Za­min-Ka­ror (Yag­nob­skaya Wa­ll)

West­ern Shoul­der

3910 m

ASCENT VIA C — 3 WALL THROUGH K/T CAVE

EXPEDITION TEAM: 1. I. Irushevsky V. G. I cat. "Khosilot" (leader)

2. Ka­sinsky V. V. II cat. "Khosilot"
3. Leonov K. II cat. "Khosilot"
4. So­lo­vyov M. A. II cat. "Khosilot"

Tajik SSR, Dushanbe

1974

Brief Geo­graph­i­cal Char­ac­ter­is­tics

of the Re­gion

When trav­el­ing along the Dushanbe — Leninabad road, as you de­scend from the Anzob pass, you can­not help but no­tice that up­stream along the Yag­nob river, a light-grey peak stands out among the sur­round­ing moun­tains, ter­mi­nat­ing in ver­ti­cal cliffs to the north into the Yag­nob val­ley.

The grand peak makes a great im­pres­sion. Lo­cals call it Za­min-Ka­ror, which trans­lates as "Calm Land". Among moun­taineers, an­oth­er name is wide­ly known — Yag­nob­skaya Wa­ll.

Za­min-Ka­ror is con­nect­ed to the main wa­ter­shed of the Gissar range by a rel­a­tive­ly high, but heav­i­ly dam­aged ridge, on which the beau­ti­ful and mag­nif­i­cent peak Kho­silot (4626 m) is lo­cat­ed. To the north of the Yag­nob­skaya Wa­ll, there are sep­a­rate, dis­tinct peaks reach­ing 4000 m.

Along the en­tire north­ern foot of the Yag­nob­skaya Wa­ll, a nar­row strip of glacier is lo­cat­ed. A char­ac­ter­is­tic fea­ture of the re­gion is the pres­ence of sep­a­rate, pro­nounced peaks. The rocks are com­posed of mar­ble­ized lime­stones, which are smoothed in some ar­eas.

To the north, the peaks ter­mi­nate in:

• ver­ti­cal
• over­hang­ing mono­lith­ic walls,

while to the south, they are more gen­tly slop­ing.

Cli­mat­ic con­di­tions are sim­i­lar to oth­er re­gions of the Gissar range and the Fan Moun­tains. By late Sep­tem­ber — ear­ly Oc­to­ber, usu­al­ly sta­ble, sun­ny weath­er gives way to snow­fall and cold winds.

Ad­min­is­tra­tive­ly, the re­gion be­longs to the Ay­ni dis­trict of the Leninabad re­gion of the Tajik SSR.

Brief De­scrip­tion of As­cent Con­di­tions

in the Given Re­gion

Over­all, the con­di­tions for as­cent in the given re­gion should be con­sid­ered fa­vor­able, both in terms of cli­mate and route con­di­tions.

The west­ern part of the Yag­nob­skaya Wa­ll is char­ac­ter­ized by steep, of­ten smoothed rock walls. The routes are com­plete­ly free of ice and snow; only small patches serve as wa­ter sources dur­ing as­cents.

The east­ern part of the Za­min-Karor massif is char­ac­ter­ized by:

• pow­er­ful gla­ci­a­tion;
• snow­cov­er.

Ap­proach­ing the west­ern part of the massif from the Dushanbe — Leninabad road takes 3 hours. The dis­tance from the road bridge over the Yag­nob riv­er to Dushanbe is 100 km, and to the Varzob high­way — 48 km.

From the bridge up­stream along the Yag­nob riv­er, a branch­ing trail leads along the left (or­o­graph­i­cal­ly) bank of the riv­er. Be­neath the west­ern part of the massif lies the Mar­gib vil­lage, which has tele­phone con­nec­tion with the Anzob vil­lage, and through it, with Dushanbe.

De­scrip­tion of the Route by Days with a Brief Char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Passed Path

In the in­tro­duc­tion, it should be said that the route passed by the group is not a first as­cent. This route was first passed in 1973 by a team from Nurek as a train­ing as­cent be­fore par­tic­i­pat­ing in the USSR Alpinism Cham­pi­onship. The team passed the route in poor weath­er con­di­tions. Ac­cord­ing to the par­tic­i­pants — Lav­rushin, Kapi­ta­nov, Yaroslavt­sev — the route cor­re­sponds to cat­e­gory 5B dif­fi­cul­ty, but for un­known rea­sons, the de­scrip­tion was not sub­mit­ted for clas­si­fi­ca­tion.

In 1974, this route at­tract­ed in­ter­est from the Bu­re­vest­nik Sports So­ci­ety and the spe­cial alpinist team of Naryn­GES­stroy. Its par­tic­i­pants (3 groups), in­clud­ing prize-win­ners and cham­pi­ons of the USSR in rock climb­ing, gave this route a cat­e­gory 5A dif­fi­cul­ty rat­ing, es­pe­cial­ly not­ing:

• the dif­fi­cul­ty of the key sec­tions (above 5A cat­e­gory);
• the over­all psy­cho­log­i­cal com­plex­i­ty of the route.

Our group worked as part of the alpin­i­ad of the Tajik SSR Sports Com­mit­tee.

The route was cho­sen on the rec­om­men­da­tion of the head of the CPS and the leader of the gath­er­ing, S. N. So­gr­in, to ver­i­fy the dif­fi­cul­ty cat­e­gory and pre­pare a de­scrip­tion for clas­si­fi­ca­tion, which for un­clear rea­sons was not done by pre­vi­ous groups.

