Ascent to the peak of Maron from the north (2A cat. difficulty)

From the camp located on a flat gravel site in front of the peak Iсследователей and Чон-Турасу, we head through the ridges of old lateral moraines to the NNE ridge of the peak.

x) Description compiled by A. Perelman.

The ridge itself, starting from the snowy part downwards, is even and only has a dip in one place, shaped like an inverted letter "П". The ridge is bordered on both sides by sheer cliffs. On the eastern side, a talus slope stretches under the ridge, while on the western side lies the Maron glacier. We skirt the ridge from the north along a steep, rocky, grassy slope (45–50°). It's best to ascend gradually, without descending to the grassy clearing with a cirque in the Chon-Turasu valley. The stream flowing from the Maron glacier remains to the right of the path in a canyon. After 300 m of ascent, we reach the lower, flat part of the cirque. The stream flows between boulders. To the left are grassy slopes (under the ridge), while to the right, a long and narrow moraine begins. The moraine goes to the left, southwest. Between the moraine and the foot of the wall, a 300 m wide tongue begins. The tongue extends under the surface moraine. To the right of the moraine, a large talus cirque opens up, with a pass saddle visible in its upper part. The moraine abuts a rock at its upper end, which is quite weathered and crumbling. The glacier in this area widens to 500–600 m. It's heavily littered, covered in dirt, rocks, and sand, and is crisscrossed by streams. Further on, the rock expands into a low rocky spur, apparently descending from the peak Февральской революции.

At the lower part of the rock, at a height of two meters, there's a small, very even, sandy and pebbly platform. It's well-protected from the wind and dry. We hammer in several pitons and set up a tent on ice axes. The approach to the overnight stay took less than 5 hours.

In the morning, we proceed along the foot of the rock, leaving it to our right, across the glacier. Ahead, we see a glacier bend, and beyond it, the snowy dome of the summit. The glacier becomes closed, so we rope up: Адамский with Касаткин, Перельман with Ильин. The firn slope is 45° steep, and it's easy to traverse. We ascend in teams, with 6–7 m between teams, the rope between team members is almost taut. In some places, we move in "three steps".

In the upper part, there's a steep bend, where we should be cautious of crevasses, although the glacier surface is even, white, and glistening everywhere. To the left and right, on the raised edges of the glacier, crevasses are visible, covered in snow. If they run across the glacier, the crevasse must be of gigantic width, and it's unclear how it can be bridged by snow. However, we must consider this possibility. The rock to the right has grown into a large rocky massif, the exit from the upper glacial cirque is quite narrow, and the glacier not only flows down as a serac, but also:

• piles up on the rocks,
• breaks into seracs,
• disintegrates into pieces.

From the bend, it resembles a giant staircase of bergschrunds, each 20–30 m high.

We proceed further, to the bend, carefully probing the snow with ice axes. But then, the ice axe sinks up to its head. We stop. We thrust the ice axe in to the left - same result. Once more, and again. It's clear: a crevasse.

Ильин thrusts his ice axe into the dense firn up to the head and takes up the slack. I take a step. Very cautiously. Another one. Another... Another... My ice axe sinks freely each time. Another step. We've covered 2 m from the edge.

Now, my foot suddenly gives way. I manage to lie down on my stomach on the snow, the rope is taut. I place my ice axe under me and try to crawl upwards, forward. The snow edges crumble under me.

The snow bridge here is about 40 cm thick. We'll have to go back down.

I peer into the hole. Something green-blue, with neither bottom nor walls...

I'm already sliding down to my team. Now, Касаткин tries. He crawls straight away. He crawls for a long time. Ice axe flat, leg semi-bent. He pulls himself up. And again. Володя Адамский belays him from below through an ice axe. Finally, the crevasse ends - it's about 18 m wide. To be sure, he thrusts his ice axe in, it hits the ice. All is well.

The crossing is organized as follows:

• We pull the backpack over on a rope.
• With top rope and backup on the rope, we crawl up one by one.

We continue up, gradually deviating to the left. Slow, even ascent with step-kicking and self-arrest through the ice axe. It's very hot, the snow radiates heat from below, everything sparkles: the dazzlingly large cirque below, the glittering bergschrunds, the peaks ahead.

We gradually ascend to a small snowy saddle on the NNE ridge of Maron peak. Now, to the right of it, lies a gentle shoulder with a small snowy ridge, while to the left, there's also a snowy ridge, with rocky outcrops in the distance. We sit down and rest. Everyone is somewhat tired, mainly due to the altitude - we're already at 4800 m.

We begin the final ascent: slowly, smoothly, we head upwards. In 45 minutes, we're at the summit. It's not very pronounced: even, almost flat. The view is magnificent. The entire system of the upper Chon-Turasu is clearly visible, along with many peaks of the ridge.

We perform the following actions:

• Make sketches.
• Take bearings.
• Photograph the panorama.

There's nowhere to build a cairn - it's all snow. Yes, besides, our main goal is achieved - we can now clarify the orography of the Chon-Turasu glacier. That's it. We can descend.

We run down easily. Within ten minutes, we're back at the saddle. We descend along our tracks, the wind is weak, and they've barely been covered. In less than an hour, we reach the glacier bend. Again, we cross the snow bridge in the same order. We glacier-slide down along our tracks. A little more, and we climb out onto the platform on the rock, to the tent.

List of descent stages:

• Descent along our tracks.
• Reaching the glacier bend.
• Crossing the snow bridge.
• Glacier-sliding down along our tracks.
• Climbing out onto the platform on the rock, to the tent.

The entire ascent took 7 hours, the summit height is about 5000 m.