Things happen - risks & safety
This year, it was busier on Khan Tengri and Pobeda than in 2017. Probably the result of the unavailability of the helicopters in Tajikistan, resulting in people who initially wanted to climb Korzenevskaya or Communisma changing their plans to climbing either Pobeda or Khan Tengri. Therefore there was a big variety of nationalities in base camp: Turkish, French, Czech, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Azerbaijani, Pakistani, Iranians, Japanese, Belarusiians and probably I’m forgetting some. This made it quite interesting this season to see the differences in climbing strategies among the teams on the mountains.
A side effect of a busier season was that also more things happened. We know that the climbing we do is not without risk and therefore we are constantly trying to be risk-aware and learn from what we see around us from the other climbing teams. I want to share some of these stories from this season.
Please note that we should be very careful in drawing conclusions, because for most stories we do not know the details of what happened and some situations have resulted in people having lost their lives. We should respect family and friends that are mourning for their lost ones. But we can still reflect on what happened and try to apply lessons to our own climbs.
Staying together
When we were back in base camp after our first acclimatization rotation on Pobeda we heard a story about two friends who tried to climb to the summit of Khan Tengri. They turned around about 100 vertical meters below the summit in very bad weather and too late to manage the descent in daylight. On the way down, one of them was faster than the other and went ahead. During the descend, the slower person developed snow blindness so he couldn’t continue descending down. He tried to contact his mate without any success. He decided to not move any further and stay a few hundred vertical meters above camp 3 as he was completely blind. Fortunately he had a radio to make connection with base camp but nobody was listening there to the radio in the late evening. He tried to survive the night while sitting just on his helmet and keeping small snow protection from the nasty icy wind. His fingers got seriously frostbitten. Luckily early in the morning, he managed to contact base camp who immediately sent a rescue group from camp 3 to bring him down.
Although we don’t know all the details, this is a reminder for our team that there is a reason we agreed to always try to stick together as much as possible. This sounds easier than it is. For example if one person is much slower then the rest, the others can get very cold from not moving and need to move ahead. During our descend from Khan Tengri in 2017 we actually also split up because of the speed differences, but we still waited for each other at several places to check how we were feeling. But with hindsight - maybe we should have stayed closer together.
In general I was surprised by how many solo climbers we have met on Pobeda. Pobeda has serious crevasse risk and I wouldn’t want to cross them unroped for sure! We met for example a Japanese climber who was climbing the mountain by himself. Funny detail was that because he was small, he had a special made 1.6m x 0.8m tent, ultra-lightweight! Wouldn’t work for me :)
We met more people climbing alone. There was this famous Russian superhero climber who had been on Pobeda already over 20 times (many times also unsuccessful). He climbed in one day from base camp to 7.000m and the next day all the way back down! This trip would take us at least 6 days!
The weather
During our summit attempt, we experienced very bad weather. When camped at 5.500 meter, there were several teams above us, some going up and some going down after having reached the summit. We could see the crazy winds at the shoulder at 7.000m, the forecast said up to 100km/h winds. The morning after, we tuned in on the radio and heard a lot of panic. A team was stuck at the shoulder at 7.000m in extreme winds, not being able to go up or down. Also tents were destroyed. A team a bit lower on the mountain was caught in an avalanche while sleeping. This is when we made the decision that we had to go down for safety. On our way down we met a girl coming down by herself. She was one of the persons caught in the avalanche that night and her tent was destroyed. For some reason their team decided to split up and she went down by herself.
These events made us very humble to the mountains and made us again realize that the weather is not something you should underestimate. Only when the conditions are right, you should climb and when in doubt: better safe than sorry!
Climbing risks
During this summer we received news of a person who fell to his dead from the Khan Tengri ridge and one person fell to his dead from the Pobeda ridge. We do not know the background and facts around these tragedies, however we heard that at least in one of the cases it had to do with old fixed ropes that came loose. It was definitely a wake-up call for us that safety is not to be taken for granted and that we had to stay alert and especially don’t put any trust in old fixed ropes that we may find along some sections!
Just after we had left the base camp to go home, we heard that three climbers went missing on Pobeda. A helicopter rescue mission was organized, but the three where never found. Quite a tragedy and still nobody knows (as far as we are aware) what had happened exactly. Our thoughts are with their family and friends.
Planning the climb
I was amazed by how many people were crossing the dangerous ice-falls on both Pobeda and Khan Tengri late in the day. This was an unacceptable risk for us. These ice-falls become incredibly dangerous at the end of the day and can collapse at any time. We have seen so much ice and rocks coming down in these places at the end of the day, so we really don’t get why people want to risk their lives by crossing these areas so late during the day. In addition the snow bridges across the crevasses can easily collapse late during the day as well.
For us it was also not always easy to cross the ice-falls during early mornings. Getting up in the middle of the night is hard and sometimes you are too optimistic in how fast you can move. At other times it can be a tactical decision that going down later during the day trough an ice-fall is a lower risk compared to staying higher on the mountain in a storm or with new snowfall, because when going down you can cross such a place much faster compared to going up.
The powerful sun
On the day we left base camp by helicopter, we noticed a man who had completely covered his eyes and was guided by two others. We approached them and asked what had happened. His friend told me that he had taken off his sunglasses at high altitude, because he thought there was no sun as they were in the clouds. As a result he got snow-blind and had to be guided down by his friend from 6.000m back to base camp. An extreme accomplishment I would say, since it is already difficult to descend and safely cross all crevasses with normal vision!
Note to self: never ever take off your sun glasses at high altitude!
Take away
So quite some stories about what happened this season. It is important to understand the risks when climbing these mountains and not ignore them, only then you can mitigate them. I believe I can say that we haven’t compromised our safety by taking non-explainable risks at any time during our climb, but of course it was not without risk and decisions are not always easy at all.
For clarity - we are not pointing any fingers at anyone or judge how others are climbing. However, we want to learn as much as possible from what we see around us to improve the safety of our own climbing and not ignore the risks that are there. Our thoughts are with all the families and friends of the persons that lost their lives during the climbs of these mountains!
If someone feels offended by above stories or was somehow involved and wants to correct an error - please contact us.