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1 June 2004 Today in 9-20 local time Victor Bobok
and Victor Volodin reached the top of Everest!!! Congratulations!
31 May, 2004 at 9-15 (local time) Piotr Kuznetsov,
Eugeny Vinogradsky and Gleb Sokolov summited! Congratulations!
30 May, 2004 at 10-00 Pavel Shabaline, Iljas Tukhvatullin
and Andrew Mariev summited Everest via the new route - the
center of the North Wall!
Congratulations!
 An
Everest Phone call from the face
15:23 p.m. EST Apr 15, 2004
The Big Wall Russians are resting at BC and took advantage
of the time to make some calls and receive a few. Alexey Mjasnikov,
the editor of the Ural mountaineering site alpclub.ur.ru talked
with Eugeny Vinogradsky.
Eugeny: Today our group (Kuznetsov's) and Ermachek's group
are resting here. Shabaline's group - at 6200, Koshelenko's
group - at the end of fixed ropes. Tomorrow we'll ascend to
ABC-1 at 5600. We work, replacing each other.
Alexey; Eugeny, is your team trying to climb via the center
of the North Face or you are looking for the more logical
and simple variant of the route?
Eugeny: Our route - via the center of the Wall, little left
from the hang icefall. One of the problems - we need to set
Camp 1 about 6900, but there's absolutely no place for it.
Another problem - strong winds, dust and snow avalanches and
the stones are falling when the sun shines in the midday.
There's the big snow field just above our route, and it would
become the avalanche source if too much snow falls. So, the
winds made our route safer in spite of the fact that it isn’t
comfortable.
Alexey; What do you use for the safety?
Eugeny: We use ice screws mostly, and firn hooks. There're
very few cracks in the rocks, so we use pickets.
Alexey; And what about your high-altitude Sherpas, who are
chosen for the work on the Wall?
Eugeny: They are carrying loads from the beginning of the
glacier till 6200, the loads that had been left by the porters.
We hope to involve Sherpas to work above, at the fixed ropes,
which we are preparing now.
Alexey: Some words about members’ health?
Eugeny: Almost all of us have a cough, but it's normal at
such altitude. The air's very dry, breath is forced, yet it's
not dangerous - it's pretty normal.
Alexey: Where are your computer notebooks and satellite phones?
Eugeny: Notebooks are in the Base Camp and we are mostly
at the route. I think that communication isn’t going to be
possible every day. We have one sat phone - I am using it
right now!
As Piotr Kuznetsov said, the Wall appears more serious than
we proposed...(Sat. phone interrupted).
Perhaps the most exciting expedition on Everest this spring
will be the Russians. A crack team will be attempting Everest
via the center of the North Face. This is a severe, technical
climb to the left of the Hornbein/Japanese couloir. The guys
are going straight up, on a clean and lofty face. The technical
difficulty of the route along with the extreme altitude makes
this one of the most difficult challenges in mountaineering.
The expedition is a Russian dream team. There are previous
Everest summiteers, Golden Ice Axe winners, and many, many
8000m veterans. Koshelenko, who just made the first summit
of Nuptse East will be on the team as well. The Russians also
have a young 22 year old – Alexey Bukinich – Koshelenko pulled
for him, and he made the team.
Interview translated by russianclimb.com and ExplorersWeb
www.mounteverest.net | www.everestnews2004.com
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