Pas­port of as­cent to Jel Teger­men peak 4570 m.

1. Tian-Shan, Cen­tral part of At-Ba­shi range, Bos­kur­bu tract. Ab­sent in clas­si­fi­ca­tor.
2. Jel Teger­men — 4570 m. Via West­ern couloir and then along South­ern ridge.
3. Pro­posed 3B cat. dif. First as­cent.
4. Com­bined route
5. Height dif­fer­ence — 520 m ac­cord­ing to (GPS).

Route length — 800 m.

Sec­tions:

• 2B cat. dif.: 600 m, 40–55 de­grees
• 4A cat. dif.: 200 m, 40 de­grees

6. Used 8 pro­tec­tion el­e­ments.
7. Walk­ing hours — 12.
8. De­scent via as­cent route.
9. Leader: Paolo Rab­bia.

Team mem­ber: Ales­san­dro Bel­tra­me

10. Start of route 8:00, March 29, 2015.

Reach­ing the sum­mit 17:30, March 29, 2015. Re­turn 20:00, March 29, 2015.

Jel Teger­men, the Wind­mill

This moun­tain is sim­i­lar to the Mat­ter­horn in shape and height and is lo­cat­ed in the cen­tral part of the At-Ba­shi range in Kyrgyzstan.

Ac­cord­ing to Kyrgyz tour­ism com­pa­ny, which pro­vid­ed lo­gis­tics for the climb, this is on­ly the sec­ond ex­pe­di­tion in this area. The first re­con­nais­sance ex­pe­di­tion was car­ried out by Gi­a­co­mo Pa­ra and Pa­o­lo Rab­bi­a in win­ter 2011 on skis. Thanks to the in­for­ma­tion ob­tained dur­ing that ex­pe­di­tion, it be­came pos­si­ble to or­ga­nize a two-week tour (10 days on the moun­tain) from March 20 to April 3, 2015.

From the last vil­lage, reach­able by car, it took us one day to ap­proach the moun­tain on horse­back, car­ry­ing about 80 kg of food and equip­ment. The base camp was or­ga­nized at 3070 m, on snow, near a wa­ter source.

This place is al­ways sub­ject to strong winds (up to 100 km/h). That's why Kyrgyz no­mads call the moun­tain Jel Tegermen (The Wind­mill).

The fol­low­ing 1000 m to­wards the sum­mit were cov­ered on skis. Af­ter over­com­ing the ice­fall at the bot­tom of the val­ley, we were able to find the best line to the top. We de­cid­ed to set up two camps:

• at 3070 m
• at 4050 m

Dur­ing the first at­tempt on March 25, we reached the end of an ice couloir at 4450 m.

Af­ter four days of forced halt due to bad weath­er, on March 29, we at­tempt­ed to reach the sum­mit di­rect­ly from the base camp. Af­ter 4 hours on skis and 2 hours of climb­ing the couloir, we climbed the last 120 m to the top.

The last sec­tion was a re­al­ly bad rock sec­tion, and our pro­tec­tion op­tions were lim­it­ed. This snow and rock sec­tion was climbed us­ing:

• ice axes and crampons,
• pitons,
• nuts,
• friends.

The sum­mit was reached at 17:30 by Pa­o­lo Rab­bi­a and Ales­san­dro Bel­tra­me. Mar­co Ber­nini gave up due to breath­ing prob­lems.

Dur­ing the first 1000 m of de­scent, we were forced to leave our ropes there due to se­ri­ous risk of rock­fall.

The in­ter­me­di­ate camp was reached at 20:00.

Then we skied down to the base camp in fog, car­ry­ing all the heavy equip­ment and ev­ery­thing else from the high camps on our backs.

We reached the base camp around mid­night.

Our new route (TD+ on the UIAA scale) was named "The Four Hearts".

Doc­u­men­ta­tion

I tried to de­scribe our ad­ven­ture through vi­su­al im­ages us­ing pro­fes­sion­al equip­ment to make high-qual­i­ty pic­tures and vid­eos that can give a good idea of the emo­tions we ex­pe­ri­enced.

I did it thanks to:

• light­ness and qual­i­ty of equip­ment;
• good syn­chro­ni­za­tion or­ga­ni­za­tion.