We be­gan the route on Au­gust 18, 1974, as by that time, ob­serv­ers and the en­tire team had gath­ered in the base camp. We start­ed the route at 7:00 AM.

Sec­tion #1

The be­gin­ning of the route is from a snow tongue up­wards, into a couloir formed by the wall and a rock frag­ment, filled with snow and rocks. The ap­proach is via a zero pitch to the "fin­ger" and cir­cum­vent­ing it on the right via sim­ple rocks. Fur­ther along rocks of me­dium dif­fi­cul­ty, we reach the main shelf. Pro­tec­tion is via pro­tru­sions. The length of the sec­tion is 200 m. The over­all steep­ness is 45°–50°.

Sec­tion #2

From the shelf, via un­com­pli­cat­ed rocks, we reach be­neath a wall with a steep­ness of 60° and smoothed re­lief, 60 m long. Pro­tec­tion is via pro­tru­sions, some­times with pitons. The to­tal length of the 2nd sec­tion is 120 m. 3 rock pitons were ham­mered. We reach a nar­row, in­clined shelf.

Sec­tion #3

Along the in­clined, some­times dis­con­ti­nu­ous shelf, we tra­verse to the right for 30 m. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. 3 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #4

Up­wards along the light-grey wall, 30 m of com­plex climb­ing. Steep­ness is 65°. Then, via rocks of me­dium dif­fi­cul­ty, we move to the right and up­wards be­neath the next 60 m wall. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. The to­tal length of the sec­tion is 70 m. 9 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #5

Up­wards along the wall. Ten me­ters of com­plex climb­ing lead to a ver­ti­cal chim­ney, 15 m long. Fur­ther move­ment is up­wards along dif­fi­cult rocks. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. The length of the sec­tion is 60 m. 8 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #6

Move­ment to the right and up­wards be­neath red­dish rocks along a large in­clined shelf, rep­re­sent­ing a smoothed slab. Steep­ness in­creas­es from 35° to 50°. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. Length is 130 m. 5 rock pitons were ham­mered.

We reach a large black niche.

Sec­tion #7

From the niche, to the left and up­wards along a wall with a steep­ness of 65°–70° — we reach the cave. The wall rep­re­sents a mono­lith­ic slab with nar­row cracks. Pitons en­ter poorly. Length is 40 m. 3 rock pitons were ham­mered. In the cave, there is a cairn.

Sec­tion #8

The be­gin­ning of the key sec­tion. From the cave, a small tra­verse to the left. Fur­ther up­wards along cracks, and fol­low­ing it, we move to the right and up­wards. The crack is clear and con­tin­u­ous, but in many plac­es, it is clogged. Steep­ness is 85°–39°. Holds are small and smoothed. Climb­ing is dif­fi­cult. Of­ten, ar­ti­fi­cial holds and lad­ders are used. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. Back­packs are pulled up.

The length of the sec­tion is 60 m. 17 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #9

We con­tin­ue move­ment up­wards and to the right un­til we reach a com­plete­ly mono­lith­ic grey wall with­out cracks or holds. At this point, we be­gin a tra­verse to the right with a small gain in height. Climb­ing is very dif­fi­cult; ar­ti­fi­cial holds and lad­ders are used. The tra­verse leads to a large niche in red­dish rocks. From the niche, straight up­wards through an over­hang, and fur­ther along the wall — we reach a shelf. This part of the sec­tion is passed via lad­ders. Due to the dif­fi­cul­ty of the sec­tion for pass­ing via per­ils, it is ad­vis­able to pass along the shelf to the left and low­er a free rope ver­ti­cal­ly. The length of the sec­tion is 60 m. Steep­ness is 90°. 18 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #10

The sec­tion rep­re­sents an al­ter­na­tion of short walls (15–20 m) with short shelves or small plat­forms. No no­tice­able sec­tions or land­marks are present. Choos­ing the most log­i­cal path, we reach the ridge not far from the peak, be­fore a red­dish wall, 30 m high. In the mid­dle of this sec­tion, due to the on­set of dark­ness, we made a night halt. The plat­forms do not al­low for pitch­ing a ten­t, but sleep­ing in Zar­sky ten­ts is very com­fort­able. The over­all steep­ness of the sec­tion is 70–75°, with fre­quent ver­ti­cal walls, 15–20 m high. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. 20 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #11

Up­wards along the wall, climb­ing is com­plex. Holds are very small but not smoothed. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. The length of the sec­tion is 30 m.

List:

• 4 rock pitons were ham­mered.

Sec­tion #12

Along the ridge, via rocks of 4–6 cat­e­gory dif­fi­cul­ty, we reach the peak. Pro­tec­tion is via pitons. The length of the sec­tion is 50 m.

List:

• 4 rock pitons were ham­mered.

From the peak, steep talus slopes lead to the south. With­out los­ing height, we need to tra­verse to the left to a rock buttress. Af­ter cross­ing it, we be­gin our de­scent down­wards and to the left, de­scend­ing into the sec­ond main couloir. Then, down­wards along the trail, which runs along the stream, to the Mar­gib vil­lage.

¹

Sec­tion 45 BUI­KHO from stone

Pure K ∼ 8

Footnotes

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