Kevin Pilgrim - Peak Lenin Aug 2022
When is an easy 7000m peak not an easy 7000m peak?
Overview
Peak Lenin is situated in the South of Kyrgyzstan in the Pamir Range on the boarder of Tajikistan. It stands at 7134 meters (23,405ft) above sea level and is the third highest peak in the former Soviet Union. It is one of five peaks that make up the ‘Snow Leopard Challenge’- All five peaks over 7000m within the former Soviet Union countries- which include; Peak Communism (7495m), Peak Pobeda (7439m), Peak Lenin (7134), Peak Korzhenevskaya (7105m) and Khan Tengri (7010). As yet only 687 climbers have completed the challenge and no British climber has successfully completed the Snow Leopard Challenge.
The reason I choose Peak Lenin is that it is often quoted as an easy 7000m and so it seemed a natural, if not large, step up from my past experience, mainly being Elbrus (5642) in Russia.
Team
The original plan was to climb as a team of two consisting of myself and Daniel Holder. As always plans change and adapt and throughout the expedition we both ended up climbing with members of different teams at different times including;
Michal- Czech
Vladka- Ukraine
Robert- Polish
Greg- Polish
Viktor- Hungary
Transport
We departed a Pegasus flight from London Stansted at 14:35 on 22nd July and arrived at Istanbul at 20:05, we had a 2hr 40 min lay over before our connecting flight to Osh, where we arrived at 06.35 on the 23rd July. There were long ques at the passport control (well over an hour) and when I say ques I really mean a crowd with no recognisable organisation just pushing in front of each other towards the Passport Control desk. Once through Passport Control we were happy to reunite with our baggage (often the first downfall of many an expedition) before being met by the representative from our agent ‘Central Asia Travel’. From the airport we drove about 20-30mins through the city of Osh to the Hotel Sunrise where we stopped for a buffet breakfast. From here we proceeded to the Hypermarket for food, snacks and mobile phone sim cards, before heading on to Base Camp.
The drive to Base Camp takes 5-6 hours, the first 4 hours are on bumpy concrete roads with the last one and half hours on an extremely bumpy gravel track crossing over meadows and streams.
Base Camp & Camp 1
The Base Camp is situated in a beautiful onion glade meadow surrounded by marvellous peaks on all sides and in full view of Lenin Peak itself. Once at Base Camp we were met by the Base Camp manager Allah who designated us a 2 man tent and pointed out the Base Camp amenities including: Toilets, Showers, Dinning Yurt, National Yurt (relaxing Yurt), Storage Room/Shop/Camp Office and Sauna. We spent the rest of the first day, settling in, unpacking and familiarising ourself with the Base Camp and local area.
As I had picked up a local sim card in Osh (£4 for 30GB data) I was also able to use the internet around Base Camp, although it worked much better walking 10 mins out of Base Camp on to a small grass knoll. This works out far cheaper than buying a Wi-Fi card from Base Camp which is $15 for 500MB.
The next day we set off after breakfast on an acclimatisation hike up Petrovskiy Peak (4800m), a common acclimatisation peak as it is in full view of Base Camp and only takes a few hours. We didn’t make it to the summit due to the snow and ice at the top and our lack of crampons but did make it up to over 4400m. We also met three of only five Brits we met on the entire expedition (2 clients and their guide).
Next day was the big one. We needed to move all of our kit up to Camp 1 (4400m). Now despite laying all my kit out and removing everything I didn’t “need” my rucksack still seemed extra heavy, maybe I was just getting weaker in my older years. I went through one final time and removed a few more non-essential items including; extra rations which would mean that, despite our original plan of trying to stay up at Camp 1, we would need to return to Base Camp to get them later in the trip.
Before departing for Camp 1 we headed over to the Porters sitting on the edge of Base Camp with their horses preparing all of their clients kit and equipment. The Porters charge $3 per kilo to move kit from Base Camp to Camp 1 and most guided groups take up their services. We kindly asked to borrow their scales. Dan=30.5kg, Me 32.8kg “F*ck”, both weights were met the raucous laughter from the Porters! Despite this we headed off on the 12.3km trek up to Camp 1.
After 7 hours 21 mins and a lot of swearing and sweating we arrived in to Camp 1. Camp 1 was like Base Camps older, uglier and less successful sibling. Drop toilets instead of a running toilets, no showers, dubious drinking water that comes off the glacier and is “supposed” to be boiled. Despite this it is comfortable and the food was comparable to Base Camp, if not noticeably smaller portions.
