Unbelievable Adventures of Krasnoyarsk mountain climbers. 2021. Igor Azaryev

to spend the night, but there was a bridge across the river. No, he says, there must be the wood here. We have stopped, have put the tent here, and lads have gone behind the fire wood. And there, on the slope there was a dry juniper tree. We dragged it, somehow broke it with our hands, but we needed to light it, and the rain was still drizzling. We put the wet wood around the gas burner and lit it. We sat and waited, at last the wood burst into flames, we quickly put them away with the gas burner, and the juniper, meanwhile, was burning well, and a strong heat was coming from it, we could not get close to the fire.

      Sapog pitched his tent not far from the fire and went to sleep, while the others sat around the fire for a long time. Two hours later I decided to go to sleep too, looked into the tent and saw that it was warm, even hot from the fire, but damp, there was a puddle of melted water on the floor, Sapog lay tired and slept in it. I crouched 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 spending the night, because we had to cross the Ala Archa River over the bridge, which was slightly upstream, we would not see in the dark and would surely get lost. In the morning we found our way safely and in an hour and a half we were at the Ala Archa mountain camp.

      Strange as it may seem, despite such extreme climbing conditions no one caught a cold or got sick, the only thing I had was a slight loss of feeling and redness on my toes, a consequence of climbing in rock shoes with crampons attached to them, but after ten days it completely passed.

      This is the effect of extreme conditions. During the war our soldiers were freezing in the trenches in their overcoats, but they rarely caught cold (editor’s note).d to them, but after ten days it completely passed.

      (This is the effect of extreme conditions. During the war our soldiers were freezing in the trenches in their overcoats, but they rarely caught cold (Editor’s note).)

      Krasnoyarsk mountaineering veterans at the party

      This happens in the mountains.

      It doesn’t happen anywhere.

      Climbing wisdom

      After the next International Championship among veterans in mountaineering and climbing, which, as always, is held by Yuri Mashkov in Sudak in 2019, we gathered at Nikolai Zakharov’s cottage in Novy Svet, Crimea to rest and relax after the intense competition.

      Let me introduce our interlocutors.

      To my left sits our gracious host, Nikolai Zakharov, a famous mountaineer and climber. He is a Master of Sports in mountaineering, International Master of Sports in mountaineering, multiple USSR champion in mountaineering. He was everywhere: in the Sayan Mountains, Altai, Tien Shan, Pamir, Phan, the Caucasus, Everest, on all the continents, and even in Antarctica there is his first ascent of the wall of difficulty category 6A.

      Listen, Nikolai, have you been to the Moon, are there mountains there too?

      – I have not been to the moon yet.

      – And you would like to visit?

      – You ask, it’s my dream, there I would weigh only 13 kg, and my backpack is less than 3 kg. Not to climb, but to enjoy. Maybe this dream of mine will come true someday.

      To my right sits Valery Balezin. He is the only world-class Master of Sports in mountaineering and rock climbing, he has participated in and won all major competitions in mountaineering and rock climbing.

      – Listen, Valera, have you ever taken part in «Sports Lotto»?

      – No, I did not.

      – It’s not the USSR championship, you need luck there.

      And to my right sits Raikhan Galiakbarov – master of sports in rock climbing, multiple champion of the USSR and Russia. He plays the role of a novice in our company, trying to extract stories about their adventures from the veterans.

      .

      Valery Balezin, Igor Azaryev, Raihan Galiakbarov

      And to the right of Zakharov sits Igor Azaryev. He is a candidate master of sports in mountaineering and climbing, a multiple champion of Ukraine.

      Since we are on vacation, we allow ourselves to relax with a bottle of genuine Crimean wine.

      Since I consumed the drink with everyone else, some details and gaps in my memory are forgotten, so please excuse me somehow.

      Raikhan: – You are such experienced and knowledgeable climbers, tell us about your adventures in the mountains.

      Azaryev: – Nothing special happened to us, we went to the routes, it rained and other troubles, but nothing special. Except, there was one case – once I flew in the mountains on an eagle.

      Raikhan: – A real eagle?

      – Well, what else could it be, a real big eagle.

      – Wow, that’s interesting, tell me about it.

      Flying the Eagle

      So, there was such a case: we went to the Yagnob wall on the route of the 6th category of complexity.

      Zakharov: – But without any lies.

      – And why, you may ask, I took this magic drink on my chest, so only the truth.

      – Well, come on, tell me.

      – So we came to the wall of Yagnob.

      Raikhan: – And where is this wall?

      – In the Fann Mountains in the Pamirs.

      – And there are all kinds of dushmans and terrorists there.

      Zakharov: – But at that time it was safe everywhere in Pamir. And what route did you take, the Efimov one?

      – Yes, were you there?

      – We were there in 1982, and when were you there?

      – Two years earlier.

      Our team was rather weak, the route was purely rocky, and among the climbers I was the only one at first, the rest were from the category of stompers, but the group had been going together for a long time and worked well with the rope. Then the team was strengthened by Alexander Verba, a strong climber, and weakened by the head of the field camp rescue team. The last time he went on a route of the third category was about three years ago. And he wanted to climb the sixth and that was it.

      Well, the route we went without problems, and before the top of the mountain this happened. There before the top was a smooth wall of about 40m. The wall is smooth, almost without hooks, but with a slight slope, so it was possible to pass on it in special rock sneakers. I climbed it, and Verba insured me.

      – Wait a minute, wait a minute, I passed it too, but it did not end very well for me…