Unlimited Potential, Up to 8000m

It’s two weeks exactly from the day we decided to abort our summit push to Khan Tengri and abandon the expedition… Two weeks of mixed feelings, but today I only feel the need for climbing something bigger. I have resumed training and I’m already working on the plan phase for the ultimate challenge. This year is going to be amazing 🙂

Two weeks back I was exhausted, melting snow at 5500m to drink and prepare some food before it gets dark. I felt quite tired but happy to have plenty of time on the following day to recover at Camp2 before doing a summit push up to Camp3, followed by our summit day. I was trying to get everything organized before hitting my sleeping bag when I got the worst news: weather forecasts declared the following day too dangerous for us to stay at high altitude. One more snow storm was expected to leave one meter of snow on high camps, making the descent in case of difficulties extremely dangerous considering the size of our team and all expedition gear to be carried down the mountain. We could not believe such thing while staring at the beautiful sunset… we so much regretted not having alternative forecasts from other providers. But we could not think on any other thing than escaping from the avalanches down to secure heights. Retreating to Camp2 to retry our summit push was not an option considering our countdown to take the helicopter back home had already started.

Avalanches…. I have never in my life seen so many in such a short period of time. They are one of the most beautiful phenomenon you can contemplate up in the mountains…. a dire need for the mountain of releasing the most powerful forces one can see in a natural environment. During our first night on high camps, four days back up to 4500m, the weather turned from a lovely sunny day into a stormy night leaving about 30 cm of snow, followed by a hot and cloudy descent that could scare the most experienced climber. That morning we decided to cancel our plans for moving from Camp1 to Camp2, and instead we went down to Base Camp to supply ourselves with the extra food, gas and gear required for our summit push. Going down that morning on melting snow slopes while listening to the power of avalanches was a worrying start of our expedition. Right after our descent, a climber from other team was partially avalanched, and the staff at BC told us about a similar incident that happened some days prior our arrival. We were climbing a mountain which main cause of fatality is avalanches, you can read that in the climbing books, and you can tell when you have your camera full of photos of these beautiful collapses.

Last night in the mountain, when we already decided to cancel the expedition, I was very worried in my tent thinking on the huge load to take down in my backpack the following day, under adverse weather conditions, and through the rocky steps that I´ve never done before with 30+kg going down. I was not feeling sick, but altitude and the stress of our decision played games with me that night, so I could barely have proper sleep, making things more difficult for our retirement. Next morning I woke up lazy and grumpy. Weather was OK and other teams were already dismantling the camp. I felt very dizzy, most probably as result of CO2 intoxication while sharing a sealed tent with two climbing partners…that slowed me a lot on preparing for the descent. I must confess I was concerned about making it safe through the rocky steps with such dizziness. Three young Kazahs left their tent there and started moving up to Camp3. I just hope they are safe today… My friend Jose, who was climbing Peak Bodeba from the south Khan Tengri Base Camp (we were on the North one), just told me a group of three climbers were avalanched while sleeping, and one of them was trapped in the tent and died… I can’t thing on anything more painful than having to escape down the mountain with almost no gear, and knowing that you are abandoning your climbing buddy buried in her tent underneath a field of snow and ice blocks…

This is how this story ends, knowing that we did the best for us, even if we felt like giving up easily… but now I can plan for bigger adventures since I learnt loads of things on the field, and I had once again the bittersweet taste of challenging myself and mother nature in a real mountain.

With just few hours ahead to load all expedition material in a taxi and heading down to Dubai Airport Terminal 2, I feel very close the time when I’ll start receiving the cure for this disease that we climbers and paragliding pilots call Gravity.

And before I leave  I want to share the final notes from our climbing plan on the second phase of my expedition, conquering Khan Tengri, “Lord of the Skies” (7010m – 23000ft)

Khan Tengri can be climbed from either South or North Inylchek Glaciers, on which separate base camps are located. The “northern normal route” is more difficult than the “southern normal route”, but it is much less exposed to avalanches. It has eight different routes opened up to date, but we’ll be looking at climbing either Solomatov Route via the north east Chapaev Ridge, which take us to the summit via the West Ridge, or the Belkin Route going through the East Buttress to the North Ridge. Both routes are Russian Grade 5b and were first climbed in 1974 and 75 respectively. The route is to be chosen based on the conditions but most probably we’ll climb the first one which is considered the Normal Route.

I have prepared the following diagram using Google Earth, and I hope we can get Bing Maps to evolve to something similar or even better to this (Google 3D Maps are amazing…)

BC – Camp 1 (4500m)

Not extremely steep glacier walk up. The last steep portion of the way is fixed with ropes. It is arguably a good idea to cross the crevassed glacier in the lower portion of the ascent using a rope, although most climbers cross this place without bothering to rope up. There is always an avalanche danger at this part. There are two possibilities to make Camp 1 – about one hundred altitude meters from one another. The upper ledge is smaller but somehow nicer. At both places there are enough dry rocky spots to make camping there pleasant. There is also an ice cave (enough for 3 people) near the upper ledge.

