Goto Chockstone Home

  Guide
  Gallery
  Tech Tips
  Articles
  Reviews
  Dictionary
  Links
  Forum
  Search
  About

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

  Shop
Chockstone Photography
Australian Landscape Photography by Michael Boniwell
Australian Landscape Prints





Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 21
Author
TR: Khan Tengri, Central Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan
huwj
2-Sep-2014
5:12:39 AM
At the beginning of August I summited Khan Tengri. A 7000m peak that stands in the Central Tian Shan range at the intersection of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China.

It’s a stunningly beautiful mountain in a remote and amazing part of the world. I made some great friends in base camp and had an intense and rewarding time on the mountain.

It’s not Aussie rock, but I thought a few of you might be interested to hear some details. I haven’t put together a proper trip report and the weeks are slipping away so I thought I’d at least share some pictures.



And a few details about the trip…

I choose to climb from the south and bought a base camp package from a Kyrgyz company called Ak-Sai. I have no hesitation in recommending them and the whole team from the office staff to the base camp cooks were great. Using an outfit like Ak-Sai is not essential - one of the great things about this part of the world is that you can hike to base camp, pitch your tent and do your own thing without spending any money. As I was on my own and had no idea how long it would take me to climb the mountain, not having to carry a month’s worth of base camp food and being able to socialise over shared meals with the other climbers was what made me splash out the dollars. In hindsight it was definitely the right decision and made the whole experience so much more enjoyable.

They flew me to the glacier in a chopper, gave me a big yellow tent in base camp and fed me three meals a day for as long as I was there. They also gave me a radio whenever I was on the mountain so I could check in with Dima the base camp manager. Radio contact aside, once you walk out of base camp, you’re on your own.

From flying in to flying out I spent eighteen days climbing the mountain. During my acclimatisation I teamed up with a couple of other soloists. We kept an eye on each other and shared tents, tea and stories, but on my third and final trip up the mountain I climbed and summited alone. On the summit the weather was changing quickly and with a huge snow dump forecast for later in the day, I was far from relaxed or excited. Standing on the summit was not the experience I imagined! That said there’s no doubt that the fifteen minutes or so I spent up there alone was very special and not something I will ever likely forget.

Khan Tengri is a technical seven-thousander but I found the technical difficulties were not so great. Below Camp 3 (5900m) the difficulties mainly involve crevasse and avalanches, both of which are very serious on this mountain! After acclimatisation (ie. once familiar with the route) I was able to ascend to Camp 3 without crampons and using only a walking pole.

Above Camp 3 the west ridge ascends 1100m of mixed ice and rock to the summit. Most of this I would class as difficult scrambling mixed with easy rock climbing. There are several rock steps (maybe three) that make things exciting and are graded as ‘Severe’. Needless to say climbing these rock steps in crampons with a tool and wearing all the gear associated with a 7000m summit is not comparable to climbing a ‘Severe’ route bare chested at your local crag!

Your typical high altitude, fixed ropes and guided ascent is not something that has ever appealed to me. Choosing not to employ the services of a guide is easy, choosing not to use fixed ropes is slightly less so. Knowing that all the technical ground was equipped with fixed ropes (although a lot of the fixed rope on Khan Tengri is seriously questionable quality) I decided before ever setting foot on the mountain that I would clip the ropes for protection but never use them to make upwards progress. I knew that this was an easy decision to make sat at home on the sofa and I might think differently when stood below the crux step at 6800m so to make sure it wasn’t too easy to cheat, I left my jumars at home.

What makes things really exciting up there is the exposure, the altitude and the weather. Khan Tengri is the world’s northernmost 7000m mountain and the further north you go, the thinner the air gets. Acclimatisation is more difficult than equivalent height peaks nearer the equator and the weather here is harsh! On summit morning I set the alarm for 4am. It was -16 celsius inside my tent and the wind on the summit ridge was gusting 70 knots. Motivating myself to get out of the sleeping bag, gear up and start a summit push alone was not an easy task!

Weather aside, it wasn’t all fun and there were definitely some dark days on the mountain. I witnessed a Croatian climber lose his life in an avalanche and two others hospitalised from falling into crevasses in separate incidents. In poor weather conditions a helicopter crashed on the north (Kazakh) side of the mountain and a second rescue helicopter sent to assist almost wiped out the entire camp 2. Climbing solo in the big mountains through heavily crevassed terrain with high avalanche danger is mentally tiring in a way that I wasn’t prepared for, but perhaps learning to deal with these difficulties is where I learned the most from this trip.

