Home / News / Ilya Kovalchuk’s wife Nikol summits Mount Everest, has now climbed four of Earth’s highest peaks

Ilya Kovalchuk’s wife Nikol summits Mount Everest, has now climbed four of Earth’s highest peaks

By Chris Cerullo

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May 21, 2023 10:32 am

Nikol Kovalchuk, the wife of former Capitals winger Ilya, is seeking to become one of just around 70 women to ever scale the world’s seven summits. On May 16, she crossed off what is likely to be the most difficult of those climbs as she officially summited the legendary Mount Everest.

Everest is Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, standing at 8,849 meters (29,032 ft).

Nikol announced the news to her followers on Instagram on Sunday.

“The 16th of May became a very special date for me,” Nikol wrote. “On this day I was gifted to sense what it is, to take a step on top of the world! And the word ‘special’ doesn’t describe the spectrum of my emotions. My heart is filled up with gratitude for such a blessing. And the highest gratitude is expressed silently.”

Nikol achieved the incredible feat with a team of 25 other climbers on an expedition organized by Elite Exped, a high-altitude adventure group run by three Nepalese mountaineeers.

According to an interview her husband Ilya did with Russian outlet Match TV in April, Nikol has now reached the top of four of Earth’s highest peaks. Her ultimate goal seems to be to join the exclusive “Seven Summits” club which means she will have climbed the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents. Only around 70 women ever have completed the feat.

Nikol has already checked off South America’s Aconcagua (22,838 ft), Europe’s Mount Elbrus (18,510 ft), Africa’s Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft), and now Asia’s Mount Everest (29,032 ft). All she has left is North America’s Denali (20,322 ft), Antarctica’s Mount Vinson (16,050 ft), and Oceania’s Puncak Jaya (16,024 ft).

Match TV’s Pavel Lysenkov asked Ilya if he tried to stop his wife from making the dangerous trek up Everest. Over 310 people have died attempting to reach the summit of the mountain, including 10 since April 12.

The couple have been married since 2008 and together they have four children.

“That would make no sense, she’s stubborn to me,” Kovalchuk said and translated via Google Translate. “If you decide, then go. Nikol has been preparing, and this isn’t the first mountain she’ll be climbing. This is a serious test that she came to mentally. Well, physically prepared very well. And went on an expedition in a good company of professionals.

“Almost 9000 meters above sea level,” he added. “After seven thousand you go with oxygen. A very difficult expedition, for a month and a half. The weather must match, a lot of conditions to climb the peak. I take my hat off to Nikol. God willing, she will return – and I will bring her to an interview on Match TV. She will tell everything she saw.”

Congrats, Nikol! Incredible feat.

Headline photo: @nikolkovalchukofficial/Instagram

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