of the flask, but his hands shook. Then he put his hand with the flask on one knee and his hand with the cap on the other knee and poured himself 20 grams that way.
It was hard for us to sit in the tent, and the time was still about three o’clock in the afternoon. The weather got even worse, although we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it was snowing like a wall. The wind was blowing simultaneously from all directions and it was very cold. We fired up a gas stove made at Krasmash plant where other equipment was also made. The tent immediately felt warm, even somehow cozy, despite the dampness and 100% humidity. We boiled tea, ate something to eat and settled in for the night.
Despite such extreme conditions, we can say that the overnight stay was a success.
While the guys are warming up and resting, I will make a small lyrical digression. Imagine the picture: night, the rain turned to snow, the wet rocks are iced over, and four absolutely wet guys are lying on a shelf in the tent. Down – 250m wet and partially iced wall, up – 100m iced wall after rain. And this despite the fact that they are impassable in rain and snow. For usual people it is full physical and psychological disaster. Even the prepared climbers would be in a difficult situation. But not for our four. They’ve been through a tough and sometimes brutal selection.
(When they find themselves in various adversities, weak in spirit and body are eliminated, only the strongest, the most capable, the most persistent and courageous remain. Yes, not everyone can look in the eyes of real dangers, when you can snap and get hurt or die. Besides, Valeri Balezin, one of the strongest mountaineers in the world, was there.
So the four of them were sitting in a tent. They planned to climb the route in one day (Bezzubkin’s team had taken eight days to do so). It was quite realistic: they were students of Krasnoyarsk mountaineering school, one of the strongest in the world.
Let’s see how they got out of this situation. Since we got up at 3 a.m. today, we started to get into bed, or rather, to get stronger, since there was only room to sit. (Editor’s note))
There were no carimats at the time, and we brought mats made of porous foam, but they absorbed water and offered little protection from the cold floor of the tent. I put this mat on my back under my down jacket, which got soaked through because the tent material was on my back, which saved my back from freezing. I also had a mat with foam plates sewn in, which does not absorb water. I put this mat on a cold shelf and put a storm jacket on top, which I sat on. Periodically I slid off the shelf and hung on the safety loop. My friends did the same.
We would stack our feet in a pile, and periodically I would wake up and find my feet at the very bottom. I would pull them out, put them on top, and go back to sleep. An hour later, it would happen again. That’s how we slept. My sleeping bag and down got wet and rolled up into separate clumps, but that’s okay, we didn’t freeze. Despite such extreme conditions we can say that we had a successful night.
I woke up in the morning at seven o’clock, looked out of the tent – leaden sky, wind with snow, cold. What could I do, we had to get out. I got ready and climbed out, while the guys were packing the tent and things in their backpacks.
Azaryev: – And how far to the peak was it?
Balezin: – About five – six ropes.
I struggled to get through the gap, but then the wall slope decreased and the whole surface appeared to be covered by couloirs. Rocks usually fly in the couloirs, but here everything was covered with snow and frozen, so no rocks flew.
We put on our ice claws and walked quickly up the couloir. We came to the summit dome, which was covered in ice. The ice is thin, but when you stick an ice hammer in, it holds. Just like that, carefully, I climbed up the ridge. I grasped the sharp ridge with my hands, pulled myself up, and looked at the other side. There was fog and snow; I couldn’t see anything. As we climbed, it was as if we had dried off a bit, warming up as we went.
We reached the top of the peak, but there was nothing in sight. I had not read about the descent, but Sapog assured me that he had been there and knew the descent well. Indeed, the dome is quite gentle, with drops and walls underneath. I remembered that a group had gone to the summit before us and there should be traces of the descent, but everything was packed, where to look for them. We began to shovel the snow, found traces in one place and went that way. We approached the edge of the dome, dug around and found a loop from a rope attached to a rock ledge, so we were walking correctly.
We went down and followed the ridge. Sapog said that it would take about twenty minutes to walk along the ridge and there would be a couloir to Karagai Gorge. We went along the ridge, saw the beginning of the couloir, I went down by the safety rope and saw the rocky precipice. Wrong couloir. We went further, again a couloir and again rocky drops. Only in the third couloir I did not see any drops, and we began our descent. We descended, the snow turned into rain, and we were soaked again. But it was even worse on the wall. We went down and there were rocks covered with snow. If you step on a rock and slip between the stones, you can fall through the waist. Well, we walked about a kilometer, vegetation began, even bushes appeared, but the fog and rain continued.
Zakharov: – And ram.
– No, there are no rams, there are only goat paths and we go down by them. The canyon gets narrower and there is a steep wall in front of us. What to do, I climbed up, we got over, but there was a wall again. It was getting dark quickly, and our lanterns were all out of date, they were old, with incandescent bulbs. Only one was shining a little bit. It was burning for ten seconds and then it went out, when you turn it on, it would shine again for ten seconds. We approached – a steep grassy slope, 80 degrees, as it seemed to me. I put on crampons and climbed with an ice-axe. I climbed up – there I tied a rope around a tree. The others with the help of jumars climbed up. Then the descent to the round glade, on the edge of which a deep brook flowed noiselessly. Well, I ran into it up to my chest. My boot was up to his neck, too, by inertia. Shouting, swearing, we managed to warn the others.
We crossed a clearing, and Sapog says, that it is necessary to spend the night, Yes you what, here near all, no, speaks, here should be the wood. We stopped, put the tent, and the guys went to get firewood. And there, on a slope there was a dry juniper. We dragged it and somehow broke it with our hands, but we needed to light it and it was still drizzling. We put wet firewood around the gas burner and set it on fire. We were sitting and waiting, at last the wood flared up, we quickly put it away, and meanwhile the juniper was burning well, and it gave a strong heat, one could not come close to the fire.
Sapog put a tent not far from the fire and went to sleep, and the others still long sat by the fire. Two hours later I decided to go to sleep too, I looked into the tent and saw that it was warm, even hot from the fire, but it was damp, there was a puddle of warm water on the floor and Sapog lay tired and slept in it. I snuggled up next to him on an almost dry spot and fell asleep too, while Nicodemus and Joe stayed by the fire until morning.
In the morning we realized that Sapog was right to insist on sleeping overnight, because we had to cross the Ala Archa River over the bridge, which was slightly upstream, we would not see in the dark and for sure we would get lost. In the morning we safely found the way and in an hour and a half we were in the Ala Archa alpine camp.
Strangely enough, despite such extreme climbing conditions, no one caught a cold or got sick, the only thing I had is a slight loss of sensitivity and redness on my toes, a consequence of climbing in rock shoes with crampons attache- No, there are no rams, only goat trails, and we descend them. The canyon becomes narrower, and there is a steep wall in front of us. What to do, I climbed up, we climbed over, but there was a wall again. It was getting dark fast, and our lanterns were all out, they were old, incandescent. Only one shone a little bit. It burned for ten seconds and then went out; if we turned it on, it would shine again for ten seconds. We walked up – a steep grassy slope, about 80 degrees I thought. I climbed up with an ice axe. I climbed up – there I tied a rope around a tree. The others, with the