PYRAMID PEAK – 3760 m

Ascent via the Eastern ridge – cat. 4B (Description of the ascent route to the summit)

From the "Uzunkol" camp, follow the right bank of the Mordy River to the 4th stream at a large stone blockage in the Mordy gorge. From here, head left up the right grassy slope (trail) to the destroyed "sheep's foreheads". Continue along the green terraces under the long moraine, which goes up into the Pyramid glacier cirque. Follow the moraine to reach the glacier. On the talus islands, there's a bivouac site. From the camp, it takes 4–4.5 hours.

From the overnight stay, follow the snowfield, crossing several avalanche cones (!), to the start of R1 on the eastern ridge shelf of Pyramid. (Rappel! Belay!) The slope is up to 45° in the upper part. Traverse along the first shelf, on the edge of snow and rocks, to R1 of a short wet black couloir. Climb up the couloir (Belay! Pitons!) to inclined ledges and along them (Belay! Pitons!) to R2, a large shelf – under the R3 shelf overhang. Follow the snowfield on the shelf to a 20-meter rock wall (Belay! Pitons!). Go left along the boundary of snow and rocks under the wall to an internal corner 3–4 m. Wall: exit into the corner and climb up (20 m) to the R3 shelf (Belay! Piton!). Traverse left-up along the boundary of rocks and snow for 100 m (Pitons!) to reach the ridge crest. Exit onto the crest above the "finger". From here, climb up the sharp crest to the shoulder. There's a control cairn here. From the bivouac to the shoulder, it takes 5.5–6 hours. (There are many loose rocks on the shelves. To ensure better passage, preliminary processing of the shelves is necessary the day before!). Bivouac site. No water.

From the control cairn, climb up the crest to the first large rise. Traverse right along the snowfield to a couloir (25 m), and then up the couloir (30 m) to reach the crest (Belay! Pitons!).

"Bypassing the rise via the couloir is only possible if snow remains in it. Otherwise, there's a high risk of rockfall in the couloir!!!"

The further route follows the crest, which is partially severely damaged and has several small rock rises. Climb all rises directly.

"Belay!"

For the last rise on the crest:

• go right via free climbing
• or directly up, with rope protection using rock protrusions and climbing up the slab using a sport climbing technique.

From here, follow simple, severely damaged rocks to reach the summit. Bivouac site. No water.

From the shoulder to the summit, it takes 8–9 hours. Descend from the summit into the yellow depression, then exit to a large horizontal slab, from here traverse left for 100 m and descend along the snowfield to talus, to a snowy ridge that surrounds the lake, and further to the end of the lower wide shelf. Follow it to the col between Ak-Bashi and Pyramid. Descend from it onto the Pyramid glacier and across the plateau to the bivouac. Descent from the summit to the bivouac takes 3–3.5 hours.

Number of participants in the group – 4 people. Initial bivouac – on the Pyramid glacier.

Equipment for a group of 4:

• ropes – 2 × 40 m;
• expendable cordelette – 10 m;
• rock pitons – 15 pcs;
• carabiners – 10–12 pcs;
• ice screws – 2–3 pcs;
• hammers – 2 pcs.

Height difference – about 650 m From camp to camp – 2.5 days Number of pitons used – 28 pcs.

Group leader – Master of Sports Stepanov V.V., participants:

• instructor Aleksandrova – 1st category,
• instructor Blyakhman K.N. – 1st category,
• Sazonov – 2nd category,
• Abramov – 3rd category.

Note: Time to complete the route is estimated up to 14–16 hours. Average number of pitons used – 10–12 pcs.