To the Main Judges' Panel of the 2005 Russian Alpine Championship, High-Altitude Class
Report
On the ascent to the summit of Khan Tengri 6995 m via the center of the North Face. Combination of Studenin-74, Myslovsky-74, Zakharov-88 routes.
From August 20 to 30, 2005, the FASKO team consisting of Tukhvatullin I.Kh. and Shabalin P.E.
Ascent Passport
- Central Tian Shan, Tengri-Tag ridge, S. Inylchek glacier, section 7.9
- Khan Tengri peak 6995 m, from S. Inylchek glacier via the center of the N. face
- Proposed - 6B category of difficulty, combination of Studenin-74, Myslovsky-74, Zakharov-88 routes.
- Route type - combined
- Height difference of the route - 2760 m. Route length - 3960 m. Length of sections with 1st category of difficulty - 860 m. Average steepness of the main part of the route - 59°
- Hooks left on the route: total 10; including pitons 0 Pitons used on the route: 0 Total ITO used: approximately 40
- Team's travel days - 10
- Team leader: Shabalin Pavel Eduardovich, MSМК (Master of Sports of International Class) Participant: Tukhvatullin Ilyas Khamidovich, MS (Master of Sports)
- Coach: Shabalin Pavel Eduardovich, MSМК
- Departure to the route: 6:00 August 20, 2005
Summit ascent: 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 - 2005 TEAM route 4 - MYSLLOVSKY route 1974 5 - ZAKHAROV route 1988
PHOTO OF THE UPPER PART OF THE ROUTE PROFILE FROM THE RIGHT
PHOTOPANORAMA OF THE AREA
Khan Tengri 6995 m
5900
6150
TEAM'S ROUTE
DESCENT PATH
TECHNICAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE ROUTE
6995 m 28.08.2005
26–27.08
25.08
24.08
23.08
21:08
20.08
4235
PHOTO 2003. Ice streams above the bergschrund at the beginning of the route
PHOTO 2003. Ice gorge before turning onto the Myslovsky route from the Studenin route
Photo 2003
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 length of the route and 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 angle measurer was used.
2. Hand-Drawn Profile of the Route
Not provided in the report due to the impossibility of conducting measurements by a duo during the ascent.
3. Ascent Schedule
Not provided in the report, as watches and altimeters were not taken on the ascent. It is not possible to specify the exact time spent on the route and the heights of the bivouacs. The team assessed the weather conditions as complex. After the first three days of sunny weather, there were daily precipitations with strong winds in the second half of the day.
4. Route Diagram in UIAA Symbols
Not provided in the report, as it was impossible to accurately record the technical parameters of such an extended route during bivouacs in complex weather conditions.
5. Photo Illustration of the Report
No photos from the route and summit are attached, as the camera broke during the ascent. Photos from the 2003 ascent are attached. General photos of the wall, panorama, and profile were taken during acclimatization climbs.
Pavel Shabalin, Ilyas Tukhvatullin. First Ascent by a Duo 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 emerged - to do the same in the high-altitude class. After all, routes like the North Face of Khan, the South Face of Peak Kommunizma, and Pobeda are just standing there. There have been repeats, but always by a team. It would be great to climb in duos and in alpine style. What Pavlenko and Koshlenko wrote about. Only why go to Nuptse, spend thousands of dollars - here are our routes. Climb, guys, in our championships, on our routes, and everything will be great. Yura Moiseev lamented that people are drawn to Khan, but not our guys. Poles, Bulgarians, Zaltan Demyan... At best, they reach the shelf and retreat to the left. Last year, a duo of Poles went up and flew down on the second day. One descended, the second died. 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 character of the wall, climate, etc. We spent a week climbing. We found an interesting route - a combination of Odessa and Studenin (starting with Studenin and exiting onto Odessa), and planned to finish via Pogorelov. Due to weather, we couldn't complete it. We climbed two ropes up via Pogorelov, started getting hit by avalanches, couldn't wait, and the helicopter began evacuating the camp down below, so we descended traverse along the shelf. But every cloud has a silver lining. Our heads were filled with thoughts. We estimated 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, calculating for K2, i.e., this was a test run for all the gear that would be used on K2.
