinsky was invited to coach at CSKA. Over his career, he has trained over 100 Masters of Sport of the USSR, 36 International-Class Masters of Sport, and 24 Honored Masters of Sport.

He demonstrated a keen eye for talent early on. In 1993, he recognized future world alpinism star Denis Urubko in a young boy and invited him to his club. In 2000, he began training young climbers Maksut Zhumayev and Vasily Pivtsov. From this new generation of Kazakh mountain climbers, he formed a team with which he completed an ambitious program in 2010: "The Kazakhstan National Team on All 14 Eight-Thousanders of the Planet."