St. Petersburg City Alpinism Championship 2013

Climbing Passport:

1. Central Caucasus, Lateral Ridge, Bezengi gorge, section 2.5 ECTM 2013
2. v. Krumkol (4688 m), center of the north wall (A. Kolchin), variant
3. Proposed: 5B category of difficulty (variant)
4. Route type: combined
5. Route height difference — 1600 m

Total route length — 2900 m

Section lengths:

• V category of difficulty — 505 m
• VI category of difficulty — 50 m

6. Used:

• Rock pitons — 39
• Placement elements — 52
• Ice pitons — 91
• Left on the route — 0
• Used ITO — 10

7. Number of travel hours — 77, travel days — 6
8. Leader: Shamalov V. P., International Master of Sports

Participants:

• Balagurin S., 1st sports rank
• Mazurov K. A., 2nd sports rank
• Tsaregorodtsev D. E., 1st sports rank

9. Team coach: Timoshenko T. I., Master of Sports
10. Departure from a/l "Bezengi": 7:00, January 2, 2013

Departure on the route: 5:30, January 3, 2013. Summit ascent: 15:40, January 9, 2013. Descent to Krumkolskaya depression: 16:30, January 10, 2013. Return to a/l "Bezengi": 11:30, January 11, 2013. Descent from Krumkolskaya depression to a/l "Bezengi" was made by helicopter

11. Organization: Alpinism Club "LETI", St. Petersburg
12. Responsible for the report: Shamalov V.P., E-mail: valera-sh@mail.ru, phone: (+7 921. 955 9413)

General photo of the summit

Date taken January 2, 2013. Height about 3000 m

Route Profile and Movement Schedule

Photo Panorama of the Area

Photo from www.univer-clas.com↗

Area Overview*

The Bezengi glacier area is one of the most beautiful places in the Caucasus, and the high snowy peaks are difficult to access. At the fork of the Bezengi and Mizhirgi gorges, there is an unnoticeable alpinist camp "Bezengi" in the vast gorge. Highly skilled athletes come here, prepared for ascents along complex and long routes of any difficulty category. Six "five-thousanders" are located in the mountain massifs.

This is the most severe area for ascents in the Caucasus, with the most powerful, although gradually decreasing, glaciation, as it receives the least amount of solid precipitation compared to other "alpinist" mouths of the Caucasus. One of the reasons for the low amount of precipitation in the mouths of Bezengi, Mizhirgi, Dumala, and Krumkol is the arrangement of surrounding ridges and valleys. Air flows coming from the south and the Black Sea, mainly washing the southern side of the Bezengi - Khaldey wall, move to the Eastern part of the Caucasus, leaving most of the solid precipitation there and on the southern slopes of the Bezengi - Khaldey wall.

Northern flows bring most of the precipitation to the northern foothills and the Western part of the Central Caucasus, as the entrance to the valleys of Bezengi and Dykh-Su is blocked by canyons from the north.

Almost always in the second half of the day, there are thunderstorms and snowfalls on the peaks of the area, caused by local evaporation. Almost all routes from 1st to 5th difficulty category have great length, with a large amount of ice and snow. Long and complex approaches, staying in the high-altitude zone — 4500–5200 m, harsh climatic conditions (cold and almost always fog, wind, snow, thunderstorms in the second half of the day) require more careful selection of alpinists for ascents in the Bezengi area.

The Lateral Ridge is the main sports alpinist massif of the area, closing the Mizhirgi glacier cirque like a horseshoe. It starts with the Brno peak, goes south, then gradually turns east and again north, including the peaks:

• Missestau,
• Dykhtau,
• Mizhirgi,
• Krumkol,
• Koshtantau,
• Kundryum-Mizhirgi with the Skalny peak.

From the Koshtantau peak to the Ullu-Auz pass, the Eastern ridge descends with huge (200-meter) gendarmes. And to the south from the fifth gendarme of the Eastern ridge, the Southern ridge departs with the peaks:

• Tyutyuntau — 4100 m,
• XX let VLKSM,
• Kolkaya.

Ascent along the northern walls to the massif is mainly done along combined routes of 5B difficulty category. The southern rocky walls of the massif are steeper but heavily destroyed and simpler. Ascents on them are mostly classified as 4B–5A difficulty category.

There are still many classic routes on the massif waiting for their first ascenders:

• Northern walls of Koshtantau left and right of the Simonik route,
• Southern wall of the Tikhonov peak,
• Northern wall and southern counterforts of Krumkol peak,
• Northern edge of the Eastern Mizhirgi peak right of the Mikhalsky route and its left counterfort of the Southern wall,
• Western wall of the Western Mizhirgi peak,
• Southern walls and counterforts of the Pushkin peak,
• Western ridge directly from the Miseskosha peak of Missestau,
• Many counterforts of the Brno peak,
• Eastern wall of the Kundryum-Mizhirgi peak,
• Southern walls of Tyutyuntau and the Nameless 4100 m.

© Central Caucasus. Bezengi area. Routes of ascents to the peaks of the Northern massif and to the Bezengi wall from the north. Author — A.F. Naumov, Publishing house "Fizkultura i sport", Moscow, 1967.

UIAA Scheme

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