The day after arriving at Camp 1 Dan woke up with a headache following a rough nights sleep. Despite not sleeping for more than 4 hours each night since we arrived, I think a mix of jet lag and altitude, I felt strong so decided to take a walk up Yukon Peak (5100m) for some more acclimatisation. There and back took about 6 hours and was a fairly boring walk across a couple of glaciers then just up a steep zig zag path. That being said the views from the summit were astounding and the 4G phone signal was an added bonus. Back at Camp 1 the sleep finally caught up with me and I passed out for a few hours before dinner.
On waking up we tried to formulate a plan with the other teams to see what everyone was doing. Due to some bad weather in the forecast in a few days’ time everyone was keen to get up the mountain as soon as possible to get some acclimatisation in the bag. Dan still wasn’t feeling great and had now developed a nasty sounding cough. It was decided that I would head up to Camp 2 (5300m) with the Czech team (Michal & Vladka) and Dan would stay at Camp 1, rest, and hopefully catch up with the acclimatisation at a later date. So after about 3 hours sleep Me, Michal and Vladka headed off to Camp 2 at about 2am, with head torches on and full of vigour.
The route to Camp 2 is long and if the route to the summit has a technical crux it is here. Four fixed lines up the steepest section of the route provide both an insurmountable obstacle for some and a bottleneck for everyone else. With a large guided group all waiting for the first fixed line we decided to pitch the steep section next to the fixed rope. The last pitch however was a little beyond my ability with one walking axe, so we moved across on to the final fixed line. Luckily we were now ahead of the crowds and only had to wait a few minutes for the line. At the top of the steep section we roped up together and moved as a 3 due to the number of crevasse’s. 10 Hours after setting off from Camp 1 and all a little exhausted we arrived in to Camp 2 to what can only be described as Sh!*hole.
Camp 2 & Camp 3
Camp 2 is situated on a small patch of ground set inside a large bowl, called the Frying Pan. Its sandwiched between crevasses on one side and crumbly rocky slopes on the other that regularly release rockfalls on to the edge of the Camp. It is also very disorganised with no coordination between where everyone pee’s and poo’s and where to get snow for melting. Its also littered with rubbish, broken tents and human faeces. As it is set in a bowl and with no natural shade it gets hot, very hot. I measured 36°c inside my tent. It is highly recommended by everyone to spend as little time in Camp 2 as possible and its becoming more popular to either only spend 1 night in Camp 2 or by-pass it altogether and move straight up to Camp 2.5 about 150/200m higher up set on a small plateau.
I only spent 1 night at Camp 2 with my tent pitched precariously between the crevasses and decided that I’d already had enough so proceeded up to Camp 3 (6100m) with Robert and Greg a strong Polish pair.
It only took us 4 hour to go from Camp 2 to Camp 3. The first hour was steep the second hour not so bad and the third and forth were f*ckin steep. On arrival at Camp 3 I was pretty tired so set up my tent, drank, ate and then tried to get some sleep. This is when I first realised the effects of the altitude as I lay there trying to sleep I found that I was literally gasping for air every 4-6th breath. I soon developed a headache and a bit of nausea and dizziness common symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness. I took my oxygen saturation level on both my Garmin watch and on a cheap pulse oximeter I had bought from Boots, the lowest reading I got was 62%. I made a judgement call that although uncomfortable the symptoms weren’t that bad and rather than descend I would try and get through the night and go down in the morning. That night was terrible and I barely slept but eventually the sun rose on a new day and maybe it was just that I knew that I would soon be descending but I started to feel a little better. Robert had an equally torrid night and was also keen to get down, so we packed up the tent in quick time, through some food down our necks and headed back down to Camp 1 with a quick stop off at Camp 2 to drop off some kit and equipment.
On arrival at Camp 1 Dans cough had gotten worst and he had been unable to see the camp doctor so we decided that rather than spend the night at Camp 1 we would head straight down to Base Camp the same day. We left some more kit at Camp 1 and set off for Base Camp at 4pm in the sunshine. The one thing we didn’t do however was check the weather reports. 1 Hour in to the descent the sky’s opened and we found ourselves in a barrage of rain, snow, hail and lightning strikes not to mention persistent rock fall, with one shoebox size rock passing between me and Dan as we walked about 6m apart. 3 hours after leaving Camp 1 and looking like drown rats we stumbled in to Base Camp. The original plan was to spend 2 rest days at Base Camp before commencing a summit push but the weather dictated otherwise and we ended up spending four days waiting for a decent weather window. During this time we slept, drank tea and got to know the other climbers that we had started to form friendships with. We also found a local pub about 10mins walk out of base camp that was situated on the site of the original Base Camp.
