To the Main Judging Panel of the 2005 Russian Federation Alpine Championship, High-Altitude Class

Report

On ascending to the summit of Khan-Tengri 6995 m via the center of the North face. Combination of routes: Studenin-74, Myslovsky-74, Zakharov-88.

From August 20 to 30, 2005, the FASKO team, consisting of Tukhvatullin I. Kh. and Shabalin P. E., undertook the ascent.

Ascent Passport

1. Central Tian Shan, Tengri-Tag ridge, South Inylchek glacier, section 7.9

2. Khan-Tengri peak 6995 m, from the South Inylchek glacier via the center of the North face

3. Proposed - 6B category of difficulty, combination of routes Studenin-74, Myslovsky-74, Zakharov-88.

4. Route type – combined

5. Route height difference – 2760 m.

   Route length – 3960 m. Length of sections with 5–6 category of difficulty – 860 m. Average steepness of the main part of the route – 59°.

6. Pitons left on the route: total 10; including 0 drill-in pitons Drill-in pitons used on the route: 0 Total protection used: approximately 40

7. Team's travel days – 10

8. Team leader: Shabalin Pavel Eduardovich, MSМК (Master of Sports of International Class)

   Participant: Tukhvatullin Ilyas Khamidovich, MS (Master of Sports)

9. Coach: Shabalin Pavel Eduardovich, MSМК

10. Departure for the route: 6:00 August 20, 2005

    Summit departure: 12:00 August 29, 2005 Return to Base Camp: 24:00 August 30, 2005

General photo of the summit

1 – GORBENKO route 1987 2 – STUDENIN route 1974 3 – TEAM's route 2005 4 – MYLOVSKY route 1974 5 – ZAKHAROV route 1988

PHOTO OF THE UPPER PART OF THE ROUTE PROFILE FROM THE RIGHT

2003 PHOTO. Ice gorge before turning onto the Myslovsky route from the Studenin route

Notes

1. Ascent Passport

P. 5 The height difference of the route is taken from the report of the "Yenisei" team led by N. N. Zakharov in 1988. No altimeter was used.

The route length and the length of sections with 5–6 category of difficulty were not measured during the ascent and are taken as the average of the reports by Zakharov, Pogorelov, Urubko, and Koroteev. The average steepness of the route is taken from the report of the "Yenisei" team led by N. N. Zakharov in 1988. No inclinometer was used.

2. Drawn Profile of the Route

Not included in the report due to the impossibility of conducting measurements by a team of two during the ascent.

3. Ascent Schedule

Not included in the report as no watches or altimeters were taken on the ascent. It is not possible to specify the exact time spent on the route or the heights of the bivouacs. The team assesses the weather conditions as challenging. After the first three days of sunny weather, there were daily precipitation and strong winds in the second half of the day.

4. Route Diagram in UIAA Symbols

Not included in the report as, under the complex weather conditions with half of the bivouacs being seated, it was impossible to accurately record the technical parameters of such an extensive route.

5. Photo Illustration of the Report

No photographs from the route or the summit are attached as the camera broke during the ascent. Photographs from the 2003 ascent are attached. General photos of the wall, panorama, and profile were taken during acclimatization exits.

Pavel Shabalin, Ilyas Tukhvatullin. First Ascent by a Team of Two in Alpine Style via the Center of Khan-Tengri's North Face

P. Sh.: In the eighties, we were among the first to compete in the technical class not as a team, but as a duo. Two years ago, the idea arose to do the same in the high-altitude class. After all, routes like the North face of Khan-Tengri, the South face of Peak Kommunizma, and Pobeda stand "abandoned". There have been repeats, but always by teams. It should be done in duos and in alpine style, as written by Pavlenko and Koshelenko. Why go to Nuptse, spend thousands of dollars, when our routes are right here? Come, guys, to our championships and our routes, and everything will be great.

Yura Moiseev lamented that people were attempting Khan-Tengri, but not our guys. Poles, Bulgarians, Zoltan Demyan... At best, they reached the ledge and turned left. Last year, a, duo of Poles attempted it and fell off on the second day. One descended, the other perished. There were about six attempts by duos in total.

Two years ago, Ilyas and I decided to try. We started, not knowing the gear, clothes, the nature of the wall, climate, etc., and spent a week climbing. We found an interesting route - a combination of Odessa and Studenin (starting like Studenin with an exit to Odessa), and planned to finish it like Pogorelov. Due to weather, we couldn't complete it.

