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On July, 21 Alexander Ruchkin, Mikhail Mikhailov, Evgeny Dmitrienko, Oleg Kvostenko and Mikhail Bakin left base camp under Masherbrum peak in the direction of Skardu. The ascent MasherbrumNortheast face was bailed at 5800 m.

A.S. (Anna Stolbova): Will you try Masherbrum again?

A.O. (Alexander Odintsov): No.

A.S. No?

A.O. No.

After that answer there was the long pause - the weighed silence of the man of sense.

A.S. Is it impossible to climb it at all?

A.O. Yes. I think so. The reconnaissance did not answer about complexity of the wall. Te whole of it practically is blocked by ice-falls. All the time you appear under crossing fire. And the ascent complexity does depend neither on a climbing season, nor from number of a team members or style of ascent. All the time you are in for disasters. Such only who is weirdly and not afraid for his life has chances to open this wall... And where should we be if the mountains were shaken like last year in Pakistan …

A.S. Did you already realized that when you were taken away with the helicopter from base camp?

A.O. (Smile) In general I understood little of taking place that time. My main task was to get the team to base camp and solve questions with porters. I understood that in an hour or two of trekking up to BC they would ask for extra money and start to revolt. As soon as the camp was settled, all of this got me down. The dock stuck out for evacuation.

A.S. Do you understand that these words can close a theme of Big-Wall Masherbrum for a long time for the climbing public?

A.O. Yes. It seems that years will go by and the new climbing generation will change to come into being a new impartial interest to the mountain. For those who will want to climb this wall our words should become nothing less than the opinion of the enfeebled by age and fit for nothing old men.

A.S. Is it wormwood to you that the expedition failed?

A.O. You know, I stopped to be done up. It was insulting, when from the helicopter I saw the wall and finally understood that the expedition ended for me.

A.S. Do you notice the team's messages about expedition running were low-key? Neither Ruchkin, nor Bakin in their reports did not mention about dangers of ice collapses, Mike Mikhailov's falling into a crevasse resulted in suturing, about snowfalls. Why? In fact your expedition causes the big interest we sincerely keep to read the battlefield.

A.O. Probably, we can not get hand in a forcing of a situation. The Krasnoyarians in general have a reputation for that. At any situation they speak: «Everything is OK».

A.S. What happened with Mike Mikhailov?

A.O. He fell into a crevasse on an ice ridge. Safe-and-sound, but the doctor overcastted some seams.

A.S. And how the decision about cut-off of the ascent was accepted?

A.O. Ruchkin had a hard-boiled appraisal of the situation. He oversaw the work of the Krasnoyarians (their two-man team climbed first) and understood that there were not any safe sites on the wall. All the time they were on a knife edge of an accident. The level of allowable risk appeared seriously overestimated. Probably, after discussion with Mikhailov he made a decision to call off the expedition. They just confronted me with the accomplished fact. Our travel agent communicated with me and told that the porters had left towards BC.

A.S. Alexander, the uninitiated readers perhaps consider your Masherbrum ascent as a kind of adventure.

A.O. (Smiles). Those in the know thought the same. To tell the truth, every our expedition is an adventure. We constantly face against unknown. Our expeditions are like an equation in a lot unknowns. Just on Masherbrum it appeared more unknowns, than we would be able to solve.

A.S. Ruchkin reckons that it is very bad without work, but without mountains it is even worse. Do you share his opinion?

A.O. As for me the mountains is not geographical and not physical concept. It is the certain range, like at militarians, where I can run the tests of my physical state, my character, the way of thinking. Any sports can not give me such opportunity. For me the Mountains is the way of my life. And in this context, certainly, I agree with Ruchkin.

27.07.06.