Summit Push
August 7th. That was to be summit day. Only one day where the winds would only be 25kph and the sky clear. We decided to group together and form one team (Myself, Dan, Michal, Vladka, Robert and Greg). In order to be in position we left Base Camp for Camp 1 four days before except Robert and Greg who planned on leaving the day after the rest of us and catching us up. We proceeded to Camp 1 for one night, then up to Camp 2. Here Dans cough came back with a vengeance and after one night at Camp 2 he made a good call and headed down with Viktor, a strong Hungarian we had met at Base Camp, who, despite running out of time had still made it up to Camp 3.
After one night at Camp 2 the rest of us headed straight up to Camp 3 where we could take a rest day and wait for Robert and Greg. This time at Camp 3 I felt much better and mainly spent the day sat down, getting a sore arse, boiling copious amounts of water and watching the Nepalese Sherpas retrieve the body a deceased Iranian climber.
We decided to leave for the summit at 1am by this time it was only myself, Michal, Vladka and Greg. Despite making it to Camp 3 before Robert was not feeling good and had not made it back up and had descended back to Camp 1.
So at 1am Me, Michal and Vladka left for the summit, Greg crawled out of his tent muttered something about it being cold and crawled back in. We were the first to leave Camp 3 for the summit but soon after we left a small trail of headtorches were following us. It also became quickly apparent that the 25kph winds that were forecast were much much stronger I would guess it was gusting in the region of 50-60kph. The route to the summit from Camp 3 actually descends 150m straight out of the Camp. Unfortunately this means on the return from the summit you have a steep uphill to ascend to get back into Camp.
The route to the summit is long, very long, nearly 6.5km with some very steep sections requiring the use of fixed lines. After 11 hours Myself and Vladka made it to the summit (Michal had left us about 2 hours in to the summit push and got to the summit about 1 hour before us). We spent about 20mins on the summit and just as we were leaving Greg suddenly appeared, despite crawling back in to his tent and grabbing a few more hours sleep he’d managed to still catch us up. I don’t know if we were moving particularly slow or Greg ran up to the summit or maybe a bit of both. We descended together as a three which took 8 hours, the last hour of which was the steep uphill back in to Camp 3. We spent the night at Camp 3 where despite the 60-70kph winds rattling the tent I slept extremely well. The next day we all descended back to Camp 1 and I again decided to go straight back to Base Camp this meant another 10 hour day but the walk back to Base Camp at dusk was mesmerising as the sun sank over the surrounding mountains and the 2 hours 30mins it took flew by.
After a few days at Base Camp we all headed to Osh for some restaurant grade food and good beer!
Conclusion
So… when is an easy 7000m peak not an easy 7000m peak? Well the obvious answer is there is no such thing as an easy 7000m peak. During our 3 week expedition there were at least 3 fatalities on the mountain (potentially 4 but the rumour mill was a bit shady on the last one), One Russian that was rescued between Camp 2 and Camp 3 who had been in his tent for 3 days and had an oxygen saturation level of 48% and a group of 6 climbers who needed rescuing from Camp 3 after getting stuck up there in bad weather and were not acclimatised and so quickly deteriorated.
Lenin Peak is a good first 7000m peak not an easy peak and I am hoping that it won’t be my last 7000m.
Kevin Pilgrim
Route
We climbed Route 1- Classical route via Razdelnaya
Climbing Schedule
Kit List & Review
| Review |
| The
standard in merino wool leggings weight/warmth were towards the lower end but workable. |
| Excellent
heavy weight long sleeve base layer. Had a few years now, washes well, low shrinkage and warm. |
| After 5 days on the mountain I wished these were Merino |
| My
go to cold weather socks, I always get a size smaller (Medium for me) as I
find they tend to actually stetch rather than shrink |
| Managed
to find these online at a great price and I'm so glad I did. Perfect for big
mountains they are in-between a hardshell and a softshell using Gortex Infinium. Great cut, integrated gaiters, braces, reinforced dyneema kick strips. Not a bad word to say. Highly recommend. |
| Just a nice big thick fluffy fleece |
| Had
this jacket a few years now and it just gets abused, yet after a spin in the
machine it looks like new again. Really great jacket, good zips and warm for the weight. |
| Seem
OK only wore twice- once on summit day and one night at camp 3 in my bag
when I was super cold. |
| Great
Jacket- Love it. Nice big pockets, easy zip, warm. One internal pocket big
enough for a 1L bottle and the other for a freeze dried meal. |
| Got
a bargain on this jacket from Go outdoors. Absolute fortress of a jacket
with all the bells and whistles. |
| This thing is nearly as old as me and still going. |
| Super cheap. I cut a mouth hole in it so I could breath unrestricted. Completely froze to my beard but that’s my fault for having a beard I guess! |
| Pretty
crap supposed to have touchscreen compatible fingers but they didn’t really
work and kept having to take the glove off. Gone all fluffy after only 1 trip |
| Nice glove, used in Scotland a fair bit and is as warm and waterproof as you would expect. |
| ME's
biggest mitt for the coldest environments. My hands never really got to cold
in these (wore liner gloves underneath). I like the wrist straps. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted anything lighter. |
| Got
a deal on these as ex display. Super comfy boots straight out of the box.
