As­cen­sion cer­tifi­cate

1. As­cen­sion re­gion:
2. Tian-Shan,

7.10 Tes­key-Ala­Too ridge, Ka­ra­kol gorge

3. Peak 4130 m via east­ern coun­ter­fort and N-E ridge
4. Pro­posed cat. 2B. First as­cen­sion.
5. Na­ture of the route — com­bined
6. Route ele­va­tion gain 500 m (by al­ti­me­ter)
7. Route length 800 m
8. Used on the route: ice hooks — 12, rock and nut pro­tec­tion — 0, bol­lard hooks — 0
9. Hooks left be­hind — 0
10. Team's mov­ing hours — 13

De­par­ture from base camp in Ka­rakol gorge — Au­gust 26, 2012 at 6:00, start of work on the route — 9:30, sum­mit — 14:00, de­scent to camp — 19:00

10. De­scent from the sum­mit: via NW slope.

11. As­cen­sion made by the team of Sal­ni­kov Dmi­try (1st sports grade, Instr. №1210), Ar­ta­mo­nov Ser­gey (2nd sports grade), Se­mionov Pavel (3rd sports grade)

12. Coach: Sal­ni­kova Ma­ria Petrov­na (1st sports grade, Judge 2nd cat.)

13. Or­ga­ni­za­tion: MROO "Tomsk Al­pi­nism Fed­er­a­tion" Tomsk

14. Com­piled by: Se­mionov Pavel Ar­kade­vich (paxan_semenov@mail.ru) Tomsk 2013

The peak from the side of Ka­ra­kol gorge. Dis­tance to the start of the route 700 m (Au­gust 26, 2012)

Break­down by sec­tions:

De­scrip­tion of the route

The sum­mit is lo­cated in the west­ern cham­ber of the up­per part of Ka­ra­kol gorge. The sum­mit bor­ders on Peak Tel­man, and through 40 Years of Kir­gi­zia Pass — on Peak De­men­tiev. It is lo­cated in the so-called "Lith­u­an­ian cor­ner" to­geth­er with oth­er peaks.

The as­cen­sion be­gan from the camp set up by us on grav­el ar­eas of the val­ley be­fore On­tor gla­cier. The val­ley is lo­cated at an al­ti­tude of 3200 m. De­par­ture from the camp was sched­uled for 6:00.

Ap­proach to the peak via a steep talus cou­loir on the slope of the gorge. The talus is sta­ble and very con­ve­nient for as­cent. A wa­ter­fall on the left side above the mid­dle of the slope of the gorge serves as a land­mark (pho­to 1).

As­cent via the cou­loir to the cirque takes 1–2 hours. At 8:30 the gen­eral view of the peak opened up be­fore us (pho­to 2) at an al­ti­tude of about 3500 m.

Af­ter con­ducted re­con­nais­sance, a route via the east­ern coun­ter­fort was cho­sen as the most log­ical path to the sum­mit. And at 9:30 we were al­ready un­der the route (pho­to 3).

Sec­tion R0 rep­re­sents a fairly steep as­cent via an in­ter­nal cor­ner to the coun­ter­fort of the moun­tain. The rocks here are bro­ken and there is a risk of rock­fall. The length of the sec­tion is about 150 m at a steep­ness of 45–50°. Al­ter­nate climb­ing, pro­tec­tion via pro­tru­sions.

Af­ter ap­proach­ing sec­tion R1, a pan­orama of the rock kar un­der the sum­mit and the coun­ter­fort to the right opens up, end­ing in a chasm. It is not rec­om­mend­ed to move through the kar due to the risk of col­lapse of snow cor­nices from sec­tion R3. There­fore, a route via the coun­ter­fort was cho­sen by us.

Sec­tion R1 rep­re­sents a strong­ly bro­ken rock ridge with a steep­ness of 40–45°. Move­ment on sec­tions R0–R1 is si­mul­ta­ne­ous with pro­tec­tion via pro­tru­sions. Af­ter 350–400 m this ridge ends with a huge gen­darme, which we de­cid­ed to by­pass on the left (sec­tion R2), as there was a huge chasm to the right.

On the oth­er side, the gen­darme was cov­ered with snow and ice. The frozen in­ter­nal cor­ner leads up­wards. Abun­dance of snow cov­er al­lowed to pass the sec­tion via snow steps, af­ter which we found our­selves above the gen­darme and near snow cor­nices. In this place, in an­oth­er weath­er, it is pos­si­ble to use pe­rials for over­com­ing the steep sec­tion.

Find­ing our­selves be­fore the snow ridge (sec­tion R3, pho­to 4), it was de­cid­ed to put on cra­pons and as­cend to the sum­mit in rope teams.

South-east side:

• Cor­nice ends with steep drops with great depth
• Large snow cor­nices hang­ing with widths up to sev­eral me­ters

North-west side:

• Ridge slopes down with a steep­ness of 45–50°

Gen­eral con­di­tions:

• Snow cov­er thick­ness — about 1 m
• Weath­er con­di­tions — un­fa­vor­able, wet snow
• As­cent — ava­lanch dan­ger­ous
• As­cent — in rope teams, with si­mul­ta­ne­ous pro­tec­tion, us­ing ice screws
• Ice un­der snow — brit­tle and un­re­li­able, re­quired a lot of time to in­stall each ice screw

We reached the sum­mit (pho­to 5) around 14:00. We found:

• sev­eral tin cans,
• a cairn,
• a rot­ted note.

The state of the note was so de­plor­able that it was not pos­si­ble to un­fold and read it.

Af­ter a short stay on the sum­mit, it was de­cid­ed to de­scend down the ice slope of the moun­tain (NW slope), which ended with a gla­cier sur­round­ing the moun­tain. The ap­proach­ing storm made it im­pos­si­ble to de­scend via the as­cent route. And be­sides, de­scent via the ice wall looked log­ical, quick, and safe with pro­per pre­pa­ra­tion.

We needed 7–8 ropes to safely de­scend down to a gen­tle sec­tion.

At the bot­tom, there was a fairly wide bergschrund (2–4 m), which was par­tially al­ready cov­ered with snow.

Find­ing our­selves on a flat sec­tion of the gla­cier, we:

• crossed the gla­cier with­out rope teams
• con­tin­ued de­scent down­wards

The gla­cier is open. In some places it is bro­ken by ra­dial cre­vasses.

The de­scent route (pho­to 7) can be es­ti­mat­ed as 2B–3A. The main dif­fi­culty is rep­re­sent­ed by the bergschrund at the base. Fairly great steep­ness (about 50°) does not al­low snow to ac­cu­mu­late. And the route for as­cent is rel­a­tively safe. The length of the route is 350–450 m.

Af­ter de­scent to the gen­tle part of the gla­cier, the weath­er de­te­ri­o­rat­ed. Rain be­gan, which did not al­low us to de­scend from the slope of Ka­ra­kol gorge. For some time we waited for im­prove­ment of weath­er at the foot of the rock above the start of the de­scent. Af­ter 1–2 hours of wait­ing, we de­scend­ed to the camp via more or less dry rocks al­ready at 20:00.

The route turned out to be in­ter­est­ing and sat­u­rat­ed with var­ious forms of re­lief. It is not rec­om­mend­ed in wet rainy weath­er, as the rocks are fairly steep and strong­ly bro­ken.

The route can be rec­om­mend­ed for:

• ac­cli­ma­ti­za­tion be­fore as­cen­sions in the cirque of On-Tor gla­cier,
• as­cen­sions to high­er and more ser­i­ous peaks of Ka­ra­kol gorge.

Also, the de­scent route can be used for as­cen­sion.