Khan Tengri 2003 Reports

Off to climb Khan Tengri in southern Kazakhstan this July. Check back here for Live reports and video live from the mountain! Khan Tengri is on the border with Northern China and is within the Tien Shan Mountains (Heavenly Mountains!). Khan Tengri translates as Ruler or Ruler of the Skies. Its a 7000 meter technical climb and will really be a lot of fun! Stay tuned here as we leave for this expedition!

Just Back to Base Camp after our Summit Attempt!- July 22nd

Its been awhile since we've sent in a report, but we have been busy! Since our last report we have been up through all the camps, in very tough conditions. Yesterday we had a go at the summit but extreme high winds kept the summit away from us. We started from Camp 3 on July 21st at 5am in clear blue skies and light winds. Everything was looking perfect. We were the first team on the Upper West Ridge this year so we had to dig out ropes and break trail the entire way. Fairly difficult slow going at over 20,000 ft.. We were moving well but soon after 9am the classic Tien Shan weather made its appearance. First thin lenticular clouds started forming above Pobeda, then above us on Khan Tengri. These indicate very serious high winds. We continued for awhile until it was very clear it was time to get outta there! We had reached 21,000 ft. very near the the bottom of the summit couilor, but by then the sky had gone grey and the surrounding peaks had disappeared and 30 to 40 mph gust were hitting us with a lot of spindrift. This had all happened in just over an hour!

As we descended the weather was chasing us down to camp 3 with high winds battering the col. Camp 3 is a very easy place to get caught in bad weather as you have to climb up almost 1000 ft. along a narrow corniced ridge with steep potential avalanche slopes on the south side to get up and over Chapayev to get back down the ridge to Camp 2. We were down to our last day to still make our helicopter flight out on the 25th so we packed and headed up Chapayev and down to Camp 2 as a full on blizzard hammered the rest of the day and into the next morning. One thing about climbing here is you have to respect the weather as it can be very serious quickly! This morning we again had high winds and lots of fresh snow (over 2 feet) on our way down through Camp 1 and into Base Camp.

Between most camps we have been the first up the route in places this year. This has demanded a higher level of energy than normal here. Besides the almost constant snowfall and wind that we have been seeing. This has been one of the toughest mountains that I have attempted as far as sheer amount of work breaking trail and constant snowfall!

Its a bit of a story but we had another rather interesting incident. We had carried up about 50 lbs. of equipment previous to our summit push. Someone had tied our bag to a Russian tent (as an anchor) which was blown off from camp 2 with our bag attached! We discovered this as we arrived at Camp 2 expecting all our stuff to be there! After a series of radio calls it was determined that it was the Russians responsibility to get the bag back up to Camp 2 for us and a team of guides was sent. The first attempt to retrieve the bag turned around, then another group finally reached it still with the tent attached and the bags contents in good shape after sliding over 3000 ft. down! So the end result was we had our gear back the next day which was our rest/acclimatization day at Camp 2 anyways! An interesting bit of luck on our part as without the bag our trip would have been over as it had everything we needed for up high (food, ropes, fuel, cameras, high altitude clothing). We were happy to see it needless to say!

Both Lawrence and I are very happy with the whole trip as we have made it higher than any other group so far, and under difficult conditions. We have made a lot of close friends in our time here; the Spanish Group (Javier, Nacho, Julian ), Dutch ( Ray and Hans), Hungarian Group (Leto and Feri) and lots of Kazakhstan and Russian climbers. It was a good lesson and introduction to climbing here in the Tien Shan, we both feel lucky to experience such a remote and beautiful place in the world. One I hope to visit again in the near future.

We have learned lots from their style of climbing here as it is very much different from ours and in most cases with very old equipment. Pure tenacity, power and character drives the local climbers here. The team of Russians guides that had followed us most of the route included several guides, one 70 years old that was as strong as the younger trainee guides working alongside him, remarkable! They were carrying up fixed line to replace the older lines that were very tattered in places. This was another reason we had decided not to push the summit as the lines we were climbing on were in bad shape, most of the lines above 20,000 ft. had frayed so badly that the sheath had completely worn off with only some of the core strands still there! So we had to be very careful not to load the ropes too much. Very tricky in serious weather at altitude!

What a place, the remarkable Tien Shan Mountains! We will be offering treks into both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, also mountaineering trips into this area and the Pamirs, and private guided trips to Khan Tengri.

Photo is from the Upper West Ridge around 21,000 ft. near our high point! Scott Woolums Reporting.

Photo of Camp 2 from above!

Update from Scott: Calling from inside our snow cave up here at about 20,000 ft. Total blizzard out there. Waiting and hoping for better weather tomorrow!