Classical pianist Tatiana Stupak left her home town, Limassol, bound for Mt Aconcagua, Mendoza, in Argentina, on 1st January. Once there, she met a group of ten other climbers from the 7summits.ru organsiation. After two weeks of acclimatisation and climbing training and, with some assistance by helicopter, mules and porters for provision of food supplies at various camps on the mountain, members of the group reached the summit on 16th January, raising the flags of Cyprus and of various sponsoring organisations. Parts of the climb were particularly arduous, because of somewhat unseasonal summer weather, and at times they were tramping through knee-deep snow, which is extremely tiring.

On the descent, the group stopped for about half an hour, during a break in snowfall and in some sunshine, and was joined by about 20 other climbers. At this point, the purpose of the climb from Tatiana Stupak's point of view began. She had registered in May 2020 with Guinness World Records, to attempt to beat the record which has stood since 2012, to hold a concert for at least 15 minutes at a new record altitude height above sea level. She had intended to make the attempt in January 2021, but the Covid epidemic had caused a two-year delay.

Before the concert could begin, the group leader and expert guide, took out the altitude meter from its locked box, which he had carried since checking its accuracy back in Mendoza, before the start of the climb. The altimeter revealed initially an altitude of 6701 metres, and shortly afterwards the reading had settled at 6700 metres, which was observed by several of the climbers, and was also filmed, providing vital evidence for Stupak to claim in due course a new world record. 6700 metres exceeds by 224 metres, the existing record, which is 6476 metres.

Stupak unpacked her classical music gusli instrument, issued printed music programmes to the audience, most of whom had previously bought tickets from her, and began playing her programme of music by three composers, Rebel, Kanaletti and Handel. She first had to remove her gloves and hand warmers, and play with bare fingers, plucking the strings in a temperature of -38 degrees centigrade. She played for 17 minutes, and avoided getting frost-bite.

The process of gathering evidence about the concert, including videos, photographs and written witness statements has now begun, and when completed in due course, Stupak submitted this information to Guinness World Records (GWR) for assessment. This process took 2 month for verification of the claim.

Tatiana Stupak wishes to thank her sponsors and supporters: Arsen Theofanidis LLC (advocates), Max Sports, Photovolt Development Partners, Muj Na Chas, Russian Radio Cyprus, Life Style Magazine, Vestnik Kipra (Cyprus newspaper), Atria Music, and Efeto-Properties Ltd.

Some of the articles:
https://7vershin.ru/news/all/item_15208/
https://7vershin.ru/news/all/item_15193/