MR: Frostbite
P.Sh.: I thought: new gear, plus this super-style, we'll climb, climb, climb... Urubko and K. also maximally lighten their load on climbs, almost in sneakers. I decided to try this style. I said to Ilyas: "You'll be standing on belay, so climb in regular boots, and I'll be like in pointe shoes, in thin crampons, actually in sneakers." This was the first miscalculation, i.e., I initially took small boots. Even if they were "super." Second: Ilyas and I always climb like this: he's last, I'm first. When all this mess started, bad weather, lack of bivouac sites, one sitting bivouac after another, then failures began - the burner failed, we spent half a day repairing it. The travel days started to slip away, one after another... Gas runs out, food runs out, energy also runs out (alcohol finished already on the col, there was only a liter, and we didn't focus on it). And the fact that we didn't start on August 15, as planned, but on August 20. And Ilyin says that after August 15, winter starts there. - and the machine got stuck, and so on. Hands are always stretched up, whatever you wear, they freeze. Do you have thumb loops? - they constrict. And always as the first. More or less, you climb. The second can sit, climb a rope for 15-20 minutes, and curl up into a ball on belay. No, everything works, everything's fine. Simply, the strategy I chose failed in real conditions. When we made it to the top, to the "roof," everything was still okay. But when we went from the "roof" to the summit, I felt that my hands were bending somehow wrongly. It was already on the dome. In the morning, we crawled out to 6850 m. We sat for another night, somehow, without gas, almost, without water, already not taking off our boots. We didn't change boots for the last two nights. So, such a thing happened: general weakening of the body plus hard work, tight boots, bad weather... In the end - frostbite. Generally, we planned to go in a trio, with Mariev. And we planned a speed ascent... If there were three of us, maybe we wouldn't have gone via the center, to Zakharov's tower, and would have finished via Myslovsky - turned the corner and run through. When people can take turns, when there's someone to work with, even on snow, you can "hammer" in non-stop mode. In a duo, everything turns out differently.
MR: Gear, Clothing, Personal. What did you take to the mountain?
P.Sh.: I had a backpack, two sleeping mats, and a sleeping bag. Everything else was carried by Ilyas. The minimization was complete. I clearly remember that there were 4.3 kg of food. A liter of hawthorn tincture, 70 proof. A first-aid kit with repair kit, film, glasses, etc. - 1 kg. Personal - 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 two, weighing 1 kg (a very thin Red Fox tinsulate blanket, 2x2, it was enough to tuck in from all sides). It was absolutely comfortable. Thin blue down jackets, weighing 600 g. On us: powerstretch thermals, black windpro suit, gortex suit on top, hat, helmet, gloves, and gortex gloves. Red Fox. Everything worked perfectly.
MR: Rope
P.Sh.: Lanex rope, half, 9.1. We cut an "eightдесят" (80m) rope specially, made a "sixty" (60m) out of it. The thing is, it's quite hard to climb on 40-50 m, but on 25-30 m - it's normal. We drew this from our previous ascent experience. You have enough strength for these 25-30 m, for a sprint. It's purely tactically better than going out on 50 m. With intermediate anchors, you climb slower, then even slower - you're tired, after all. And it's easier for the second with a heavy backpack to run a piece of 25-30 m. Actually, I climbed the whole rope, from station to station (maybe there were five ropes with intermediate belay points). Never releasing the devices from my hands, not removing crampons, from bottom to top. The rope team on the wall is like a caterpillar: it stretched from station to station - pulled the "tail." And so on. This is more effective than the standard variant of hanging ropes on the wall.
