Winter Elbrus - Volnaya Ispaniya peak
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"Mountains are cathedrals: grand and pure, the houses of my religion. I go to them as humans go to worship… from their lofty summits, I view my past, dream of my future, and with unusual acuity I am allowed to experience the present moment. My strength renewed, my vision cleared, in the mountains I celebrate creation. On each journey I am reborn." - Anatoli Boukreev, "The Climb".
Let people call it hell. No, it is not hell. It is just very cold and always blow a strong wind… Snow. It is everywhere - from the sky, and on surrounding summits, and under our feet. It's better to say we plough in it. And there is a wall. A wall, which never see the sunlight in winter. It is like a grandiose crown with a huge sheer rocky tower in the middle. Right and left from the "tower" are snow ridges to Bgeduch and Ullukara peaks. Different routes lay across these slopes. Our way runs along left wall of the "tower". Six hundreds meters of snow and ice and more than hundred meters of rocks as a bonus... But we decided to start from Elbrus.
Part 1. Elbrus.
It's better try and and fall, Than not to try at
all…
28.01.03 In 19.30 we were sitting in the bus. We were two. Due to some circumstances (and the driver who was riding140 km an hour in Baksan canyon) we were on Elbrus at the station Mir (3500) at nine o'clock on the next day.
29.10.03. Each of us had more than 40 kilograms with him. We had a rope, a tent, special equipment for Volnaya Ispaniya, individual equipment, gas and food for tree weeks for us and part for our friends who was going to join us. I tied everything to my bag at once and Dmitri left a bag of food until the chair road would start. Two hours and a half we "enjoyed" walking in deep snow and talking with girls-skiers passing by. When I came up to the last step I simply fell down to the snow to have a small rest. "Greetings to mountain guides!" I opened my eyes. My friend Alexander, the administrator of the refuge "Bochki" hold out his hand. So the first stage is finished. Some time later this sole sunny day was over and a great snowstorm started…
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30.01.03. The pit, which I dug out for our tent yesterday, turned out to be useless. We don't stop throwing away snow. The snow walls, which I also made, became icy and it's impossible to break them. Snow falls down constantly. This night through a small hole under the zipper the wind blew into the corridor 30 sm. of snow. The water from the breathing is condensed on the inside tent cause of heavy frost. During these nights we could value all advantages of anesthesia medicine. Cause of our fast ascent we didn't have enough acclimatization and as a result we felt a terrible headache at night. Today we tried to reach the "refuge of eleven" but somewhere at the last step we turned back. Visibility is 20 - 100m. As an additional acclimatization we dig out our tent once again.
31.01.03. The visibility proved to be worse. Today it is ten meters. The wind blows stronger. Inside the house - like on the ship: everything is moving cause of jolting. And the chair road doesn't work since the day we came up… In summer the refuge is usually a full - nearly sixty people - guide, clients and trekkers live here. Now we are only five - I, Dmitri, Alexander and a famous alpinist Marina Ershova with her friend. They are preparing to Everest, but look at our nights in a tent skeptically. Each day on my way to Alexander's house I see Marina digging out a kitchen. They take water on the stove there. As for us we spend all the time with Alexander. Today we decided that now we have all the necessary experience of extreme nights and to live in a house. In the evening we prepare our equipment, sharpen ice axes and ice screws. We only don't understand what for. I work here as a guide in summer and spring so now I can understand that the weather will be dull for a long time. Marina and her friend go down through the deep snow like small ratraks. So we are three…
1.02.03. Nothing new. Snow, snow, and snow… I tried to dig out a cave. I made a small one and stopped cause it was too bore.
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2.02.03. That was a day! Two days ago Marina told us that on the "refuge of Eleven" there are three students who is probably unable to go down. She added that their food and gas might be up… So we didn't have any choice. At 12 o'clock we started. We are both on skis and snow reaches our knees. This is understandable - the snowfall lasts four days without any stop. The visibility is 50 meters. Besides two weeks ago a famous Russian alpinist Valeri Shamalo fall down into the hole aside of the classical route. Nothing serious had happened to him, but those who helped him didn't take landmarks away. So we found a well-marked road on our way, but it was a road to holes! The way from "Bochki" to the "refuge of Eleven" in summer usually takes about one hour of slow walking. I usually make it in half of hour. But now it took us three hours of very hard work to do it.
