Mountain photos - amateur and professional photos of mountains.

The information is provided by Olga Firsova, Evgeny Korol and Pavel Fedorov

Bashkara - 2005 (4241m, Adylsu valley, Caucasus, Russia)

Winter Expedition of Moscow Demchenko Club

"Bashkara - 2005" Winter Expedition of Moscow Demchenko Club is successfully completed: the route is gone, all of the participants are pleased and full of optimism.

Ascent chronicle and photo album

January, 31

It was heavy snowing in Elbrus mountain area to the great delight of locals, skiers and snowboarders because they had been waiting for a good snowfall for a long time. But that brought the expedition no joy. Everyone was ready to break trail all the day. Snow covered everything around; vehicles could hardly move upwards the gorge. In the afternoon we went to "Zelenaya gostinitsa" ("Green hotel") camp site to get gear and food there. After several hours of breaking trail we reached a small house of glaciologists where stayed to spend the night. All of the guys felt well. And we decided to do the first full carry under the beginning of the route next day on the chance of good weather.

February, 1

Since the morning the sun was shining, the blue sky was above and there was much more snow around. Having had a bite, we left aside Mt. Bashkara. Despite of our fears we crossed Bashkarsky glacier without any problems. But further it became more and more difficult to move on and we got avalanche shovels afloat. As a matter of fact the leader had to dig a whole trench in snow to let the others to follow in his track. The leader changed every 10-15 meters, thus our advance speed hardly reached 60 meters an hour. Finally we left depot in and descended. Tomorrow we planned to have a rest day before starting climbing.

February, 4

On February 3 in the evening we met a group led by Boris Lechshenko. They were close to the Mt. Trapetsia (Trapezium, 3743m) summit but had to bail and descend...

Along toward night real cold snap started, about negative 27C outside.

Early in the morning all of the team (including camera-operators Evgeny Korol and Pavel Fedorov) went on the route. We had to break trail again as the previous track was practically snowed anew. Only toward the afternoon we reached our depot under beginning of the route. The climbers started to prepare for the ascent, and the camera-men began shooting.

Later it was seen from the glacier the team moved ahead rather slowly.

The first pitches they climbed onto deep snow and had to dig it under each belay anchor point but the belay was unsafe and unreliable. Under the plan this day the guys had to reach the top bergschrund as only there was a proper place for spending the night.

February, 5

Since the morning the team climbed onto a snow-ice slope and in the afternoon they came under rocks. According to the plan they should spend the night on a snow ledge, however the relief appeared so complex that the guys did not managed to get there and had to descend and dig a snow cave below.

February, 6

Early in the morning the guys climbed previously fixed ropes, continued to work on the wall and already in the darkness went on the summit ridge but could not find any convenient site to set a tent there and spent the night open-air. They were ready to summit next day.

February, 7

Summit!
After cold night (-30C), sedentary spending the night open-air the guys began to climb the summit ridge. There was a nasty turn in the weather, strong snowfall and a wind created serious obstacles. Visibility was poor last pitches (no more than 20 meters). By 12.00 all the guys got together atop of Bashkara.

The same day, all the team descended via 3B-graded route to Dzhanguganskoe plateau, and further through Dzhantugan pass they reached "Green hotel" and at last "Elbrus" mountaineering camp. All of the guys are safe and sound.