Ascent to the peak Voennih Topografov (6873m) along the Southern edge, grade of difficulty - 5B, combined (3B+3B*+3B*) (we have become the pioneers on the route)

Supplemental information about the route.

Summit (the Peak) Voennih Topografov of 6873 high in located in the mountain range Kokshaalu, to the West from the Eastern summit of the Pobeda Peak. The Southern edge of the Peak impresses by its clear line, we chosen it as a first route from the south to the Peak Voennih Topografov in 2002.

Choosing the route.

Charming line of the edge, a of about 2500 m and rocky wall in the upper part of the route - these things attracted us to this route. For the first time we saw it in 2002 (although the Western wall is seen from the pass Chonteren, the edge could be seen only in profile from the slopes of the Eastern summit of the Pobeda Peak, and in was the time we planned to make an ascent along it, to become a pioneers on that route.

Descent. We planned to descend along easy way in the northern direction, but because of illness of one of the members, the itinerary of the descent was changed. The upper part of the descent down to the altitude 5800 was congruent to the way of our ascent, further we used a variant we had looked over on our way upwards and supposed that it could be used as a spare descent. The only thing worried us was that all the variants of going to the edge from the west were condemned in 2002. Finally we discovered a 300- 400 meters fault through which we found an easy gate.

Passport of the ascent.

1. Class: high-altitude - technical
2. The Central Tien-Shan, crest Kokshaalu, from the south ( China).
3. Voennih Topografov, 6873 m, along the southern edge (the route passed for the first time)
4. Grade of difficulty: 5B
5. Climb: on way up: 4400-6873- 2473 m, on way down: 6873-4600- 2273 m.

Extension - way up - 4930 m (fixed ropes - 4130 m on way up).

Extension of the strips of the 5 th - 5+ (6 th) grade of difficulty - about 1340 m, of the 4 th grade of difficulty - about 1720 m, extension of horizontal strips on the ridge - 1620 m.

Average steepness of the route - 40 degrees steep, above the horizontal part of the ridge - 50-55 degrees, wall part of the route - 65-70 degrees steep. (On the horizontal part of the ridge we climbed along side slope of 40-55 degrees steep, below cornices).

6. We hammered in: rocky/stoppers/ice/snow: more than 100, including to the juts more than 30/0/more than 50/ more than 10
7. Hours of walking: from the bottom of the edge (4400) to the even body of the glacier on the descent - 108 (climbing up - 12.5 days) + 21 (descent down to the glacier, 3.5 days) + 4.5 (descent down to the Base Camp) and days: 16 (+2 approach with cargos from the BC), including 12.5 (climbing up) + 3.5 (descending).
8. Night stops: all were lying - on cornices, on snow, comfortable (bivouac works took us no more than 2.5 hours). As for altitudes: the first - 4400, the second and the third - about 5050 m, the 4 th - 5150 m, the 5 th-7 th - 5300m, the 8 th - 9 th-about 5788 m, the 10 th-11 th - 6010 m, the 12 th-13 th - 6471 m, the 14 th - 6010 m, the 15 th - 4950 m.
9. Leader: Anatoly Dguly
10. Participants: Leonenko Vladimir, Dobriaev Nikolay, Kirienko Aleksey, Gorin Anatoly (he didn&rsquot reach the top, climbed up to the altitude 6010).
11. Couch: Anatoly Dguly
12. Set off from the Base camp - shuttle - 6-7.08.2006

Southern edge - 8.08 - 23.08.2006

Start of the route: 8.08.2006

The top: 20.08, 12-00 ( Moscow), 14.00 ( Kyrgyzstan), 16.00 ( China)

Descent to the glacier Chonteren 23.08, 9-00 ( Moscow)

Notes: The leader Korneev A. (mountaineering section &ldquoEdelweiss&rdquo, Moscow region), of 17.08.03 (along the North-Eastern slope, grade of difficulty: 5A)

The leader Kirikov A.V. ( Tomsk), 5.08.05, (from the pass Chonteren, grade of difficulty: 5A).

13. Tourclub &ldquoVestra&rdquo, Moscow.

PREPARATION FOR THE ASCENT

The team prepared for the ascent by means of trainings in Moscow. Before the ascent for the purpose of acclimatization we made an ascent (traverse) of the massif in the southern spur of the Eastern Summit of the Pobeda Peak - summits 5853-5960, named in honour of Yury Vizbor. (approximate grade of difficulty of the traverse - 5A, extension - about 10 km).

The route to the peak Voennih Topografov was for the first time looked through in the year 2002, during the first expedition to the Chinese Tien-Shan. Passing the edge for the first time had been planned in 2004, but that year the conditions of traverse of the Peak Kashkar had unsettled us and we hadn&rsquot even made an attempt to ascent to the Peak Voennih Topografov. This year we have tried to simplified acclimatizing part of the expedition as much as possible (we can&rsquot say we managed to do it, but it left us enough forces)

The weather was variable sometimes there were entirely sunny days. We didn&rsquot pay special attention to snowfalls, wind and others surprises of the weather. We didn&rsquot come across very bad weather, when wind makes you fall down to the slope or when the visibility is not more than a meter. Snowfalls were almost every day, bad visibility - every other day. Heavy wind - about two days.

During walking days we were working for7-12 hours, the relief was mostly slide-rocky, or very difficult ice-snowy, climbing sometimes in crampons, sometime without them. The most difficult strips - several strips of 4-5 grade of difficulty on climbing up to the ridge (R 4 - R 6), R 9- R 13 (about 500 m), R 15 20- 30 m high snow-ice wall, 200 m along black wall, about 100 m on the apical rocks. For the most part belay was organized on rocky hooks and juts. To work on the route we used 16 climbing ropes 45- 50 m long, 8- 11 mm in diameter (all in all 700 m), rocky hooks (about 70 items, we hammered them in and didn&rsquot take back, after the decent 16 items were left), ice screws - 18 items.