To the Classification Commission of the USSR Alpinism Federation

Report

on the first ascent of the route to the summit of Koshtan-tau via the right part of the north wall. Central Caucasus. Bezengi region. 1989.

Climbing Passport

1. Climbing class — technical.
2. Region — Central Caucasus, Bezengi.
3. Summit — Koshtan-tau, route — via the right part of the N wall. First ascent. Route is combined.
4. Proposed category of difficulty — 5B.
5. Route characteristics: height difference — 1050 m, including wall part — 600 m length of sections with 5–6 category of difficulty — 570 m average steepness of the wall part — 60°
6. Number of protection points: ice screws — 58 pitons — 6 chocks and slings — 14
7. Number of climbing hours during ascent — 22 hours.
8. One overnight stay on a platform carved in the ice slope.
9. Team composition: Kolchin Alexander Alexandrovich — Master of Sports of the USSR, team leader Makarov Vladimir Konstantinovich — Candidate Master of Sports Korzunov Yuri Ivanovich — 1st sports category Rastorguev Alexander Alekseevich — 1st sports category
10. Team coach — Kolchin A.A.
11. Date of departure to the route: July 28, 1989, reaching the summit: July 29, 1989, return: July 30, 1989.
12. Organization — ASUB "Bezengi".

Summit Koshtan-tau from the north. View from v. Utug 4200 m. Photo by V. Makarov (August 1986, Industar 61, f=52.4 mm). Legend for the photo Section 3 category of difficulty. Section 4 category of difficulty. Section 5 category of difficulty. Section 6 category of difficulty. M — Mikhal'sky route 4B N — Nosov route S — Simonik route K — Kolchin route

Route Description

to v. Koshtan-tau via the right part of N wall (Kolchin, 1989). Initial bivouac on the 4th step of the Kundyum-Mizhyrgi glacier under the N wall of Koshtan-tau. Altitude 4000 m.

The route begins with crossing the bergschrund under the rock island in the middle between the rocks of Simonik's route and the rocks of the Kalishevsky ridge. After the bergschrund — ice slope straight up to the left of the rock island (section R0–R1, 20 m, 60°, 5 category of difficulty).

Through the ice-covered rocks (section R1–R2, 20 m, 70°, 5 category of difficulty) the route crosses the rock ridge and to the right-up above the ridge along the ice slope (section R2–R3, 160 m, 55°, 5 category of difficulty) with crossing ridges goes under a large rock bastion. The bastion from point 3 can be climbed directly, but the first ascenders partially bypassed it via a couloir with flow ice to the right, pressing against the rocks of the bastion (section R3–R4, 78 m, 70–75°, 6 category of difficulty) and along the rock ledges (section R4–R5, 48 m, 70°, 5 category of difficulty)), reaching the ridge of the bastion.

A simple, not steep, snowy ridge (section R5–R6, 50 m, 50°, 3 category of difficulty) turns into an ice ridge (section R6–R7, 68 m, 40°, 3 category of difficulty).

On the ridge, in 2 hours, a full platform for a tent can be carved. Overnight stay. Along the ridge, approach under the rock belt, which is crossed to the right-up (section R7–R8, ice-covered rocks, 65 m, 65°, 6 category of difficulty). Going straight up the not steep rock couloir to cross the belt is more dangerous.

At this point, the wall part of the route ends. Altitude approximately 4660 m. Further along the ice slope up and slightly to the left to exit onto the snowy ridge above its rocky part (section R8–R9, 250 m, 30°, 3 category of difficulty). Here the route merges with all other routes on the N wall of Koshtan-tau.

Further along the snowy slope (200 m, 2–3 category of difficulty) to the snowy plateau and then along the snowy-ice slope between the ridges of rocks (200 m, 2–3 category of difficulty) to the main ridge and along it to the summit.

Descent along the NE ridge 4B category of difficulty.

a) The category of difficulty of the ice slope section is quite conditional and strongly depends on the length of the slope. We evaluate sections R0–R1, R2–R3 — 5 category of difficulty based on the fact that a route consisting of these sections, taken by itself, deserves not less than 4B category of difficulty, and sections with such ice on a route with 5B category of difficulty are not perceived as easier sections. Similarly, section R8–R9 by itself deserves an evaluation as a route with 3B category of difficulty.

