The most Northern Mount of more than 7000 m high Part 1 Part 3

Part two…

It started at about 11 p.m. The weather became terrible, by 2 a .m. heavy wind had risen and snow started to cover tents. It seems that people were in poor conditions (the altitude made itself felt), will and force left them. Only few of them could struggle against the element. Most of the alpinists went on lying in the tents, suffering from suffocation. Then they began to cut the walls of tents to inhale the fresh air. Snow crowded into the tents, and the risk of chilblain arose. They hastily took sleeping bags, and, leaving other things, crawled into one safe tent. But there was no place for all 12 men. Dawn broke. The leader of the storm, V. Shipilov, staying in the tent, gave a command to burrow a cave. But, as rescuers' excavations pointed that this attempt wasn't successful as the layer of snow was too thin and under it there was ice. They only managed to burrow a small niche, where all the people, who weren't housed in the tent, tried to hide. On the 20 th of August the leader of the storm commanded U. Usenov and B. Sigitov went down to call for help, and after several minutes told the others who had enough forces to descent. A. Suslov joined the first two alpinists. Then one more group of four gathered, there were E. Rispaev, R. Selidganov, V. Ankudimov and A. Goncharuk in it. After an attempt to descent along the ice slope the group of four turned back. The first group went on decsenting, at the altitude of 6400 lost orientation and went down along the slope of the Eastern ridge. When they tried to go back up to the ridge, A. Suslov died. Usenov stayed with the corpse and Sigitov went on going down along the ridge. Refrain from freezing, on the 22 nd of August, Usenov left the body of Suslov alone and continued decsenting. In the morning of the 23 rd of August on the glacier Zvezdochka at the altitude 5000 he fall in the crack where on the 24 th of August he was found by the rescue party of Kazakhstan expedition.

Like this the tragedy was described by the only participant of the expedition who accidentally escaped with his life Ural Usenov. In his story he truly depicted the events of 19-20 of August in the last camp of the group led by V. Shipilov.

On the 27 th of August the combined team of alpinists finished its ascents in the region of the Southern spurs of the Zaalaisky range when a governmental radio-telegram was got. It contained instructions to form a rescue party and send it to Osh where a plane would be waiting for it. This rescue party would be transferred in to the region of the Pobeda Peak to help the alpinists from Kazakhstan . The rescue party was astonished very much as everybody knew that there were two big expeditions new the Pobeda Peak that time. The rescue party got one more radio-telegram, signed by V. Abalakov and A. Borovikov, from the Spartak team. They offered their help. Alpinist solidarity worked without a hitch.

On the 29 th of August we learned that rescue works were organized by A. I. Mikoyan. It meant that the situation was very serious. On the 29 th of August a special plane took us to Frunze and on the 30 th – to Przhevalsk. In the hospital in Frunze I talked to Usenov. His story was very important: it could shorten searching works. Among the members of our group were well-known alpinists, such as E. Beletsky, E. Ivanov , A. Ugarov, A.Gogev, experienced sportsmen that had just performed great high-altitude traverse – A. Kovirkov, P. Skorobogatov, B. Dmitriev, and D. Klishko and A. Shkrabkin. We still hadn't known what had happened to the Shipilov's group: Usenov's story made clear only few aspects.

On the 3 rd of September we were in the camp on the glacier Zvezdochka. There we learned the situation. The fact that the group led by Shipilov was in trouble was known from the talk to U. Usenov who had been extracted from the crack on the 24 th of August by N. Shevchenko and P. Menyailov. Salvage operations led at first by E. Kolokolnikov and V. Racek and from the 28 th of August because of the illness of Kolokolnikov, by Racek, had started.

The storm group of the Uzbek expedition was recalled from the Northern range on the 25 th of August. This group reached the basic camp on the 26 th of August and on the 27 th out of the members of the group there was organized one more rescue team. This team got the instruction to go along the way of Shipilov's group. But this team worked too slowly and only on the 1 st of September got the upper reaches of the glacier Zvezdochka, the camp 5100 m . So it took them more than four days to complete the route that usually took only a day of walking. The team didn't even try to go up to the range and on the 2 nd of September was recalled back downwards. The leader of the salvage operations V. Racek didn't show perseverance too, he didn't pay attention to the fact that during ten days of the operations that could be named “salvage” only conditionally, there was no group that reached even the pass Chon Teren. At the same time the group formed of the members of Kazakhstan expedition led by A. Semchenko in the upper reaches of the glacier found the corpse of the member of the storm group A. Goncharuk, died because of emaciation and overfatigue. Together with the group led by V. Narishkin the group led by Semchenko on the 26 th of August reached the camp 5100 m , but in the conditions of the worsening weather, the group didn't make any attempts to go up to the pass Chon Teren, on the 31 st of August it was recalled downwards by V. Racek to have a rest.

