원정 개요

BC at high BC
C1 at Chago Glacier.

Kazakhstanis on Makalu led by Denis Urubko - 12 Feb 2007

From their base camp at 5600m, on 16 January the four members moved up to C1 at 6400m and next day three members, Samoilov, Shutov and Urubko, bivouacked at 6800m to acclimatize. They made no fixed camp here because the windy weather would probably have damaged it in their absence. They descended to BC on the 18th and rested there.

Durov did not join them in their climb on the 17th because of stomach trouble. He never went above C1.

On the 22nd all down to the so called Hillary BC near Barun Pokhari (lake) to breathe air with more oxygen in it -- they had no bottled oxygen with them. Next day they were back in BC.

On the 25th, back to C1. Next day Shutov returned to BC because he was too cold. On the 27th, Samoilov and Urubko climbed to 7200 meters, where Samoilov had to turn back because he had not acclimatized well; he and Urubko also returned to BC.

The weather was perfect at this time -- no wind, no clouds -- and it remained so for about two days. Perfect climbing weather.

On the 31st, Samoilov, Shutov and Urubko, climbed to 6700m and bivouacked there. On 1 February they continued up and reached the Makalu La at 7400m. The sky was clear, but now strong wind was blowing. "We flew one by one to the Makalu La," said Urubko. They were roped together so "flew" only a couple of meters. They moved over onto the north side of the NW Ridge, and spent the night there about 50 meters below the ridge on a small ledge which they reached in the dark at about 7:00 pm. They slept sitting up on this ledge in half of a tent.

Next day, 2 February, they tried to continue their ascent to the summit. They moved 200 meters along a gully which was like a horizontal couloir, but it gave little protection from the fierce wind. They managed to gain perhaps 80 meters more altitude -- certainly less than 100 meters -- but the wind was blowing at about 120 km/hr. They were again roped together, but again they "flew" two or three meters.

They now turned back and descended all the way to BC that day on good firm snow. The climb was over: the weather forecast was for another week of strong wind, and the team had a fixed departure date from Nepal of the 13th.

They had fixed a total of 350 meters of rope in 50 meters sections below the Makalu La. They were also able to use 200 meters of rope that they found in place.