Lyudmila Agranovskaya

Lyudmila Semyonovna Agranovskaya (née Smolinova; Людмила Семёновна Аграновская; 29 February 1932 – 18 December 2022) was a Soviet and Russian mountain climber and coach. She was the first woman in the USSR to receive the Snow Leopard award (1970). She was a Honorary Master of Sports of the USSR, Honored Coach of the RSFSR, and Honorary Citizen of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (2006).

Biography
She was born on February 29, 1932, on Sakhalin Island, when her father was on the island as part of an expedition to search for oil, being an engineer. In 1934–1954, she lived and studied in Moscow, where she began practicing acrobatics, gymnastics, dancing, then sailing and alpine skiing. From the age of 14 she worked at an aircraft factory.

In 1948, she took part in the Wings of the Soviets alpine skiing competition in Kuibyshev, where she took third place. After that, she joined the national team of trade unions and participated in the USSR alpine skiing championship in Alma-Ata.

In 1954-1968 she worked as a janitor in Leningrad. In 1955, she began mountaineering in the Caucasus, at the same time she met Herman Agranovsky, who was serving in the Navy at that time and later also became a famous athlete. On June 1, 1956, they got married, and a year later their daughter Olya was born.

In 1961, she graduated from the Mountaineering Instructor School.

In 1968, she moved to Kamchatka, where she participated in the organization of a specialized youth sports school of the Olympic reserve and the construction of the Edelweiss ski complex in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

She has made seven ascents to mountain peaks above 7000 m, five of them as a leader. She was the first woman to climb the highest point of the Soviet Union — the peak of Communism (1970), and also the first woman in the country to be awarded the badge "For climbing the highest peaks of the Union" ("Snow Leopard", badge No. 16). She also climbed Lenin Peak (1960, 1971), Karl Marx Peak (1964); Communism peak along the Southern Ridge from the Bivachny Glacier (1968), Victory Peak from the Zvezdochka Glacier along the Northern Edge (1970), Evgenia Korzhenevskaya Peak along the Southern Edge and Communism peak along the Burevestnik ridge (1972); Khan Tengri peak on the southwestern slope (1973).

She is the author of many special articles on mountaineering topics and co-author of a development on ski training for children.

She was awarded the badge "Honorary Master of Sports of the USSR" and the Great Gold Medal of the USSR Sports Committee "For Outstanding Sporting Achievements". He also holds the honorary title of "Honored Worker of Physical Culture of the USSR" (1986).

In 2006, she was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Together with her husband, she has been engaged in coaching for more than 40 years. Among their students are Varvara Zelenskaya, Honored Master of Sports in alpine skiing, multiple winner of the World Cup; Natalia Buga and Ksenia Shlyakhtina ― Masters of Sports of international class. For their training, the Agranovskys were awarded the title of "Honored Coach of Russia".

Agranovskaya died on 18 December 2022, aged 90.

Family
Husband ― Herman Agranovsky (1931-1984), mountain climber. Daughter ― Olga, grandsons Herman and Semyon ― they also devoted their lives to sports