Adilet Imambekov is a graduate student in the Harvard Physics Department and has been hiking and backpacking in the Tien-Shan Mountains, near where he grew up, since childhood. He has two and a half years of technical rock and ice experience, including alpine routes in New Hampshire and Kazakhstan. Adilet has multiple ascents up to 14,000 feet, and has been on Mt Rainer(4392m, 14410') in winter, Mont Blanc (4807m, 15,771'), the crater rim of Pico de Orizaba (approximately 5600m, 18,370') and Denali (6193m, 20,320').