Ministry of Sports of the Krasnoyarsk Krai

KRASNOYARSK KRAI ALPINISM FEDERATION

Russian Alpinism Championship

2016

Class: Snow and Ice

Report

On the first ascent by the Krasnoyarsk Krai team to Peak Svobodnoy Korei, 4777 m, via the right part of the left triangle of the N wall, route "Krasnoyarsky"

First ascent, estimated 6A category of difficulty

Krasnoyarsk 2016

Ascent Details

1. Region — Tian Shan, Kyrgyz Ala-Too, Ak-Sai valley (№7.4)

2. Summit — Svobodnoy Korei, 4777 m, left part of the N wall, "Krasnoyarsky" route

3. Estimated category of difficulty — 6A — first ascent

4. Route type — mixed terrain

5. Route characteristics:

   Elevation gain: 690 m, route length: 1970 m, wall length: 880 m, sections of 6B category: 365 m, 5B category: 160 m, average steepness: 75°

6. Equipment used: anchor hooks — 82 (61), camalots — 60 (63), ice screws — 80, Fifi hooks — 67, sky hooks — 62, removable bolts — 3, hammered bolts — 13

7. Time taken: 42.5 hours, 5 days

8. Team leader: Alexander Vladimirovich Zhigalov, Master of Sports

   Team members: Igor Alexandrovich Loginov, Master of Sports, Maxim Leonidovich Krivosheev, Master of Sports

9. Team coaches:

   Valery Viktorovich Balezine, Master of Sports of International Class, Honored Trainer, Nikolai Nikolaevich Zakharov, Master of Sports of International Class, Honored Trainer

10. Departure dates:

On route — 4:45, January 27, 2016, On summit — 14:15, January 31, 2016, Return to Koronskaya hut — 3:15, February 1, 2016

11. Ascent organized by — Ministry of Sports of the Krasnoyarsk Krai

Peak Svobodnoy Korei, 4777 m

1 — 5B category, left triangle of the N wall, Balezine V., 1991
2 — Route taken by the team, right part of the left triangle of the N wall, "Krasnoyarsky", est. 6B category
3 — 5B category, right of the left triangle of the N wall, Syschikov A., 2015

Peak Svobodnoy Korei, 4777 m, January 31, 2016

Route profile from the right.

• 4087 m
• Removed from Bezzubkin's memorial
• Exit to the ridge, 4615 m

Hand-drawn route profile

Photo panorama of the area

Tactical actions of the team

Studying the North wall of Svobodnoy Korei for several years, I noticed several logical lines for first ascents. One of these lines (our ascent route) caught the attention of coach Balezine V.V. Thus, as a strong route for:

• acclimatization,
• checking team cohesion,
• participation in the Russian Championship in the snow and ice class,

this line was chosen.

Before the ascent, we organized preliminary acclimatization on Pik Uchitel. Then we moved to Koronskaya hut with an overnight stay and transported all the necessary equipment, platforms, and supplies.

January 27. We started on the route. We quickly passed the lower part. Ice and mixed sections were climbed, followed by highly destroyed rock, steep and snow-covered. The route gradually shifted to the right. Above and to the right, we saw:

• Grekov D.'s rope (2013),
• Syschikov A.'s route (2015).

We passed not far from it; the rope went to the right, and we headed straight up with a slight deviation to the left. We processed another half-rope length, set up a belay, rappelled, and hung the platform in the upper part of the counterforce. The whole day was windy, snowy, with powder avalanches.

January 28. Main wall section. The terrain consists of large slabs stacked on top of each other, glued to the main wall like tiles. Gaps between them cannot be loaded, as the slabs may shift, fall, and potentially hit the ropes and other team members. Therefore, it was necessary to introduce new techniques for passing such sections. For this:

• we drilled holes for sky hooks in the largest rock fragments,
• climbed them,
• secured ourselves to hammered bolts in the monolith gaps.

