I have known Ilia for 23 years. I first met him when I came to Mountaineering club of Leningrad Politech... I did not know anybody in the club and felt very shy. Ilia was pretty much the first person who greeted me. You can imagine that after the greeting I felt much more comfortable (it is well known how friendly he was). With him I went to my first trip (pohod) to the Karelia (Kizi). We had very special group (not a single slavic face). When members of KSS were giving us a permit for the trip, they kept asking: "Where are you guys going - to Sweden?"...We had a group banner and every member of the group was supposed to wear a black velvet bow tie (we were very special...) I'm still very grateful to Iliusha for the fun. I will miss him greatly.
