You can read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2024 here. 

Sergey Nilov, 47, August 18

Sergey Nilov, one of the world’s most accomplished high-altitude climbers and a two-time Piolet d’Or recipient, died on August 18, 2024, at age 47, in an avalanche on Gasherbrum IV (7,925m) in Pakistan. He was attempting to recover the body of his longtime climbing partner and dear friend Dmitry Golovchenko, who had perished on the same mountain exactly one year prior.

Nilov discovered mountaineering in an unexpected encounter while on a canoe trip in the early 2000s, where he met some climbers and was immediately fascinated by the steep walls and snow capped peaks around. This chance meeting led him to join Moscow’s CSKA Demchenko climbing club, where he met Golovchenko in 2002. Their first climb together in the Caucasus mountains near Elbrus marked the beginning of one of alpinism’s most formidable partnerships.

Outside of climbing, since neither he nor Golovchenko were sponsored professional climbers, Nilov worked as a rope access technician and tree maintenance specialist. He leaves behind his wife Anastasia and their five children, who now face the profound loss of their father and husband.

The partnership between Nilov and Golovchenko, spanning over two decades, produced some of alpinism’s most remarkable achievements. Their ascents included the first ascent of Think Twice (ED 5.10 A2 M6) on Pakistan’s Muztagh Tower in 2012, earning them their first Piolet d’Or. They won a second Piolet d’Or in 2016 for Moveable Feast (ED2 M7 WI5 A3) on India’s Thalay Sagar. Perhaps their most notable achievement was the 2019 epic on Jannu’s East Face, where they spent 18 days on the mountain in a display of extraordinary endurance and determination.

Their partnership was marked by an intuitive understanding that transcended words. As Golovchenko once noted, “Sergey Nilov, in what he does, is the best in the world… he gives you a sense of security.” Their roles were clearly defined: even if they were both very skilled climbers, Golovchenko handled all logistics and planning, while Nilov took the lead on technical climbing.

Their final chapter began on August 31, 2023, when Golovchenko fell to his death when their unanchored tent, at 7,680 meters, slipped off their narrow bivy ledge. Nilov, who witnessed the tragedy, managed to rappel down and locate his friend’s body and lay him to rest in a crevasse.

Almost a year later, Golovchenko’s family launched an appeal to form a team of climbers to recover the body from the mountain. Sergey initially refused to join the team, honoring a promise he and Golovchenko had made to take care of the other’s family if they died in the mountains. Dmitry had a wife and three daughters, Sergey his wife Anastasia and five sons.

But, finally, Sergey thought that without his help, the team would not be able to locate Golovchenko’s resting place, which after a year was probably covered in snow and ice. So he joined the team that reached the Gasherbrum basecamp in July 2024. Conditions on the mountain were far from favorable: stormy weather and the news from another climbing team that the icefall had shifted and was more dangerous than ever. Even so, when stable weather arrived, the team started to climb.

While navigating the treacherous icefall, a serac collapsed and an avalanche struck Nilov and two teammates. His companions survived with injuries, but Nilov disappeared into the icy debris. A rescue was launched, but Nilov’s body rests in the icefall, not far from his brother of rope, and life, Dmitry.

Nilov embodied the purest values of alpinism: humility despite extraordinary achievement, unwavering loyalty to his climbing partners, and an uncompromising commitment to alpine-style ascents. His loss, coming so soon after Golovchenko’s, leaves an irreplaceable void in both the climbing community and the lives of those who loved him. As fate would have it, these two inseparable partners now rest eternally side by side in the Karakoram mountains they so deeply cherished.

To write that Sergey died doing what he loved would sound hypocritical to my ears; the relationship I had with him and Dmitry, two extraordinary mountaineers and good people, had become friendship, and my thoughts are for their families, for Anastasia, Sergey’s widow, for Sasha, Dmitry’s widow, both extraordinary and strong women and for their eight sons and daughters who lost their husbands, their fathers, too soon.

The sense of Greek tragedy resonates in my thoughts, and the enthusiasm with which I followed their unique, extraordinary climbs becomes a bitter thought of irreparable loss.

You can read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2024 here.