As soon as we reached the "refuge of Eleven" the boys started packing their bags. The youngest of them have a birthday today. He is 25. "A student"… and he said this evening that I'm - the best gift. But let's keep the order. While I was preparing my skis Dmitri took guys away by incorrect way. I felt it when I got them. We also couldn't see rocks familiar to me on the right side of our way back. Some more walking in that direction and we would come to a snowfield with holes. After a small quarrel between Dmitri and me those tree guys went after me. We walked 300 meters until the rocks came out from the snowstorm. I was to put off my skis cause guys were walking very slowly and I helped them to make traces. The depth of it was 1-1,5 meters. At last our speed was 300 - 350 meters in an hour. They refused to give me anything of their luggage and I didn't allow anybody of them to walk first. But nobody insisted. I sent Dmitri on skis to "Bochki" to make hot tea and food and to light a lamp near the house cause it was already dark. When we reached the refuge, everything was ready. Our new friends made a glintwine and the celebration of Roman's birthday continued till midnight.
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3.02.03. By the mobile we found out that Marina went to St. Petersburg, cause there was no hope for the good weather. Roman wants to try the summit with us but he doesn't have skis, and we are making snowsteps for him from sticks and ropes.
4.02.03. Early in the morning Roman refused to climb and decided to go down with his friends to Azau station. He is not to blame cause it is really a serious climb. But we started and now we are sitting in the refuge, which is near the "refuge of Eleven". It is smaller but warmer. Now the temperature inside is -10°C. Tomorrow we are going to try the summit. Today we have seen a small piece of a blue sky. So we hope.
5.02.03. At 5.30 I came out of the house and understood that there will be no summit. The visibility is 30 meters and the wind is too strong. So we got an opportunity to sleep as much as we wanted. At 11 o'clock we started back. Elbrus is becoming popular - we met 12 people (including our new friends) who went up this day. The weather is better and the chair road began to work. But we are going down. Going away in order to come back…
Part 2. Volnaya Ispaniya peak.
You're living deep inside of me And
I just can't be free…
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Bulldozer cleared the road away from snow. Very well. The familiar summits look very beautiful and enigmatic: Shkhelda, Djantugan, Ullukara and Volnaya Ispaniya… I saw even Ushba from Elbrus yesterday. It's really like a gothic castle. Somewhere at 4000 meters there is a heavy ceiling of clouds but the weather is still normal. Evening. Preparation for the climb. The most difficult question for me is to take the toothbrush or not. At last I decide to take a pack of "Orbit" instead of it. Nothing unnecessary in the bag!
A woman at camp asked us to pay (although we left there some equipment). She added shyly: "may be you won't come back…" I think she meant something another. Today I met my friend Alexander - a mountain rescuer. After his consultation about the route, we didn't have any questions. 7.02.03. So here we go. It was a good idea to make a part of the way beforehand. I'm the best acclimatised in our group, so a big part of work in the snow I do by myself. We are six. Max and Dmitri gonna try one route and we (Natasha, Yulia, Yuri and I) are going to another, a little bit easier. After the camp is ready Max and I go to the gletcher to make the way for tomorrow. We didn't take the rope but our experience helped us to find a good way. Than I offered Max to go back, cause it seemed to me that it's too dangerous to continue. He refused and went on. Less than hundred meters later he nearly fell into the hole but jumped at the last moment. After it he agreed to go down. That hole was deep… 8.02.03. We are digging a cave instead of tents. The weather became very bad. 9.02.03. Snow… small snowflakes sometimes softly lays on the black cloth of the costume, sometimes knock fiercely against it. Charmed by this sight I'm immersed into my thoughts. Coming to myself, I understand that my half-minute rest comes to an end. I should continue digging snow. Volnaya Ispaniya peak is ahead of us. This day Max and Natasha went down to the camp "Elbrus". They don't believe in this climb any more and gonna try MNR peak. There is a short beautiful route, which is possible in each weather. We don't blow them. But we believe in luck and gonna try. 10.02.03. It's a pity that we didn't move our camp yesterday. All our traces are covered with snow. We only feel them. The day suddenly finished near the place called "cess-pit" cause of avalanches and collapses, falling down from the wall of Germogenova peak. So we made a camp near holes, hoping that nothing huge will fall down on us… 11.02.03. Early in the morning I jumped up in my sleeping bag cause of loud crash. But a moment later I understood that it had been useless to run out cause it might had been too late. It's difficult to explain all my thoughts during that moment. We found out that yesterday we were 200 meters far from the "pillow" - a small plato under our peak. All the day we were making this meters and nearly 1 km on the "pillow". The snow is deeper than 1 meter. Yulia and I are able to make