Mor­cheka — 15

The "Cen­ter" Route (6A)

First Ascent: Za­syp­kin — Khor­khe Ko­rys

Ar­ti­cle au­thor: Mak­sim Kos­trov

Route Scheme

The weather is sunny. We are in no hurry. We decided to hang three ropes, lift the platform, a sack with cargo, and then rappel on that day.

We hang and level the platform — we will pull it out in its assembled form.

Then I hang all sorts of "hardware" on myself and start climbing. Kirill is belaying. Sergey Tretyakov hung a camera and a camcorder on himself — on this ascent, he is in the role of a cameraman.

Up a thin crack to the left, then across a mirror-like surface through a white patch to a small flake. From it, a long, shallow undercutting goes to the right and slightly upwards.

"It looks like it was pressed in with a log," said Yura Kruglov when explaining the route.

At the end of the undercutting, there is a belay station on bolt anchors.

• 1st rope — 45 m, 85°, V+ (R0–R1)

At this time, Yura Kruglov and Shura Odessit (Lav­ri­nen­ko) were lying on the viewing stone, basking in the sun, and watching our progress up the wall. While I was fiddling with the first rope, Sergey Tretyakov joined them and filmed everything with a camcorder.

• Mak­sim! Make a sta­tion! — Yura shouts, seeing me get stuck at the end of the undercutting and then climb a bit higher.
• Well, in prin­ci­ple, it doesn't even feel like you want to stop there, — Shura remarks: "The place is un­com­for­table."
• But the most in­ter­est­ing part for him will be higher, — Yura says.
• Where? — Sergey asks.
• You see, above him, a crack goes up and to the left, but he needs to go up and to the right through a small overhang to another crack. But he'll make it... Where can he go from the sub­ma­rine? Kirill comes up to me along the fixed ropes, and I climb further. Up through a small ledge. Now, across a smooth wall, I need to traverse four meters to the right. I place a tiny stopper into a small pit and wedge it there. It's not suitable for protection, but it's good for aid climbing. I hang a ladder. Then, to the right, I place a skyhook, hang a second ladder on it, transfer my weight onto it, and, spread out on the wall, reach the crack I need. I climb up the crack to a wide slit, which goes 15 meters up and to the left. An interesting section — classic counter-pressure, pleasant climbing. Having climbed up the slit, I go to the right to a large channel hook. I back it up with my own gear, make a belay station. 2nd rope — 40 m, 80°, V+ (R1–R2). Up the crack for ten meters, then traverse left and further right and up to the rugged rocks, fifteen meters to the right of a large pine tree located in the center of the wall. As it turned out later, I didn't reach a stationary bolt by about a meter and a half, making a station on my own pitons. 3rd rope — 45 m, 80°, V (R2–R3)

Here, we fixed the platform, a sack with cargo, and rappelled down, straightening the hung ropes as much as possible along the way. The next day, we plan to climb up the fixed ropes, go three ropes higher, and spend the night on the platform under a small ledge.

We started late. We climbed up to the left gear and continued working.

• 4th rope — 15 m, 60°, III (R3–R4)
• A steep monolithic wall with bolt anchors, small cracks, and pits for pitons and gear goes up.

In parallel with us, on that day, 10–15 meters to the left, Yura Kruglov and Shura Lav­ri­nen­ko (Ode­ssit) are climbing the Skyway route (6B).

• Be care­ful, San­ya, I'm check­ing, — Yura places a skyhook, carefully loads it, then hangs a ladder on it and climbs up, testing the terrain above.
• Mak­sim, take off those hook-claw things — it's a straight road to hell, — Yura shouts at me. I'm climbing with крюко­но­ги (hook-claw things), understanding that the rope can get caught, and if I fall, it won't be good. Besides, it's indeed more convenient to work with ladders here. Often, from one point to another, you can only reach by standing on the last rung of the ladder on tiptoes and holding onto the micro-relief of the rock with your hands. That's why, apart from крюко­но­ги, I also have ladders hanging (after this rope, I removed крюко­но­ги altogether and used ladders when necessary). The bolt anchors are old, 8-shaped. Some only fit with an "irbis" carabiner. Some have a torn or missing ear, so you have to throw a cable loop over the sleeve, hang a ladder on it, and carefully make your way to the next point. Sometimes, you need to switch from aid climbing to free climbing. The rope ends at the base of an inner corner. 5th rope — 45 m, 95°, VI (R4–R5). Further, there's a very interesting rope. To the left of the station, an inner corner rises vertically, and then, like an arch, starts turning to the right, so the higher you climb, the more your backside overhangs the station. In the middle of the corner, I grabbed a freshly placed friend, loaded it, and then jumped down, hanging on the previous protection point. The corner leads to a small ledge. 6th rope — 35 m, 90°, V+ (R5–R6). From the ledge, I went up to a flake and from it, along a narrow inclined shelf, climbed up to a monolith under a ledge. Just above the ledge, I hammered in a bolt and backed it up with another bolt, hammered in earlier. 7th rope — 30 m, 85°, V + 10 m, 90°, VI (R6–R7). Kirill climbed up to me. We pulled up the platform. The platform is constantly being disassembled, and we managed to assemble it with difficulty. Finally, having descended into the platform and loaded it, we managed to tighten the straps. We arranged ourselves so: Kirill and I lie with our heads in one direction, Sergey — in the other. We prepared vermicelli with canned meat, drank tea, and felt good and serene. Covering ourselves with a sleeping bag from above, we fell asleep. We slept quite well, only occasionally, from below, through the cuts in the fabric along the edges, the wind was blowing. There are certain peculiarities to life on the platform.

In the morning, it was raining. Fog covered the wall. Visibility was a maximum of ten meters. We lay in the platform until eleven, hoping that the rain would stop and the rocks would dry...

The heavy rain stopped, but the air was still filled with drizzle. We had to climb. We drank tea, slightly opened the tent, and I continued climbing:

• Up the wall, veering a bit to the right, to an inner corner.
• Along the corner to a large ledge.
• Then 10 meters to the left.

Here, at the exit from under the ledge, it's very wet, so I placed my shoes more securely, but they held. I climbed out onto a flake.

8th rope — 25 m, 90°, VI + 20 m, 85°, V (R7–R8)

From the flake, it's clear that below, from under the ledge, the yellow tent of the platform appears and disappears. Apparently, Kirill has already started climbing, and together with Sergey, the platform is light enough for the wind.

The next rope goes along a slit between two ledges. I climbed up to a small ledge. The rope, despite intermediate quickdraws, is tight — there's too much friction. I try to gather some slack with both hands. But I slip on the wet ledge and jump down to a ledge a meter lower. My right foot is pierced with sharp pain. I make a station.

While Kirill is climbing up along the fixed ropes, I take off my shoe and try to figure out if I can continue leading. Unlikely. My foot hurts; I can't load my toes — it's a severe sprain.

Kirill climbs further. He goes up about ten meters to a sloping ledge and makes a station.

9th rope — 45 m, 90°, V (R8–R9)

The dense fog still envelops the wall. But here, the rocks are dry, with an overhang of 100–110 degrees.

Kirill climbs up. Sergey comes up from below. He has already packed the platform and cargo into a sack.

...Kirill's poorly placed friend flies out, and he falls. But the wall is overhanging here, so he doesn't even touch the rock during the fall.

10th rope — 30 m, 100°, VI (R9–R10)

Finally, Kirill disappears over the ridge — he's on the yayla.