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Mountain photos - amateur
and professional photos of mountains.
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Author: Anatoly Dzhuly, Moscow
Kashkar
peak, 6435 m, ascent Information about the route Kashkar peak (Koshkar, Kochkar-Bashi), 6435 m, is located in a southern ridge of Kokshaaltau range that begins at Tomur Peak (Pobeda) at the area of "obelisk" and extends 40-50 km to the south.
The first and unique but unsuccessful attempt to subdue the summit was undertaken by French team in 90 or 91 year. We don’t have information neither about their planned route, nor the reasons of their failure. Presumably - the bad weather, and the complexity that exceeds a certain average level. Well, actually, in 2002 we considered a variant of ascending the peak from the Plateau pass (5600m) side that we climbed that year. But shortage of time and a rigid bad weather did not allowed us to leave aside the summit.
Choice of the route As we did not know what was the mountain from the west face like (there are decent rocks there) and under the information which we had on the basis of our own reconnaissance in 2002, we considered two variants of getting to the top - as the basic variant via the long (more than 8 km) northern ridge and the route via the "board" (photo.1, 7) - as we named it - at deficiency of time it was rather shorter and deduced to the northern ridge at about 6050 m. Why did we prefer the longer route? It's very simple - one of the main tasks of the expedition is still area discovering, and we would like very much to find one - two simple pass leading to Temirsu glacier where we did not manage to get in 2002. Descent route. We wanted to descend via the known site - Plateau pass - that we investigated in 2002. Thus it is necessary to note, that from almost 2500-meter descent line (2435 m - the altitude difference up to the glacier) we knew, i.e. climbed, only a site from 5600 up to 5100 m (a saddle Bozhya Korovka (Ladybird) pass). The rest sites we only saw from far away. Traverse. As a matter of fact, the route that we have done was rather extended high-altitude traverse. There are several summits of altitudes 5550, 5620, 5650, 6050 m, in the north range that tower quite independently. The route via the "board" leaves from the 6050 peak’s top to the east. And from the each of the other listed tops the spurs leave to the west. So it turned out, that we passed one top (gendarme) a day. General traverse extent - 13-14 km (from the bottom of the glacier under pass slope and up to the exit on the plane glacier on the descent route) and we made the most traverse part at the altitude more than 5000 m.
Kashkar
(Koshkar, Kochkarbashi) Ascent (traverse) 1. High-altitude class (traverse) 2. Central Tien Shan, Kokshaaltau range, southern spurs, China, 20 km to the south from Pobeda Peak (Tomur).
3. Kashkar, 6435 m, north ridge (first ascent). 4. Category of difficulty: 4B-5À (roughly) 5. Altitude Difference:
ascent - 4600-6435 - 1835 m; descent 6435-4000 - 2435 m 6. Bolted: 7. Total running hours: from pass foot up to the plane glacier's plane body at descent - 48 (ascent) + 20 (descent) and total days: 6 (ascent) +4 (forced rest) +2 (summit - descent). Except that it took 3 days to get from base camp under the pass, (2 ice-falls climbed), descent from 4000 to the base camp (1 ice-fall) took a half a day. General time from the base camp to the base camp - 16 days 8. Spending the night: all
of them were convenient, in lying position on the snow on cornices. 9. The leader: Dzhuly Anatoly 10. The trainer: Dzhuly Anatoly 11. North ridge - 11.07 -
21.072004. 12. Tourist club "Vestra", Moscow
The team trained in Moscow. Before the ascent we had acclimatization trip via Kichikteren pass (2À, 4700 m), and made an attempt of first ascent 5115 peak climbing it up to 5000 m (weather sharply deteriorated and we did not manage to get to the summit).