Camp 1 – Camp 2 (5600m)

This portion of the climb is fixed with ropes all the way. There are several very steep mixed sections, but the difficulty of the climbing is greatly reduced by the fixed ropes. There is no avalanche danger.

There is no possibility to make a camp in between. Camp 2 is located at a large flat spot under Chapaev peak.

Camp 2 – Camp 3 (6000)

Until the plato before the Chapaev peak the way is fixed with ropes. From this high point one needs to descend to the col between Khan Tengri and Chapaev. There are also some crevasses at this portion of the way, but most climbers don’t take a rope. There are several big snow caves at camp 3 so one doesn’t really need a tent.

Above Camp 3

The fixed ropes end shortly before the summit. From this point on one needs to climb a snow ridge to reach the summit. The quality of the ropes is not as great as at the lower sections of the ascent. There is a possibility for camp 4 at a narrow ledge half way up to the summit from camp 3 at 6 400 m.

Wish me luck!!!

Khan Tengri is located in Tengri Tag Mountain Range of Central Tien-Shan also known as the Mustag (The Ice Mountain). The climate is sharply continental, dry and rigorous. The summer is short, average temperature of about 7 centigrade. The region is called “The Arctic of Kyrgyzstan”, though Central Tien-Shan is situated in the same latitude as the Mediterranean Sea. It is located on the China—Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan border, east of lake Issyk Kul, just across the South Ingelchek (or Inylchek) glacier. Its geologic elevation is 6,995 m (22,949 ft), but its glacial cap rises to 7,010 m (22,999 ft). For this reason, in mountaineering circles, including for the Soviet Snow Leopard award criteria, it is considered a 7000-metre peak. The name “Khan Tengri” literally means “King Heaven” in Uyghur and possibly references the deity Tengri. Khan Tengri is the second-highest mountain in the Tian Shan (after peak Pobeda, 7439m), the highest point in Kazakhstan and the third-highest peak in Kyrgyzstan. It is also the world’s most northern 7000m peak, meaning that the air on top will be as thinner as in some of the big eight thousanders that I’m chasing.

We’ll leave Karakol for Maidadir where an old Russian helicopter transport take us up the North Inylchek glacier for Khan Tengri with some good acclimatization already under our belts.

Karakol, formerly Przhevalsk, is fourth largest city in Kyrgyzstan, near the eastern tip of Issyk Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan, about 150km from the Kyrgyzstan-China border and 380km from the capital Bishkek. It is the administrative capital of Issyk Kul Province. The main road from Karakol continues past the Kuluu valley to the town of Enylchek and the first military checkpoint that is open. At the end of the valley stands peak Khan Tengri. At the military post there is a transit base camp, this area of the valley is known as called Maidadir, and most of the climbing expeditions to Khan Tengri start from here flying in soviet built helicopter, usually loaded beyond capacity with climbers and equipment, to one of the base camps at 4200m. Inylchek Glacier is the second largest mountain glacier in the world after Fedchenko Glacier, the biggest one in the Pamirs. The glacier river of Inylchek stretches for about 60 kilometers. Inylchek is the unique world of ice architecture, a huge museum of fantastic ice created by water, sun and wind. The Inylchek Valley like the majority of valleys and ridges of Tien-Shan extends in the latitudinal direction. Its length is 200 km.

The two base camps on the Northern and Southern Inylchek glaciers respectively are generally accessible by helicopter. Khan Tengri was first climbed by Ukrainian alpinist M. Pogrebetskiy in 1931, from the south side which is now known as Classic Route. Since then 21 routes on four aspects of the mountain have been explored, but possibilities for new routes has not yet been exhausted. Khan Tengri can be climbed from either South or North Inylchek Glaciers, on which separate base camps are located. The “northern normal route” is more difficult than the “southern normal route”, but it is much less exposed to avalanches. It has eight different routes opened up to date, but we’ll be looking at climbing either Solomatov Route via the north east Chapaev Ridge, which take us to the summit via the West Ridge, or the Belkin Route going through the East Buttress to the North Ridge. Both routes are Russian Grade 5b and were first climbed in 1974 and 75 respectively.

The route is to be chosen based on the conditions but most probably we’ll climb the first one which is considered the Normal Route. This follows snow slopes and the NE ridge to Camp 1 (4300m). The ridge continues in a spectacular position with a couple of rocky steps to Camp 2 (5200m) situated in a glacial basin below the final summit slopes. After traversing the summit of Chapayev an easy descent leads to Camp 3 (5800m) on a col below the West ridge of Khan Tengri. This is the site of Camp 4 on the now unsafe Semenvski Glacier route from the south. It is now normal to make summit bids from Camp 3. The ascent is initially on snow slopes that soon turn into steep broken ground that gradually gets steeper as progress is made up the pyramid’s face. Much of the route now consists of fixed line, although of variable quality.