The Snow Leopard award 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: 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