We went up two pitches on Pogorelov's route, were hit by avalanches, couldn't wait, and the helicopter was evacuating the camp below, so we descended traverse via the ledge.

But every cloud has a silver lining; it stuck in our heads. We figured out the tactics, strategy, what gear we needed, and everything else. We ordered the necessary gear from Camp and Red Fox.

We took experimental Red Fox and Camp gear, planning for K2, so it was a test run for all the gear we would use on K2.

MR: Frostbite

P. Sh.: I thought: new gear, plus this super style, we'll climb, climb, climb... Urubko and K. also minimize their gear on ascents, almost wearing running shoes.

I decided to try this style too, saying: "Ilyas, you'll be standing on belays, so climb in regular boots, and I'll go as if in pointe shoes, in thin crampons, effectively in sneakers." This was the first miscalculation, meaning I initially took small boots. Even if they were "super".

Second: Ilyas and I always climb like this: he last, me first. When all this nastiness started - bad weather, lack of bivouac sites, one seated bivouac after another, then equipment failures began. The stove broke, we spent half a day repairing it. As the travel days went by, one after another... Gas runs out, food runs out, energy too (the alcohol finished on the col, we had only a liter, but we weren't focused on that).

And we didn't start on August 15 as planned, but on the 20th. And Ilyin said that after August 15, winter starts there. And the machine got stuck, and it only got worse.

Hands are always stretched up, no matter what you wear - they freeze. Do you have wrist straps? - they constrict. And I'm always first. It's one thing for the second to quickly pass a rope in 15–20 minutes and then curl up on belay. It's another for the first - half an hour, two, two and a half hours. Who knows how long one pitch will take? You hang and hang on your hands. It just layered on top of each other: weather, cold, time of year...

MR: Gear, Clothing, Personal. What did you take to the mountain?

P. Sh.: I had a backpack, two mats, and a sleeping bag. Everything else was carried by Ilyas.

There was total minimization. I clearly remember we had 4.3 kg of food. A liter of 70-proof hawthorn tincture. First-aid kit with repair kit, film, glasses, everything - 1 kg. Personal gear - half a kilo (warm gloves, 1 pair of spare socks, 1 pair of spare gloves, mask). Ilyas had roughly the same.

One sleeping bag for both, weighing 1 kg (a very thin Red Fox tinsulate blanket, 2×2, it was enough to tuck in on all sides). It was absolutely comfortable. Thin blue down jackets, weighing 600 grams.

We wore: PowerStretch thermals, black WindPro suit, on top a Gore-Tex suit, hat, helmet, on hands gloves and Gore-Tex gloves. All Red Fox. Everything worked perfectly.

MR: Rope

P. Sh.: The Lanex rope, half, 9.1 mm. We cut an "eighty-meter" rope to make a "sixty-meter". The thing is, it's hard to make a 40–50 meter pitch, but 25–30 meters is doable. That's what we learned from previous ascents. You have strength for these 25–30 meters, for a sprint. It's purely tactical, better than making a 50-meter pitch. With intermediate anchors, you go slower, then even slower - you get tired. And for the second with a heavy backpack, running 25–30 meters is easier.

I actually climbed the whole rope, from station to station (maybe there were five ropes with intermediate anchors). Never releasing the devices from my hands, not removing crampons, from bottom to top. The team on the wall is like a caterpillar: it stretches from station to station - pulls the "tail". And so on. This is more effective than the standard way of hanging ropes on the wall.

MR: Hardware

P. Sh.: Camp fully equipped us with hardware. "Avaks" - an amazing tool, and "Vector" crampons. Surprisingly, nothing got bent during the entire ascent, all ice tools performed excellently. Friends, nuts, drills, pitons - all Camp. And we got some anchor pitons from Krasnoyarsk to test. Also an amazing thing. We used a lot of anchor pitons. They held well, but were hard to extract. They're very difficult to knock out, but you can place them almost anywhere. Anchor pitons really helped.

Khan-Tengri (6995 m) - Information on Ascents via the Center of the North Face

In addition to the information in the "Steep World" magazine V, page 121 (prepared by Starikov G. A.)

Note the sports ranks and titles of the participants in the ascents!