We reached under a 3-meter overhang. Set up a belay station, hammered a bolt. Rappelled down, hung the platform about 20 meters above the previous night's bivouac. The weather worsened. Gusty winds, poor visibility. The wall was constantly swept by powder avalanches.

January 29. We jumared the processed section. Started to pass the overhang. The rock at the base was alive, huge slabs, everything was crumbling, falling. We managed to pass the overhang via barely visible, drawn cracks. Hammered a bolt at the base of the overhang and another one at the exit, on the bend. Then, about 10 meters after the overhang, we set up a belay station on bolts, processed about 10 meters. Secured ourselves and hung the platform on a steep, vertical wall directly above the overhang. Max managed to collect some snow for food and drink. This was enough for only one pot of noodles and one jetboil with tea for dinner. The weather was bad, windy, snowy. The temperature dropped to −25°C.

January 30. In the morning, we collected a full bag of fresh snow accumulated overnight on the platform's roof, had breakfast. By 2 PM, the first climber reached the roof. Mixed and ice sections followed. As our strength was waning and adjusting the ice equipment took some time, we approached the wall's ridge in the dark, with headlamps. We reached the ridge around 21:00. We didn't find a convenient spot for the platform. We leveled a snowy slope, stuck ice tools into the drift, and tied the platform to them. We climbed into the platform, more like a hammock. Holding the tent with our heads, we settled in, prepared dinner from the remaining food, and slept in a semi-sitting position. Weather: blizzard, wind with snow. Temperature dropped to −27°C.

January 31. We finished the remaining food, packed up, and moved out. The ridge presented its challenges. The first sections were impossible to traverse simultaneously.

The first climber passed a section of traversing the sharp ridge with tools and lower belay, set up a station, then:

• we натянули trolley between the first and the rest,
• pulled packs on a sliding carabiner along the trolley.

Then we climbed another rope length via the classic route on the ascent. Further, we tied in and continued traversing the ridge with packs and the platform on our backs, sometimes in tandem, sometimes in sequence. Occasionally, we had to:

• rappel,
• climb under obstacles.

The ridge stood out as a separate, independent route, taking 5.5 hours to traverse.

Ascent to the summit. Time — 3 PM. We had to continue our traverse to Loo and rappel down the ice.

In the control pit, we found an empty can, but no note. Likely, it was blown away from a half-open can. We wrote our note, wrapped it in a plastic bag, left it in the pit, and headed towards the descent.

We descended slowly towards Loo, again traversing the ridge, then rappelling down the ice. Eventually, in the dark, we slid through a bergschrund and stopped on flat snow around 22:00.

Weather: wind, snow, nothing visible: no tracks, no trail, everything was blown away and covered. In the distance, the outlines of the Koronsky glacier were visible. We moved in its direction, changing the lead and resting on our packs. We somehow found the Koronskaya hut in a snowstorm and darkness. Around 12:00, we collapsed into it, left all our gear, platform, and rested for over an hour, melting snow, drinking tea, eating the food we had left, burning candles and gas. Then we packed up and at 2:00 AM moved down to Ratsek.

At 4:30 AM, we arrived at Ratsek. We drank tea and went to sleep. On February 1, at 10:00 AM, we were already heading down to Ala-Archa to participate in the opening of the Russian and World Championship in the technical class. We climbed Bezzubkin's route to Svobodnoy Korei in 3 days, with two overnight stays, in 29 hours of climbing time. Thus, within a week, we reached the summit of Koren twice via two different wall routes.

We want to note that our route turned out to be more challenging and labor-intensive than Bezzubkin's route — 6A category. This is the opinion of all team members: Krivosheev M.L., Loginov I.A., Zhigalov A.V.

We climbed Bezzubkin's route in 3 days, 29 hours of climbing time, considering we were not fully recovered and hadn't rested properly from our first ascent, which took us 5 days, 42.5 hours of climbing time.

The route was climbed under very poor weather conditions.

Ascent graph to p. Svobodnoy Korei, 4777 m, right part of the left triangle of the N wall, route "Krasnoyarsky"