any more, so we dig the way to the beginning of the route. Later, when evening came we made a cave of ABC and went to Muscovites' cave. They came by our traces and also gonna climb Volnaya Ispaniya. But their timetable is not so strict - tomorrow they will have a day of rest. It's very cold but the weather became better. It is the first sunny day. 12.02.03. We start at nine o'clock. Half of hour later we are under the route (yesterday we made this way in hour and a half). After I made the first rope, I found ice under the snow. It is very firm. I make a station on the one ice-screw. I can screw it only by the ice axe, so it is enough. When we were on the third rope, a small avalanche fell on us but nothing really serious. We moved too slowly so at 13.00 we could leave our ropes, go down and start the next day. But we decided to try a "big wall" tactic. 13.02.03. When we reached the "pillow" I felt myself bad. Medicine worked hard inside of me, but on yesterday's evening I was still slowly dying. Inflows of energy alternated with the feeling of full down. The night brought me new power. Fortunately, we found enough place for our tent. May be this comfortable night was the reason of our late start. We began working at midday. Frankly speaking we were not in a hurry and just were getting joy from the climb. Every thing had been well until this evening came… There were no place to for the tent and no opportunity to continue the climb. So we found a small snowfield and tried to make a bivak but it turned out to be impossible. It might be very sad to spend a night sitting. Thinking about it we started to model a ground from snow. At last we made a place 1*4 meters and the station on two hooks for four people. There were 600 meters under us. Yulia, Dmitri and I wrapped ourselves up in the tent and Yuri lay in the bivakzak. It's time to say a few words about our equipment. Yulia left her sleeping made of dawn bag under the wall cause it was too wet. You know, when you pack your sleeping bag and then during the day it become frozen, you repack it and it doesn't restore its volume. My synthetic bag was better and we used it together. We also used a coat of dawn for our feet. It's useless to say that we didn't change our storm costumes at night. As for the boots - we all had Koflach. Also very wet. I had ice between inside and outside boots. No way of drying was successful. So after midnight we finished supper and lay together on this small piece of snow. Suddenly we've got a strong but soft blow. It was an avalanche. I had the only idea in my head about the rope, which connected our lives with two small hooks in a bad rock. But that was a lucky night and a moment later the avalanche flew away to the "pillow". 14.02.03. The day started from a difficult decision - noodles or mashed potatoes for breakfast and mashed potatoes or noodles for supper (cause we had only one pack of each). An hour later when Yulia was climbing up the fixed rope a huge cornice fell down on her from the ridge. I don't know what's more terrible: to see that your friend is danger or to be in danger by yourself. For me, I think, the first is more terrible. But the destiny saved us again. After midday all the summits covered with clouds. Maxim told us by radio that they are near the summit of MNR peak. We are still working but the summit is somewhere near us. At 18 o'clock we did it! Seven four-meter rocky towers are before us. Let's find out which is summit tomorrow. Only one corner of our tent is out of ground but for the first night I'm sleeping without rope. 15.02.03. The summit! Unfortunately, my photo camera worked badly because of condenses but the view is just fantastic. All the valleys are covered with clouds and there are all-famous summits above them: Bezengi wall, Ushba, Shyrovski peak and others. I was on many summits of that region before but I saw such a view for the first time. I usually collect stones from summits I've been to. But now it turned out to be very difficult to find one. I was to take a big one - more than one kilogram. On the summit we took a letter which was written in august. This meant that Muscovites who lived with us on the "pillow" didn't climb the summit. The food finished yesterday so this is the reason to go home. A bar of chocolate, a pack of bananas, some sugar and vitamins are our breakfast. One hundred and a half meters of rocks and a big snowfield with holes - so called "mousetrap". It is famous due to its avalanches. We saw some by ourselves on the first day. But we are lucky today. I made all the way as a leader. I didn't fall down at any hole but get enough adrenaline from jumping over them. At 14.30 I was near our base cave. Half of hour later my friends joined me. They were so late, cause I slipped and fall last 50 meters and my friends hang a rope. We killed the food from the cave and went on down. A shower and a hot supper, ordered by the radio made us to forget all the difficulties. 16.02.03. I was riding home with the feeling of deep satisfaction. And let no one believed that this climb was possible. We did it! It is not an outstanding route on Himalayan wall, but this is the way - our own way. It is our step ahead. I hope that there will be many other walls in my life. They will be higher and harder, but there will never be the wall like this. I realised my dream and this is the main thing. But still I can't explain what I'm looking for in the mountains…