In the beginning of our expedition weather was marvelously good for this mountain area. But then, it looks like it decided to recoup on us. Such sensation, that the Himalaya monsoon was simply dragged here - the steady east wind close to storm, and sleet, continuous snow falling accompanied us for all this seven and a half of days. During four of them we could not move as the ridge was not visible in 3-5 meters at all. All that (i.e. 16 days instead of 10 scheduled) led to rigid economy of fuel and food (one meal a day actually for 9 days). In running days we worked on the route for 7-12 hours on a basically snow-ice relief, moving in crampons or snowshoes. The rocky equipment actually was not useful, as on short rocky sites of the ridge it was possible to work through ledges, and practically everywhere there were sites of ice. The most complex sites we met: some short sites 4-5-graded on ascent 5550 m peak route (R2, R3), on ascent 5620 peak - site R6 (3 pitches), a 20-30 m snow-ice-covered rocky wall right under the summit of 5650 m peak (R9), 6 pitches (3 of them on snow-ice site and 3 - on the rocky ridge, R13, R14) on the 6000-6300 site before the summit, 10 pitches on descent route (R17, R19, R24). Basically we used ice-screws and ice-axes organizing the pitches and rocky ledges to secure the rope. Working on traverse we used three basic 50 m ropes and one auxiliary 8 mm half rope for pulling off. 8.07-10.07 - we made a trip from the base camp under the pass in Morenny glacier heads (the first right inflow of Chonteren glacier). Morenny glacier flows into Chonteren glacier with rather powerful ice-fall. It took us a half a day to climb it. There was a simple ice-falls more right before the pass' corrie;
11.07 - we climbed an intermediate pass (in a lateral spur), and the ridge up to Morenny pass (2B on Temirsu glacier), then roped up we climbed 5550 m peak up to 5400m (10 simple pitches); 12.07 - we summited 5550 m peak: 5,5 pitches upwards left up to the summit and 2,5 pitches through a cornice to continuation of the ridge where we climbed roped up. 13.07 - we made a way up to the summit of 5620 peak (the crux of the route): three simple pitches under the rocks, further about 100 m- traverse on ice of 45-55 degrees, up to the bend with a cornice, further about 80 m to the left - upwards on snow-covered rocks of average complexity and ice up to the summit of 5620 peak. Then roped up we descended via the ridge with a system of cornices. 14.07-one complex pitch over a snow drift: 20-30 m - snow-ice wall, then roped up we moved via the ridge with cornices up to the top of 5650 m peak, further traverse via a narrow ridge with cornices, abrupt ice rise (1 pitch), then a narrow rocky crest (1 pitch), short climb and rappelling about 25 m on the next cofferdam, where a camp was settled. It began snowing after afternoon, from time to time visibility was up to 100 m, and less. Since that moment and till 20.07 we could see maximum of 100 m of the ridge before and behind us. 15.07 - a snowfall, a wind, visibility "0". We were forced to have a rest. 16.07 - a snowfall, a wind again, visibility no more than 100 m. During 9 hours we climbed roped up via a rather wide snow-ice ridge with a system of cornices and rocks in places sometimes fixing the rope. Visibility was bad, but we could see the summit sometimes. 17-19.07 - a snowfall, a gale-force wind, visibility "0". Sometimes the sun like a yellow stain appeared through the clouds. We had to rest. An avalanche collapsed (and it happened on the ridge!): one tent was swept and three guys were immured. For 5 hours we made excavation of 2 meter avalanche snow, but found practically everything. Our losses - one avalanche shovel, a pair of ski poles. It was not fatal. 20.07 - a snow, a wind, visibility up to 200 m (sometimes). We approached under the dome of the top, at 6350 m. First we kneaded a deep snow in snowshoes, left under the rocky top triangle, made three pitches from the left of it on a snow-ice slope up to the summit ridge, and 3 pitches more on a flat rocky ridge of average difficulty. All of us were exhausted very much: these 6 pitches we went for 6-8-hours with a turtle speed. As the result we had to set a camp under the dome. Especially as the visibility fell up to "0"; 21.07 - it abruptly become cold at night, a lot of stars appeared in the sky. In the morning it was freezing hard, windy, the sun was shining. Overcast was spreading below. We overcame the summit simple dome (deep snow), then on even more flat slope got to the summit at 13-00-13-20 (it turned out that there are two tops of identical altitude). Then we descended via the southern and southeast ridge to the Plateau pass up to 5750 (reconnoitering, searching etc.), went a site of a narrow snow-ice ridge with cornices, demanding alternate belaying - 200 m. Then we rappelled along a rocky fault of 55 m at the end of the ridge and settled a camp on a flat ridge at 5750 m;
23.07 - it was a torrential rain with snow. We were lower than overcast. Descent to the base camp: we went down the ice-fall in the average current of Ladybird glacier for a half a day, moving basically on the right rantcluft (Rock-falling dangerous!). At 20-00 we finally descended to the base camp.
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