All in all it was an amazing time and although I’m not sure how soon - if ever - I will climb another peak that high I loved every minute of it. If any fellow Chockstoners are ever considering a trip to Kyrgyzstan or Khan Tengri, get in touch as I would love to share more details.

Cheers.
PThomson
2-Sep-2014
7:40:49 AM
Damn fine work, mate. Having some experience with the climbing and conditions around Kyrgyzstan, I can only imagine how ballsy and committing it is to do it solo.

A few years ago I tackled Pik Lenin with some Russian climbers, and though I didn't find that peak particularly technical, the altitude and environmental hazards made for a very long time on the mountain, and a long time spent above 6000m. Khan Tengri is a definite step up, and the idea of navigating some of those crevasse fields solo sounds incredibly stressful.

Regards,

-Paul


Miguel75
2-Sep-2014
8:33:47 AM
Sounds like an awesome adventure Huwj. Thanks for sharing.

Sabu
2-Sep-2014
8:48:22 AM
Thanks so much for sharing Huwj, that sounds like an amazing trip. Its always really good to hear about the trips people have done, but especially also how they organised them and what they recommend in terms of logistics. In doing so, a trip report not only becomes inspiration but a handy resource for others!
Damien Gildea
2-Sep-2014
9:37:48 AM
Cool, thanks for sharing and good job getting up it! You're a braver man than me risking the south-side route there. Plenty of people killed in monster avos. I did Pik Lenin two years ago using Ak-Sai so those yellow tents bring back some memories, but I wouldn't risk the avos on Lenin again. Kyrgyzstan is great though.


On 2/09/2014 huwj wrote:
> Khan Tengri is the world’s northernmost 7000m mountain
>and the further north you go, the thinner the air gets. Acclimatisation
>is more difficult than equivalent height peaks nearer the equator

Hmmmm. You have to go a looooong way north or south for this to have *any* effect ;-)
silver_13
2-Sep-2014
11:04:00 AM
Great report Huwj, well done on climbing Khan-Tengri. I've spent a few seasons on South Inylchek so this brings brings back so many memories...

Still, Khan-Tengri is 6995m so it is not quite a 7-thousander :-) so I highly recommend you to try a nearby Pobeda, this will be an experience you will never forget!
brendan
2-Sep-2014
2:09:33 PM
Great Photos Huw!

Keep crushing, looking forward to seeing more of your adventures in the coming months!

Awesome beard too mate
argos44
2-Sep-2014
5:38:17 PM
Wow sounds like an amazing adventure. Thanks for the great post. Makes my own climbing trips look like a walk to the shops.
maxdacat
2-Sep-2014
6:51:13 PM
Great pics and write up - thanks for posting.
Ithomas
3-Sep-2014
6:35:37 AM
Good adventure and climb. Can anyone explain why it might be harder to aclimatise as latitude increases? I can see that high latitude temperatures might be lower than closer to the equator but why would the air be thinner? Doesn't the earth bulge at the equator and isn't cold northern air more dense than warm equatorial air? Have I confused myself or am I missing something?
kieranl
3-Sep-2014
9:02:25 AM
On 3/09/2014 Ithomas wrote:
>Good adventure and climb. Can anyone explain why it might be harder to
>aclimatise as latitude increases? I can see that high latitude temperatures
>might be lower than closer to the equator but why would the air be thinner?
>Doesn't the earth bulge at the equator and isn't cold northern air more
>dense than warm equatorial air? Have I confused myself or am I missing
>something?
I understood that there was less gravity toward the poles to act on the atmosphere. However a 1 minute google search quickly disabused me of that notion
http://mapaspects.org/tripcevich-phd-diss/ch4-regional-geography/41-geography-colca-valley-s/equatorial-bulge-barometric-p
Looks like a mountaineering myth.
Damien Gildea
3-Sep-2014
9:51:48 AM
On 3/09/2014 kieranl wrote:
>http://mapaspects.org/tripcevich-phd-diss/ch4-regional-geography/41-geography-colca-valle
>-s/equatorial-bulge-barometric-p
>Looks like a mountaineering myth.

That's an interesting link but is not the theory that I was going on in my comment above. There has always been talk that Denali, in particular, and Aconcagua, are more like much higher mountains in terms of how thin the air is (low O2 pressure) and so how high they feel. Mostly this is just marketing - Argentines are annoyed they don't have an 8000m peak and Americans are annoyed their mountain is not the biggest - to bolster visitors and prestige.

