Author: Alexey Shelkhakov, Simferopol

Scheduled cleaning of the "Samurai" route 6A, 6B, A3

On January 13, the team of Popov — Shelkhakov carried out a scheduled cleaning of their "Samurai" route (6B — A3) on the Shaan-Kaya massif, removing the pitons and poorly fixed temporary bolts left by other climbers.

We also identified the points where our route intersects with the climbing route "Atlant-M" 8b, 250 m, which was completed in early autumn 2004 by the team led by A. Vedenmeer. Since we were unable to find a diagram of this route online, we had to determine the situation on site. The previously published photographs of Atlant-M did not indicate the neighboring routes, and accordingly, did not specify the points of intersection with the existing mountaineering routes on the massif.

The inspection showed that Atlant-M intersects Samurai at an acute angle between R3–R4, which significantly reduces its difficulty. In its upper part, this route intersects Samurai again near the ledges, which is generally insignificant. On the final section, before reaching the plateau, it runs very close to it.

In light of these circumstances, we decided to remove the bolts of the Atlant-M route that are located within the corridor of the Samurai route, but only those that reduce its difficulty — specifically, the section between R3–R4. We removed two bolts:

• One of them was driven 40 cm away from ours and can be replaced by it.
• Further, there is a crack suitable for pitons, where one can be fully and reliably secured, thus replacing the second removed bolt.

This is the minimum of what was possible; Atlant-M remains passable.

The diagrams of the routes provided by us may contain inaccuracies, but it's still better than nothing.