25/08/2010

Expedition report Pik Korzhenevskaya (7105m)

Of course I knew climbing a peak over 7000 metres wouldn't be easy. What I forgot was getting back from the mountain is the part where (at least in my case) was absolutely the toughest thing I have done so far. You're already completely knackered and then you are supposed to walk to same bloody distance back. No cook who has your dinner and tea ready. Getting back in the tent means melting snow for cooking and rehydrating.

No complaints here, we had excellent views over the Pamirs during our summit attempt.

We climbed the mountain expedition style. We set up tents at 5300m, 5800m and 6300m before making the final climb to the top. After setting up the camps we got back to basecamp to rest, eat solid food and drink RC Cola (the local drink of the Gods, in this context). The biggest obstacle up is basically from BC to camp 1. 1000 altimetres on shit terrain. Lot's of loose scree, steep and rather ugly. From camp 1 things are more beautiful, but still hard work. Ironically the higher you get, the nicer and more gradual the climb. From high camp it's "only" 800 metres up. Check out some pics!