Snow Leopard award

The Snow Leopard award (Снежный барс) was a Soviet mountaineering award, given to highly skilled mountain climbers. It is still recognized in the Commonwealth of Independent States. To receive this award, a climber was required to summit all five peaks within the former Soviet Union with elevation greater than 7000 m.

The peaks
The Snow Leopard peaks include:
 * 1) Ismoil Somoni Peak 24590 ft
 * 2) Jengish Chokusu 24406 ft
 * 3) Ibn Sina Peak 23406 ft
 * 4) Peak Korzhenevskaya 23310 ft
 * 5) Khan Tengri 22999 ft

In Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains there are three Snow Leopard peaks, Ismail Samani Peak (formerly Communism Peak) 7495 m, Peak Korzhenevskaya 7105 m, and Ibn Sina Peak (formerly Lenin Peak) 7134 m on the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border.

In the Tian Shan there are two Snow Leopard peaks, Jengish Chokusu (formerly Peak Pobeda) 7439 m in Kyrgyzstan (divided by the border with China), and Khan Tengri 7010 m on the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border. Khan Tengri's geologic elevation is 6995 m but its glacial cap rises to 7010 m. For this reason, it is considered a 7000 m peak.

In order of difficulty, Peak Pobeda is by far the most difficult and dangerous, followed by Khan Tengri, Ismail Samani Peak, Peak Korzhenevskaya, and Lenin (Ibn Sina) Peak.

Recipients
There are more than 600 climbers, including 31 women, who have received this award between 1961 and 2012 (although not all of them completed the five peaks).

Records

 * Boris Korshunov (Russia) – nine times Snow Leopard (1981 – 2004)
 * Boris Korshunov (Russia) – last award at the age of 69
 * Andrzej Bargiel (Poland) – all five ascents in 29 days 17 hours 5 minutes (time counted from leaving the Advanced Base Camp under Lenin Peak, 15 July 2016)