Scheme of the wall part of the route.

Photo by V. Makarov from the "3900" bivouac. July 1986. "Jupiter-37 A", f=135 mm.

Right part of N wall of v. Koshtan-tau. Photo by V. Makarov from the "3900" bivouac. July 1986. "Jupiter-37 A", f=135 mm.

Right part of N wall of Koshtan-tau. Rocky part of the route (section R3–R8) close-up. Photo by V. Makarov from the "3900" bivouac, July 1986. "Jupiter-37 A" with K-1 converter, total focal length 270 mm.

Profile of N wall of v. Koshtan-tau from the left, from under v. South Bird at an altitude of 4300 m.

North wall of v. Koshtan-tau (5151 m). Comparative characteristics of routes.

On the N wall of Koshtan-tau, four routes have been climbed:

1. 2.5.74 via N wall — A. Simonik (1961), 6B
2. 2.5.75 via right edge of N wall — B. Vasil'ev (1966), 6B
3. 2.5.76 via left edge of N wall — An. Nosov (1969), 6B
4. via right part of N wall — A. Kolchin (1989)

To the right, the N wall is bounded by the NW edge, along which the Kalishevsky route passes (2.5.68, NW, 1957, 5B). To the left of the N wall are the slopes of the edge, along which the Mikhal'sky route passes (2.5.68, N slope of N ridge, 1964, 4B). Route numbers and names are given according to the 1981 table.

Characteristics of all routes on the N wall are very close. All of them start on the plateau of the 4th step of the Kundyum-Mizhyrgi glacier (4000 m). The wall part of all routes ends at an altitude of 4500 m. Above are sections of not more than 3 category of difficulty. The average steepness of the wall part of the routes is also approximately the same.

The extreme routes (Nosov's and Kolchin's) are separated from the neighboring ones by dangerous couloirs. They have "judicial restrictions". Simonik's and Vasil'ev's routes do not have a natural distinction from each other, and therefore a combination of these routes is possible. Often, a combination is climbed, in which the key places of both routes are bypassed (see photo; this was counted as a passage of Simonik's route). Simonik's route is climbed regularly, almost every year, sometimes by several groups per year. Vasil'ev's route was repeated only once by A. Kuchumov in 1988. Nosov's route was also repeated once by An. Blankovsky.

Out of all four routes, Nosov's route is apparently the most difficult, but it is the only one that is objectively dangerous and cannot be recommended for frequent ascents. The remaining routes can be ranked in terms of complexity in the following order: Kolchin's, Vasil'ev's, Simonik's, and the Simonik-Vasil'ev combination. The Kalishevsky route along the NW ridge is even easier. On the photograph, the key points of all routes are marked. These sections always represent rocks, partially covered with a layer of ice. When there is a lot of ice, the complexity of these sections can be evaluated as 6B category.

On the names of routes on Koshtan-tau from the north.

The names of routes from the north to v. Koshtan-tau do not accurately reflect their location. This is mainly due to the fact that when a particular name was given, it was not taken into account that other routes would be climbed nearby. Thus, Simonik's route, laid along the most pronounced counterfort of the wall, was simply named the route via the N wall. The pronounced edges of the Kalishevsky and Mikhal'sky routes were named counterforts, and, conversely, the weakly expressed counterfort of Nosov's route was named an edge. Vasil'ev's route lacks not only an edge but also a counterfort — it passes along the right walls of Simonik's counterfort.

We propose the following names for these routes:

• Via N edge of N ridge — Mikhal'sky
• Via left part of N wall — Nosov
• Via left part of central N wall — Simonik
• Via right part of central N wall — Vasil'ev
• Via right part of N wall — Kolchin
• Via NW edge — Kalishevsky

By the decision of the Classification Commission (592 p. 2), the route via the right part of the wall was classified as 5B category of difficulty. Proposals for renaming routes were adopted with minor changes.

• Via N edge of N ridge — Mikhal'sky
• Via left part of N wall — Nosov
• Via left part of central N wall — Simonik
• Via right part of central N wall — Vasil'ev
• Via right part of N wall — Kolchin
• Via NW edge of W ridge — Kalishevsky