MR: Ironmongery
P.Sh.: Camp fully equipped us with ironmongery. "Avaks" - an amazing tool, and "Vector" crampons. To our surprise, nothing got bent during the entire ascent, all ice tools worked perfectly. Friends, pegs, drills, hooks - all Camp. And we took some anchor hooks from Krasnoyarsk to test. Also an amazing thing. We used a lot of anchor hooks. They held well, but were also easy to leave behind. They're very hard to knock out, but you can place them anywhere. Anchor hooks helped a lot.
Khan Tengri (6995 m) - Ascent Information via the Center of the North Face
In amendment to the information in the article in the journal "Krutoy Mir" V, p. 121 (prepared by Starikov G.A.)
| Year | Dates | Days | Team | Championships: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 22.7–6.8 11–13.8 | - | processing of the route (V. Putrin – MS participated) up to 5500 m: E. Myslovsky – MSМК, I. Grebenshchikov – КМС, V. Ivanov – MSМК, V. Maksimov – MS, V. Masyukov – MS (returned due to lack of time) | - |
| 1973 | 9–13.8 | - | processing 12 ropes to the left of the Myslovsky route to ...? V. Vstavsky – КМС, V. Gavryushkin – КМС, V. Kokarev – КМС, V. Osin – КМС, A. Sakash – КМС (Krasnoyarsk). Expedition leader – V.V. Bezzubkin – MS (returned due to an accident with V. Borisenko – 1st category, August 23, 1953) | - |
| 1974 | 20.7–1.8 22.7–3.8 | 13 13 | B. Studenin – MSМК, V. Gapich – КМС, A. Kurchakov – КМС, Yu. Marchenko – КМС, V. Medvedev – КМС E. Myslovsky – MSМК, V. Glukhov – MSМК, V. Ivanov – MSМК, I. Grebenshchikov – КМС, A. Golovin – КМС, V. Loktionov – КМС, E. Pelekhov – КМС, V. Puchkov – КМС | 1st place – USSR 1st place – USSR |
| 1986 | 14–21.8 | 8 | V. Koroteev – КМС, V. Elagin – MS, V. Kolomyts – MS, V. Moskalyov – КМС, O. Nikolaev – КМС, V. Obikhod – КМС, N. Petrov – КМС, V. Yanochkin – КМС | (bypassing KSP) |
| 1987 | 10–17.8 | 8 | M. Gorbenko – MS, V. Alperin – MS, N. Bazelevsky – КМС, O. Erokhin – КМС, P. Serenkov – MS, M. Sitnik – MS, V. Todorov – КМС | 1st place – USSR |
| 1988 | 4–11.8 | 8 | N. Opoitsev – КМС, A. Artamonov – КМС, V. Kalyuzhny – КМС, G. Guryев – КМС, F. Akhmatov – КМС, S. Shuvaev – КМС (in the upper part of the route turned right) | 1st place – Russia |
| 10–17.8 | 8 | Yu. Moiseev – MS, P. Kovalenko – КМС, A. Studenin – КМС, Kh. Tashmambetov – КМС, V. Tugalev – КМС, A. Tsilishchev – КМС | 2nd place – USSR | |
| 14–21.8 | 8 | N. Zakharov – MSМК, S. Antipin – MS, E. Bakaleinikov – MS, V. Bogdanov – КМС, A. Karlov – КМС, V. Lebedev – MS, V. Sereda – MS | 1st place – USSR | |
| 1993 | 9–15.8 | 7 | A. Pogorelov – MSМК, Yu. Koshlenko – КМС, A. Moiseev – КМС, V. Nikitenko – КМС (didn't pass the summit wall, turned left onto K. Kuzmin's route, 64) | 1st place – Russia |
| 1994 | 31.7–9.8 | 10 | N. Zhilin – MS, A. Bolotov – КМС, Yu. Yermachek – MS, V. Suvorov – КМС, S. Khabibullin – MS (from 2/3 of the route traversed right to 5A) | 2nd place – Russia |
| 22–30.8 | 9 | D. Grekov – MS, Sh. Gataullin – КМС, M. Mikhailov – КМС, A. Molotov – КМС, V. Suiga – MSМК, V. Frolov – КМС | 2nd place – EAAC | |
| 2000 | 1–9.8 | 9 | D. Urubko – КМС, D. Molgachev – КМС, V. Pivtsov – КМС, A. Rudakov – КМС, S. Samoilov – КМС | 1st place – EAAC |
| 2–13.8 | 12 | V. Popovich – КМС, Yu. Yermachek – MS, A. Korobkov – КМС | 3rd place – Russia |
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:
- On the N face, O. Khudyakov, 70
- Right variant on the N face, N. Zhilin, 98 and also does not include the route - variant on the right edge of the center N face, D. Grekov, 93
