LVO

The peak named after the Leningrad Military District (LVO) with a height of 4003 m was named by the army climbers of Leningrad in 1974. The rocky tower of the peak completes a short spur of the Southern ridge of the Karagoy peak in the Joljilga gorge.

In the Joljilga gorge, LVO is flanked by steep walls and ridges, while the Ruchyev and East-Karagoy cirques have short, ruined rocky slopes, beneath which lie small, moraine-covered glaciers of the same name.

The northern short ridge and southern walls await their first ascenders.

62. LVO via the Southwest Ridge, category 3A (M. Levin et al., August 12, 1982).
63. LVO via the Northeast Wall, category 4A (A. Gaas, Yu. Gavrikov, S. Fedorov, O. Khudyakov, July 27-30, 1974; G. Sidorov, N. Andreev, V. Vidyakin, V. Nadein, August 10, 1977).
64. LVO via the Eastern Ridge, category 4B (G. Rozhalskaya, V. Kirillov, B. Kozlov, G. Semenyuta, August 7, 1977; A. Tarasenko et al., 1983).
65. LVO via the Southwest Ridge

The route is combined, category 3A (fig. 5, 61, 62, 72).

Length — 450 m, H — 200 m, time — 4–5 hours.

The approach path from the "Kirgizata" alpine camp (group of 2-12 people) to the initial bivouac in the middle part of the Jol-jilga gorge, near the LVO peak — see route 14.

From the initial bivouac:

• Turn right and, staying to the right of the northern walls of the LVO peak, make a 300–400-meter ascent to the terminal moraine of a small lateral East-Karagoy cirque.
• Across the moraines, then along the glacier, move up-left to beneath the saddle of the LVO peak's Southwest Ridge. Time from the initial bivouac — 2–3 hours.
• From the glacier, overcome the bergschrund, then make a 40–60-meter ascent up an ice-snow slope with an angle of 35–40° to a possibly snow-covered (cornice) scree saddle.
• The ascent to the saddle from the Ruchyev cirque is made via a wide scree couloir. Time from the initial bivouac — 2–3 hours.

On the saddle when ascending from the East-Karagoy cirque:

• Turn left and along the scree approach the Southwest Ridge of the LVO peak.
• From the saddle, make a 100–120-meter ascent traversing simple rocks on the right side of the Southwest Ridge.
• Bypassing low gendarmes, reach the Southwest Ridge ("live" rocks, protection).
• Along the simple, ruined 30–40-meter Southwest Ridge, approach the wall.
• Up rocks of medium difficulty (75–80°) of the wall ("live" rocks, piton protection) ascend 45 m.
• Then, along simple, ruined rocks of the gentle 150–200-meter Southwest Ridge and up a 20–25-meter, medium-difficulty 45–50° ascent (protection), reach the LVO peak.

Time from the Southwest Ridge saddle — 1.5–2 hours.