Note: This list does not include two very complex ascents, as they were made to the left of the center of the wall and exit onto K. Kuzmin's route, 64:

• Right variant of the North face, O. Khudyakov, 70
• Right variant of the North face, N. Zhilin, 98

and also does not include the route - variant on the right edge of the center of the North face, D. Grekov, 93

Pavel Shabalin, Ilyas Tukhvatullin. First Ascent by a Team of Two in Alpine Style via the Center of Khan-Tengri's North Face

PART II

MR: Ascent Schedule

P. Sh.: We wanted to leave on the 15th. We waited in the canteen till midnight. Left. And couldn't find our tent. The fog settled, bad weather. We sat, trying to leave every day, and finally left on the 20th. The first three days were okay in the morning, then it started: okay in the morning, crap in the evening. The main thing is, during the entire ascent, we used only two platforms made by those before us. The others we found were either not in the right place, or in a dangerous spot, or not at the right time. So out of eight bivouacs, four were seated. You climb to the limit, then sit, without removing boots, then sit, adjusting the tent. The tent (Red Fox "Solo") showed itself to be excellent. Weighs only two kilograms. And didn't tear in these extreme conditions, survived, despite the winds and us sitting - poking with crampons.

MR: Route Condition

P. Sh.: There's a lot of snow. The snow is loose. We had to clear it all the time, all nine days, never releasing the ice axe from our hands, clearing it in front of our noses and climbing. It's quite steep. You step onto the snow - you try to jump back onto the rock. Because the snow is waist-deep, you dig, but it's not compacted... Very hard.

We left at 4:00 on August 20, put up the tent on the dome on August 28, left early on August 29, and passed the tripod in 1.5–2 hours. We also had a cache from two years ago, made from the "classic" route.

MR: Found it?

No, that's the thing. There was a big gas cylinder, food, carbs. Nothing was found.

So we quickly passed it and went down via the "classic" route. We were the last to descend, there was no one else. We found a sea of different food. Empty gas cylinders. And not a single one even half full. Ilyas melted water on a candle, then you'd shake this snow in a "shaker", sprinkle some nonsense like sugar powder. And so for two days. Without water, without gas, without anything.

And descending to the ridge during the day, we put up the tent, sat. And how we went to the ridge... It seemed flat, but you take twenty steps - and fall. The next twenty steps - and fall again.

We got into this tent, the wind is blowing, I say: "Let's not undress, wait till it calms down, then we'll leave at night, so be it."

We sat for a while, not removing boots, in harnesses, closer to night we pulled out the sleeping bag, covered up. In the morning, we wake up and sit again, still dressed. For three days, we didn't remove our boots, in constant readiness to go. And all the time - bad weather.

MR: Frostbite

P. Sh.: I saw my hands on the dome. Till the dome, everything was fine. On the dome, I feel - what's going on? Simply, the body was already exhausted. Cold all the time. I was always doing something - waving my hands, but suddenly - they're all black. It was still okay in the morning, after 1.5 hours of climbing in a crazy wind - everything.

First, you climb, your hands are always up. It's one thing for the second to quickly pass fifteen minutes on a rope, then sit and belay, another for the first - half an hour, two, two and a half. Who knows how long one pitch will take? You hang and hang on your hands. It just layered on top of each other: weather, cold, time of year...

MR: Communication

P. Sh.: We specifically didn't take any communication or watches with us... That's just how we climb.

Thank God Lenka Kalashnikova (Ak-Sai-Travel) waited for us down there. Thanks to them for waiting, not evacuating the camp.

When we descended, they called a helicopter over the radio, and we were picked up from there. Otherwise, we would have had to return on foot. Huge thanks to them.

MR: Gear

P. Sh.: The backpack weight at the start was about 16–17 kg. Contents:

• Hardware
• Rope
• Two mats
• Sleeping bag
• Down jacket

MR: Hardware

P. Sh.: Gear:

• Six drills (four long, two short)
• About twelve classic pitons (from blades to bongos), hard-alloy and soft-alloy, Camp's
• 12 anchor pitons (we brought down half)
• Two sets of nuts
• A set of friends
• Seven quickdraws (two of them were extension quickdraws)
• Loops
• Carabiners (a few)

Total minimization.

A short rope, deliberately, so as not to have to carry 10–12 quickdraws and a bunch of other junk.

MR: Nutrition

P. Sh.:

• Two cans of red caviar
• Puree
• "Hot Circles"
• "Bystrov" porridge
• "Klinsky" type crackers
• A couple of sticks of smoked sausage

MR: First-Aid Kit

P. Sh.: There was nothing for frostbite. We didn't count on it... Minimum: adrenaline, mesaton, prednisolone, green pencil.

So Ilyas, the scoundrel, when he injected prednisolone, would sign on my butt :)

Sponsors of the ascent: Red Fox and Camp.