Morcheka — 12

"Classica" Route (5Б)

First ascent: Jorge Kornyś

Author of the report: Maxim Kostrov

A long, 10 cm wide groove goes up. To avoid dirtying my shoes, I place a flat stone on the wet moss at the bottom of the groove and climb up to a small ledge using counter-pressure. Previously, a large slab lay on this ledge. Now it lies at the bottom under the route.

The groove turns into a crack, which narrows and gradually turns left. Then the crack widens again and leads to a pair of bolts under an overhang.

• 1st rope — 45 m, 85°, V (R0–R1)

Sergey Tretyakov approaches from below, and I continue further. I traverse the overhang from the right using a mirror-like surface and climb up to an inclined ledge via an internal corner.

• 2nd rope — 45 m, 80°, IV (R1–R2)

From here, a large pine tree in the middle of the wall is clearly visible. It's about one rope length away via inclined ledges upwards to the right. The R3 stations of the "Center" (6А) and "Skayway" (6Б) routes are located near this pine tree.

Sergey climbs next. He goes left through a kink (no need to go up), traverses to an internal corner, and climbs up to a ledge via it.

• 3rd rope — 45 m
• Angle of inclination — 75°
• Difficulty category — IV (R2–R3)

On the next rope, Sergey goes up under an overhang and then traverses to the right. He stands for a long time, hesitates, and prepares for the exit from under the overhang. Then he starts climbing and falls off, slightly scraping his fingers on the way. I lower him down to the ledge and follow the rope he had placed to the point of his fall. Here, one needs to climb using an underhand grip from below. The surface of the overhanging rock is like a hedgehog, composed of small stones. Apparently, one of these stones slipped out of Sergey’s hands, and he fell. I traverse the overhang and enter an internal corner, which I climb up to a ledge with a pine tree.

• 4th rope — 30 m, 80°, V (R3–R4)

From the ledge, I climb up via a slab and then a crack to a mirror-like surface under a dry pine tree. Here, I traverse to the right using a traverse and reach a small flake. From it, I climb up to the pine tree.

• 5th rope — 45 m, 85°, V (R4–R5)

The next rope is the only one that requires artificial climbing aids (IT). One needs to climb up via a small internal corner and then a wall with a crack to a rusty streak. The station is located directly above it. The angle of the wall on this rope reaches 95° in some places.

• 6th rope — 40 m, 90°, VI (R5–R6)

• I'm rappelling!

• Repeat!

• I said I'm rappelling!

It was getting dark early in November. The late start on the route was now making itself felt...

There were 40–50 minutes left before complete darkness. And according to the description, there were three more ropes to go.

I knew that my vision slightly deteriorates in the dark, so while climbing the last rope, I decided not to risk it on a new route. It was unknown what ropes lay ahead, and we likely wouldn't be able to complete them in daylight.

• Where will we spend the night?!
• On the ledge!

We will leave the ropes we have placed on the wall. Tomorrow, we'll jumarmar on them and continue.

• Maxim! What are you going to do?! — Yuri Kruglov shouted from below. He had apparently seen me starting to rappel.
• We'll spend the night here on the ledge, and tomorrow we'll continue!
• Go along the ledge to the couloir, proceed up it for 50 m, and you'll see a grotto. There's firewood there!
• Alright, got it!

We did just that. After I rappelled and removed most of the intermediate anchors, the two ropes we had placed became one and a half. We used the freed rope to reach the end of the ledge with a belay and then descended a 10-meter wall into the couloir.

In the couloir:

• There were several fallen trees lying on the scree.
• The upper part led to a fault that connected to the "Medovaya" cave.
• From below, it also ended in a huge fault in the wall.

Holding onto the wall, we carefully climbed up about 50 meters along the couloir and discovered a grotto at its end. By this time, it had completely darkened. Fortunately, we had a flashlight with us.

The grotto is beautiful. It extends 10 meters into the rock, ending in petrified stalactites. The ceiling is high. You can see holes and small faults on it — the work of water. In some places, the wall is damp. Underground water seeps through the rock via small capillaries. The floor of the grotto is covered with dry leaves and branches. Firewood is stacked against the wall. There's a fireplace near the entrance, and a large log lies next to it.

We:

• Collected dry branches near the grotto.
• Lit a fire.
• We had 1.5 liters of water, cheese, chocolate, and canned pâté with us — we could survive.

After snacking, we lay down by the fire, using our backpacks as a mattress. It rained all night. But it was dry in our grotto. Whenever everyone fell asleep for a while — the fire went out, someone would get up and add firewood.

The next morning, exiting the cave, we saw a huge fault above us, leading to the Medovaya cave. The sun was shining brightly. Large drops from the night's rain lay on the leaves of the ivy growing near the grotto. It was time to return to the route. The grass was still wet, but the wall had dried. We climbed up using the ropes we had left the day before and continued.

...I climbed up via a crack, made a point, then lowered myself and carefully traversed to the right along the wall into an internal corner, which led me to a small, perfectly flat ledge, about 50 cm by 50 cm, in a slightly overhanging undercut.

7th rope — 40 m, 80°, V (R6–R7)

If you traverse the undercut from the right and climb up via несложные скалы for 10 m, you'll reach the pre-summit tower of Morcheka. It overhangs slightly — about 100–110°. But now, having climbed up via a groove, I went left onto a flake and climbed up to a small ledge. Old bolts led up the wall from the ledge, but Yuri advised me against using them: "The rock is crumbling, and the bolts are old." So I continued traversing.

Soon the ledge turned into a flake again. Gradually, the crack in the flake began to rise until it ended in a vertical slab that could be grasped with both hands from either side. From here, I climbed up via a monolith with a thin crack to a large ledge.

8th rope — 20 m, 80°, IV + 20 m, 85°, V (R7–R8)

From the ledge, non-steep rocks led up between the Central and Western summit towers. A несложный chimney near the Central tower led me to flat slabs on the yayla.

• 9th rope — 40 m, 70°, III (R8–R9)