Great B1 boot for hiking and scrambling. |
| Only
pair of double boots I've ever owned so hard to compare. I got very cold feet
on summit day but no more than what I would do on a winter day in Scotland. I like the simplicity of a lace system. Quite hard to get on/off with cold fingers. Will prob look at a new pair of double boots with integrated gaiter for next trip. |
| Grivel G12's enough said. Everyone has these. |
| I
was a bit concerned that this tent wouldn’t be up to the job. Although based
on its bigger/stronger brother the Quasar, the Trisar is more of a 4 season
backpacking tent rather than a full on expedition tent. However my concerns were unwarranted and the Trisar stood up to the task and out performed some much higher-end tents. I had this tent in +60kph winds at 6100m and although I was a bit rattled the tent held up. Only downside is the lack of snowskirts and the poles did freeze together at Camp 3. |
| Was
very cold in this bag (especially in Camp 3). In Camp 2 I just about got away
with wearing base layers. In Camp 3 I wore pretty much everything I owned. Should definitely have taken a big bag. |
| OK foam sleeping pad. Did what it should. |
| I like this a lot. Cool little storage bag that doubles as a bag inflater so you don’t have to blow up by mouth which introduces moisture inside that clumps the down together making it less effective. Was on the lower end of warmth and comfiness but cant complain when it packs down so small. |
| Large
inflatable pillow that packs down super small. Still ended up using my down
jacket as a pillow aswell. |
| Cat 3 sunglasses. Wore these travelling and at base camp only. Nice and comfy, like the detachable side shields. Everyone on the mountain wears Julbo glasses for a reason. |
| Same as above but Cat 4 for on the glacier and higher on the mountain. |
| Didn’t use on this expedition |
| Don’t
even both buying any other water bottle. Tried and tested. I used with an insulated cover |
| Some
people don’t like these as you have to unscrew the top and let all the heat
out to drink from it. However I think they are the perfect summit day flask as you can store in your inside jacket pocket and quickly unscrew the top take a swig and put it back in seconds without having to pour into a cup etc. Again I used with an insulated cover. |
| Collapsible
1L sports bottle type. I used 2L of water every day except summit day where I
took this bottle to make up another 1L. |
| Why
don’t more people use these. Sod getting out of your tent in -25 degrees just
to take a piss. |
| Piezo
stopped working as expected. Used a clipper lighter to light with matches as
a backup. Worked OK. Seems like the MSR Windburner might be a little better? |
| Really small portable shovel, ideal for sticking in your bag although it is a bit small for moving lots of snow. Got to weigh up size and weight against usability. |
| Bit on the heavy side compared to other alternatives but solid construction and just feels strong |
| Got these for my birthday 2 days before the trip, best birthday present ever as my old poles wouldn’t have taken the abuse these suffered. Took a little adjusting after 1st use and don’t come with snow baskets (baskets from my other poles fitted) but apart from that these are pretty much perfect. |
| Nice super lightweight harness with clip in leg loops. Only 2 thin fabric gear loops but that is usually enough. |
| After 'a bit' of a fall at the Roaches a mate shredded the end of one of his half ropes. Always one to recycle and reuse I bought the 'good' section off him and cut down to about 40m. This worked great as glacier rope. |
| Rack consisted of: 2x Black diamond express ice screws (16cm/19cm), Petzl Nanotraxion, Petzl hand ascender, 3x screwgates, 120cm Sling, 2x Prussik cords |
| All-purpose washing liquid (Body/clothes/food), roll on deodorant, toothbrush & paste, factor 50 kids sun cream, concentrated hand moisturiser, nail clippers, tweezers, Nivea factor 30 lip balm. |
| Gaffer tape, zip ties, bootlaces, spare AA batteries, spare lighter, spare matches, charging cables |
| Like Northface but cheaper? |
| Was looking for a large rucksack and came across this online as 'end of line'. Retailing on other websites at £350+. Thoroughly impressed with this from the build quality to the little details. Particularly like the massive top flap pocket which is the Mary Poppins handbag of top flap pockets. |
| Took this bag as a Summit bag as the foam backing could be removed and the bag folded down small. Not ideal as a summit bag as no space for walking pole storage and the fastenings are a little fiddly with mitts on. |