Years ago the Alaskan climber and scientist Terris Moore did experiments and concluded that, at most, the effect was around 10% in the case of Denali. Denali is at 63N and Khan Tengri is 42N. Quite a difference. It was Moore's work that was often referenced with regard to Denali feeling much higher.

I've climbed Denali, Aconcagua (2x) and Vinson (3x), Peak Lenin (7134m) and half a dozen other 6000ers and to 6800m on G1. Personally I think Vinson at 78S 'feels' higher than 4892m but Denali, Aconcagua and Lenin feel right about what they are. Denali does not feel like 7000m. Of course there are plenty of physiological and on-site / climatic variations that make this almost hopelessly incomparable. If you calibrate your Suunto wrist altimeter low down then summit Vinson it reads around 5200m or so (I've tried it a few times), as that is going on its barometer (air pressure).

The South Pole is around 2800m but those stationed there will all tell you it really feels like 3000m as that is what the maths are meant to show. The US often put their people on Diamox to fly them in there from sea-level.

A quick Google will reveal some seemingly conflicting theories, which is surprising. Polar high pressure areas caused by cold air descending (and cold air being denser) is the opposite of what we're talking about above. Others will say that the rotation of the Earth causes the air to 'thin out' at the poles, which I've heard for years, causing the low pressure / high-altitude feel the pole residents talk about.
kieranl
3-Sep-2014
12:45:06 PM
And really good TR by the way. The thought of riding in one of those soviet-era helicopters scares the daylights out of me.
radson
3-Sep-2014
2:03:37 PM
"There has always been talk that Denali, in particular, and Aconcagua, are more like much higher mountains in terms of how thin the air is (low O2 pressure) and so how high they feel. Mostly this is just marketing - Argentines are annoyed they don't have an 8000m peak and Americans are annoyed their mountain is not the biggest - to bolster visitors and prestige."

Totes agree. I cant help but roll my eyes when I read or hear people going on that it feels higher because of the latitude.
radson
3-Sep-2014
2:06:44 PM
Ooh and thank you huwj for your TR. Despite my eye roll, I enjoyed your pics and report. Its a place I'd love to get to one day.
kieranl
3-Sep-2014
2:10:16 PM
latitude, altitude, almost the same thing really.
radson
3-Sep-2014
2:21:36 PM
yeah sometimes some latitude given to discussions on altitude.
baz74
3-Sep-2014
7:32:16 PM
Awesome trip. Who carers how thin the air is compared to same size mountains at different lats or if it is 5m short of 7000m - nothing changes the fact that it is a beautiful mountain in a remote area climbed in good style. Well done and good luck for the next mountain.

phillipivan
3-Sep-2014
9:23:28 PM
Great stuff Huw. Looking forward to seeing you back in Au sometime.

Id love to hear a bit more about how you researched and organised the trip to Kyrgyzstan, and your time there off the mountain.

Travel safe.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
3-Sep-2014
9:55:27 PM
Fantastic trip report Huw, and the slide-show photos are great, as well as being a first in this format on chocky.

You certainly have the 'adventure thing' well dialled, and your comments on how it affects you psychologically doing solo in such beautiful but potentially dangerous places is revealing of your stamina both mentally and physically.

Many thanks for sharing your journey with us.

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 21
There are 21 messages in this topic.

 

Home | Guide | Gallery | Tech Tips | Articles | Reviews | Dictionary | Forum | Links | About | Search
Chockstone Photography | Landscape Photography Australia | Australian Landscape Photography | Landscape Photos Australia

Please read the full disclaimer before using any information contained on these pages.



Australian Panoramic | Australian Coast | Australian Mountains | Australian Countryside | Australian Waterfalls | Australian Lakes | Australian Cities | Australian Macro | Australian Wildlife
Landscape Photo | Landscape Photography | Landscape Photography Australia | Fine Art Photography | Wilderness Photography | Nature Photo | Australian Landscape Photo | Stock Photography Australia | Landscape Photos | Panoramic Photos | Panoramic Photography Australia | Australian Landscape Photography | High Country Mountain Huts | Mothers Day Gifts | Gifts for Mothers Day | Mothers Day Gift Ideas | Ideas for Mothers Day | Wedding Gift Ideas | Christmas Gift Ideas | Fathers Day Gifts | Gifts for Fathers Day | Fathers Day Gift Ideas | Ideas for Fathers Day | Landscape Prints | Landscape Poster | Limited Edition Prints | Panoramic Photo | Buy Posters | Poster Prints