On the 31 st of August the rescue party of alpinist camp from Almaty arrived to the glacier Zvezdochka. This party was led by P. Shumihin. On the 2 nd of September this party reached the camp 5100 m and on the next day it went to the pass Chon Teren. Having found no sings there the party went back down. In the Uzbek expedition camp we came across the consensus of opinion that it was impossible to go up to the group of Shipilov in such weather conditions. But that didn't embarrass us at all. On the 4 th of September we started the ascent and on the 6 th were on the pass Chon Teren. On the 6 th and 7 th of September blizzard raged but the hope to find anybody from the Shipilov's group alive strengthened our persistence, so we went upwards. On the 7 th of September we found the place where B. Sigitov fell down. There was a tip of his ice-axe put into the ice it was the evidence of the tragedy. Then we found a safe tent with a big stock of provisions left by the group of A. Semchenko. That day we couldn't go upper than the point 6300 m because of bad weather. The next day blizzard became less heavy and we went upwards again. On the point 6400 m on a wide slightly sloping ridge we found died from freezing V. Ankudimov. It was about 12 o'clock. We decided to leave the rucksacks and went further without them it seemed that the others were to be somewhere near. At 4 o'clock p.m. we found a man again. It was P. Cherepanov, one of the strongest and charming members of the expedition. He was lying sideways, having been fold. His ice-axe was put into near his head. It seemed that he had lied to have a rest and died from freezing. We buried him there, having made a niche in the ice.

Then in front of us there was a steep ice slope about 100 m high. To the left there were firn faulting and cracks, to the right – a wall, that steeped to the glacier Zvezdochka. There we saw a rope hanging. The lower end of it wasn't fastened and there was a rucksack near it. To reach the rope it was necessary to traverse steep ice slope, it could take the rest of the day. And upwards, not far from us there was a camp of Shipilov that was described by Usenov. There could be six men, the lot of which was unknown. We decided to go upwards. We passed the ice slope and reached the place where the rope was fastened. There was a small ledge. Not far from it there were two torn tents. The things are left things all over the place. Ice-axed and new crampons that had never been in use were scattered all over. It looked as they were left there before the descent they had seemed to be extra burden, but then on the steep ice, where the rope ended, exhausted people couldn't hold out and fall down along the 1800 m long wall to the glacier.

We inspected the camp. Somewhere to the left from the tents there was one more tent and upper – a niche covered with snow. We dug it out, having thought that it was a cave. But it was only a deepening in the slope. In this deepening there were warm clothes, provisions, petrol, primus stoves – all the things needed for the life. Warm clothes were in the tents too, but all they were scattered in disorder. There were no people near in the camp. We prodded the snow around the tents with the help of avalanche bores – nobody and nothing like a cave was found. And the place didn't suit for the bivouac, especially in wind and blizzard it was at rather steep slope. And close at hand, in about 70 meters there was the Eastern top of the Pobeda Peak , somewhere farther to the East – its slightly sloping snow fields, protected from westerly. It seemed that people hadn't enough forces to reach that place on the 19 th of August 1955. They gave their exceptional power, striving to be the pioneers on the top of the Pobeda Peak , but underestimated a lot and the Mount punished them harshly.

It started becoming dark and we went down. It started snowing heavily. Along the slope continuous streams of crumbly snow that couldn't hold out on the steep ice were flowing. It had become dark. Having remembered about ominous rope, ending at the Western wall, I tried to hold to the East, but there were faulting and we got on to them. It was impossible to pass the night there as our warm clothes were in the rucksacks and it was about 30 degrees below zero. I decided to go down along the faulting by double belay of Evgeny Ivanov. I jumped into the crack, then climb to the opposite side of it. We fixed the ropes. The weather became better, wind dispersed the clouds and about 12 o'clock by the light of moon we came to our rucksacks.

In the morning of the 9 th of September the weather was clear and frosty. We realized a communication session: reported all the facts we had learned. Then we buried Ankudimov in the ice and started finding the body of A. Suslov that according the Usenov's description was to be somewhere there. We were finding for an hour, two, three – but vainly. It seemed that Usenov pointed the place incorrectly. Why? Did he get entangled and lose the orientation? There was a lot we couldn't understand in the death conditions of hercules A. Suslov.

Why had this tragedy happen? Did the Pobeda Peak really send all its black and furious power to the alpinists? It seemed, no. The alpinists themselves overestimated their forces, they scorned the laws of high mountains. They forgot the main alpinist commandments. The first of them is acclimatizing – preparing the organism for continuous work at high altitude, and the second – only friendly team decides the success of the ascent. It is impossible to go to 7000 m , not having visited 6000 m . But neither Kazakhstan nor Uzbek alpinists do this. They decided to storm the peak “with a rush”. The first paid for it by their lives, the second were recalled from the route of the ascent they descented exhausted so much that were not able to help their friends that were in trouble. Moreover, the alpinist from Almaty had not friendly serried team.

The hard tragedy of 1955 didn't demoralized alpinists. They attentively studied the reasons of it and decided that coming 1956 had to become the year of triumphal storm the most Northern peak of more than 7000 m high. The ascent had to be prepared and organized in such a way that the success would be assured.

To be continued…