Pavel Shabalin, Ilyas Tukhvatullin. First Ascent by a Duo 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 cafeteria until midnight. Left. And couldn't find our tent. The fog settled completely, bad weather. We sat, tried to leave every day, and only managed to leave on the 20th. The first three days were normal in the morning, and then it started: normal in the morning, and by evening - disaster. The main thing is that 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 location, or not timely. So, out of eight nights, four were spent sitting. You climb to the limit, then sit down, not removing your boots, then sit, putting on the tent. The tent (Red Fox "Solo") showed itself to be excellent. Weighs only two kilograms. And didn't tear in all these extreme conditions, survived, despite the winds, and us poking it 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, for all nine days, without releasing the ice axes from our hands, we clear it in front of our noses and climb. 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. On August 20, we left at 4 am, on August 28, we put up the tent on the dome, on August 29, early in the morning, we left and after 1.5-2 hours passed the tripod. We still had a cache from the year before last, we made it from the "classic" route.
MR: Found it?
No, that's the whole point. There was a big gas cylinder, food, carbohydrates. Nothing was found. So, we quickly passed by 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, like in a shaker, you shake this snow, sprinkle it with some nonsense like sugar. And so for two days. Without water, without gas, without anything. And, descending to the saddle during the day, we put up the tent, sat down. And how we got to the saddle... It's flat, supposedly, but you take twenty steps and fall. Take the next twenty steps - and fall again. We got into this tent, the wind is blowing, I say: "Let's not undress, we'll wait, as soon as it dies down, we'll start moving out onto Chapayev and descending." We sat until night, not removing our boots, in harnesses, closer to night, we pulled out the sleeping bag, covered ourselves. In the morning, we wake up and sit again, still dressed. We didn't change boots for three days, always ready to go. And all the time - bad weather.
MR: Frostbite…
P.Sh.: I saw my hands on the dome. Until 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 - and they're all black. In the morning, I was sitting - it was normal, after an hour and a half of climbing in a wild windstorm - everything. The first to climb, hands are always raised. It's one thing for the second to climb a rope for fifteen minutes, then sit and rest, another thing for the first, for half an hour, two, two and a half. Who knows how long one rope will take. You hang and hang on your hands. Simply, one thing layered on another:
- weather, cold, time of year...
MR: Communication
P.Sh.: We didn't take any communication or watches with us on purpose... That's just how we climb. Thank God that Lenka Kalashnikova (Ak-Sai Travel) waited for us down below. Thanks to them for waiting for us, not evacuating the camp. When we descended, they called a helicopter via radio, and we were picked up from there. Because otherwise, we would have had to return on foot. Huge thanks to them.
MR: Gear
P.Sh.: The weight of the backpack at the start was approximately 16-17 kg. Ironmongery, rope, two sleeping mats, sleeping bag, down jacket.
MR: Ironmongery
P.Sh.: Six drills (four long, two short), about twelve classic hooks, from blades to bongos, with carbide and soft metal tips, Camp. 12 anchor hooks, we rappelled down with half of them. Two sets of nuts, a set of friends. Seven quickdraws, two of them were "exploding." Loops. Carabiners (a few). Total minimization. A short rope, intentionally, 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 cups," "Bystrov" porridge, crackers like "Klinsky," a couple of sticks of dry-cured 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, what did he do when he injected prednisolone? He signed his name on my butt :)
Sponsors of the ascent: Red Fox and Camp.