I tried to work quick­ly in re­al-time to cap­ture the mood and dif­fi­cult mo­ments to­geth­er with dif­fer­ent weath­er con­di­tions. It is a sto­ry of ad­ven­ture and ex­plo­ra­tion told di­rect­ly by the pro­ta­go­nists, a sto­ry of fail­ures, res­ig­na­tion, co­hab­i­ta­tion, en­thu­si­asm, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and strain.

It is a record about be­ing brave day by day in a pe­ri­od when vir­tu­al re­al­i­ty seems more at­trac­tive than the real one. This film is an in­cite­ment to put one­self on the line in fields where ice axes and crampons are not re­quired but de­ter­mi­na­tion and brav­ery are nec­es­sary.

Jel Teger­men, the Wind­mill

This moun­tain is si­mi­lar to the Mat­ter­horn in shape and height and is sit­u­at­ed in the cen­tral part of the At Ba­shi range in Ky­rgyz­stan. Ac­cord­ing to the Ky­rgyz a­gen­cy, that sup­plied the lo­gis­tics, this is the sec­ond ex­pe­di­tion in this a­rea ever. The first ex­plo­ra­tion was in win­ter 2011 on ski by Gi­a­co­mo Pa­ra and Pao­lo Rab­bia.

Thanks to the in­for­ma­tion got du­ring that ex­pe­di­tion it was pos­si­ble to or­ga­nize a two-week-tour (of it 10 days have been spent on the moun­tain), from 20 March 2015 to 3 April 2015.

From the last village reachable by car, it took us one day to ap­proach the moun­tain on horse­back, carrying about 80 kilos of food and equip­ment with us. The base camp was orga­nized at 3070 m, on snow, near the high­est source of wa­ter. This place is al­ways beat­en by strong winds (up to 100 km/hour). That's why the moun­tain is called Jel Tegermen (The Wind­mill) by Kyrgyz nomads.

The fol­low­ing 1000 me­tres to­wards the moun­tain were done by ski. Once we over­came the ice­fall at the bot­tom of the val­ley, we were a­ble to find the best line to the top. We de­cid­ed to in­stall two camps, one at 3070 m and the oth­er at 4050 m.

Dur­ing the first at­tempt to the sum­mit, on March 25th, we reached the end of an ice cou­loir at 4450 m. Af­ter four days of forced stop due to bad weath­er, on March 29th, we tried to reach the sum­mit di­rect­ly from the base camp. Af­ter 4 hours by ski and 2 hours of climb­ing in the cou­loir, we climbed the last 120 me­tres to the top.

During this last part, we faced very poor rock quality, and our ability to install protection was limited. This entire section was climbed using ice axes and crampons on both snow and rock, with the use of:

• pitons
• nuts
• friends

The sum­mit was reached at 17:30 by Pa­o­lo Rab­bi­a and Ales­san­dro Bel­tra­me. Mar­co Ber­nini gave up due to breathing problems.

During the first 1000 m of descent, we were forced to leave our ropes there due to serious rockfall risks. The base of the couloir was reached at 20:00. Then we skied down to the base camp through the fog, carrying all the heavy equipment and other high camp gear on our backs. The base camp was reached around midnight.

Our new route (TD– on the UIAA scale) was named "Four Hearts".

DOCUMEN­TATION

I tried to de­scribe our ad­ven­ture through vi­su­al im­ag­es us­ing pro­fes­sion­al equip­ment to make high-qual­i­ty pic­tures and vid­eos that can give a good idea of the emo­tions we ex­pe­ri­enced. I did it thanks to light­ness and qual­i­ty of equip­ment and good tim­ing or­ga­ni­za­tion. I tried to work quick­ly in re­al time catch­ing the mood and dif­fi­cult mo­ments to­geth­er with dif­fer­ent weath­er con­di­tions. It is a sto­ry of ad­ven­ture and ex­plo­ra­tion told di­rect­ly by the pro­ta­go­nists, a sto­ry of fail­ures, res­ig­na­tion, forced cohab­i­ta­tion, en­thu­si­asm, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and strain.

It is a record about be­ing brave day by day in a pe­ri­od where vir­tu­al re­al­i­ty seems to be more at­trac­tive than the real one. This film is an in­cite­ment to put one­self on the line in fields where ice axes and crampons are not re­quest­ed but de­ter­mi­na­tion and brav­ery are nec­es­sa­ry.

1

1999

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