Two ascents on Khan Tengri, North Face made by climbers from Nizhni Tagil (August 2003)

The team from Nizhni Tagil: Nikolay Smagin (Nizhni Tagil), Victor Shishmintsev (Nizhni Tagil) climbed the left - K.Kuzmin's route (1964), 5B-graded, on August, 20, 2003.

The team of Sverdlovsk regional sport committee climbed the right O.Khudyakov's route (1970), 6A-graded, on August, 30, 2003.

The team consisted of:

Vadim Popovich - the master of sports of Russia on mountaineering, the silver prize-winner of the Championship of Russia on mountaineering, 2001 (Nizhni Tagil).

Alexander Stolbov - the prize-winner of the Championship of the CIS on mountaineering (Nizhni Tagil).

Alexander Shabunin - the prize-winner of the Championship of the CIS on mountaineering (Nizhni Tagil).

O.Khudyakov's route is the first route the climbers from Nizhni Tagil have gone by on Khan Tengri, North Face.

The route was first ascended in 1970 by the team led by Oleg Khudyakov (the members: J.Artsishevsky, R.Volkov, R.Ivanov, L.Kabelsky, J.Manshin, V.Jushkevich, A.Yakushev).

The route passes first through the left part of the North face, and then via the East ridge goes up to the summit of Khan Tengri (means the Master of the Sky).

The route is combined, and includes various mountain relief sites demanding various climbing technique. The ice-snow slope begins from a bergschrund (4300m).

Further there is a combination of rocks, ice and a snow sites leading via the East buttress of the North face up to 6300m to the East ridge of Khan Tengri with 2km altitude difference. And further the route goes via the East ridge coinciding with K.Kuzmin's route.

The difference in 700 meters separates climbers at 6300 m up to the summit (6995m).

O.Hudjakov's team took more than 20 days to summit the highest point of Khan Tengri.

The guys from Nizhni Tagil planned to do that for 7 days, but because of the bad weather they spent for two days more.

The chronicle of the ascent:

20.08.2003 The team of Sverdlovsk regional sport committee (V.Popovich, A.Stolbov, A.Shabunin) fixed 10 ropes and descended to the base camp.

21.08.2003 Because of the bad weather they had a forced rest in the base camp.

22.08. - 29.08. The guys had their first trip and climbed the left part of Northern face via the East buttress.

29.08 The trip on East ridge, 6300m.

30.08.2003γ. They made way up to the summit from the East ridge, 6300m and successfully summited at 14.50. Then they descended to the base camp (at 23.00.) settled on Northern Inylchek glacier.