Interview for Mountain.RU
Оn the eve of Chomo Lonzo expedition start
27 марта 2006 г.

MR (Mountain.RU): Why is Chomo Lonzo? In fact your first plan was to climb Jannu?

V.B. (Valery Babanov): Well, really one of possible variants for this spring season was an idea to try Mt. Jannu in a two-man team. But my partner was trapped in the mesh of circumstances and Chomo Lonzo solo climb has come out on top.

MR: What about your choice of style and tactics of ascent? I wonder whether it is planned preliminary working on the route (fixed ropes, intermediate camps)?

V.B. :I am not going to fix the ropes and set intermediate camps. Really I do not have additional gear for this. I have only a hammock tent for an ascent, the image of that I used in some my previous hard solo climbs including in the Himalayas.

Check out on the Mountain.RU: "Infinite Direct" on MacKinley SouthWest Face. Valeri Babanov. Nuptse. Polemics Jury Koshelenko. Winner 13th PIOLET D'OR Nuptse East, 7804. Valery Babanov & Yury Koshelenko The Unclimbed North Face of the peak Meru in Garhwal Himalayas. Valery Babanov. SOLO! Valery Babanov. Nuptse East. Third Attempt Chomo Lonzo FFME Expedition. 2005.

Style...? It will be light style. I prefer it. Now they call it a fashionable word - Alpine. In our country everyone used to climb in such style earlier and nobody spoke about that.

I don`t like this word as now it became be in fashion. It try to be use everywhere where it possible.

It has gone so far as to be ridiculous: sometimes descending after a climb in the Alps people shout: "We ascended in Alpine style!" I am speechless here.

Well, I'll tell a little about planned route on Chomo Lonzo West face.

Chomo Lonzo massif from the West

First part of 800-900 meters is ice and mixed sites. I think that there is no sense to fix something there. In general I am sure-footed on such relief and I can climb without a rope.

I will not take a portaledge and kilometers of ropes. Then, I will be face-to-face to the mountain and will have no much time.

Mt. Kidd East wall face, climbing a mixed site

I do take some ropes in the expedition. Thus, I do not exclude an opportunity to fix about 100 meters in an average the middle part of the wall that most likely will be the most hard: these are 600-700 meters of rocks. But, mainly it may help me to find a line of descent when the occasion requires. You must admit that it is not too much to climb the mountain of almost 8000-meters on the wall in the extent of more than two kilometers.

Chomo Lonzo West face

The top part of the route is a snow-ice slope (700-800 meters) passing in a summit ridge. It seems easier technically, but much more exacting and dangerous: high altitude, cold, weariness, storm winds and many other things.

Descent - via ascent route or the southern ridge and then on Japanese route to the West face corrie. It is contingent on the weather.

One of the main problems I will face to for certain is strong winds from the West. Accumulating their force on the slopes of Everest they pass the distance to Chomo Lonzo for few minutes and with all their force run spang into the West face. Just hold the fort!

I'm going to get acclimatization climbing up to 7000 meters on slopes of nearby mountains before starting the main ascent Chomo Lonzo West face. Supposedly it will be Kangchungtse (Makalu II), 7668m.

MR: Preparations for the expedition (your trainings - whether you have specific system training for this ascent? I mean both aspects - physical and psychological).

Dry tolling Miller Swiller route. M10-

V.B. : Preparation for such expedition begins long before its start. In the beginning the main work occurs at a mental level, i.e. a certain idea arises in your head and then you start a careful intensive thinking it all round, in all details.

It is a very important stage in preparation. Just from there you draw strength and energy for psychological tuning and physical training.

When the idea has matured and then hardened in your head nothing can already stop you. Let I say - you start to work miracles not only in trainings when you can make cross-country running for hours increasing in stamina, but also in art of management and diplomacy when you have to convince sponsors of importance of your project and to get support of many informal persons.

Rock-climbing. 5.12. Canadian Rockies

Physical training and psychology - all of that is interconnected very much. Without an enough good shape you will never be on firm ground psychologically.
It is rather much easier and faster to get into good shape than psychological form. The last one is been increasing sometimes for years, being accumulated from defeats and victories, bitterness of losses and moment of chances. That's the very thing that is accumulating hardly, but that is why it is put before all else. Everything already accumulated stays forever with you.

Ice-climbing. WI6

I have spoken to many top-bracket climbers, and each and all put mental conditioning first. It becomes to be of current interest especially on the subject of complex and dangerous high-altitude ascents.
There are not too many means at man's disposal which he can oppose altitude hypoxia, space cold, gale-force winds, danger to fall into potential fractures or to be engulfed in an avalanche. One of such means is inwardness and steady mental health. But all the same a man is the very weak work of God.

Dry tolling Thriller route. M9-

Some words about my training.

I like to shape-train very much and I am so earnest about it. It is the most part of my life, and in general, significant part, as well as mountaineering.

My trainings consist of run, the most part uphill, rock-climbing outdoor and in climbing gyms, different pull-ups and blocks, hangs, stretching, etc.

During intense training to a serious ascent or expedition a week volume of practice load is 15-20 hours. Elevation changes in racing trainings for a week can be from 3 up to 5 kilometers. .

Rock-climbing. 5.12. Canadian Rockies

But all the same no trainings in gyms can take the place of real ascents in mountains, ice- and mixed-climbing on frozen falls and just rock-climbing on real rocks. As I am a professional sportsman and a guide I make about 30-40 different ascents in a year - from the most simple, up to the most complex. I do not refer running uphill up to a summit to this. I consider that just a endurance exercise.

All this in a complex also creates that physical and psychological foundation that is needed to survive in the big mountains like the Himalayas.

A convincing example of such correct approach to training and ascents is our high-speed (for 14 hours) opening a new route on McKinley Southwest face in a two-man team with Raphael Slawinski last year: altitude difference was 1600 meters.

MR: SOLO climb: What ropes do you use for solo climbing (length, thickness, dry or what)? Climbing with a double rope- are the ropes identical or different (sometimes they use different ropes for weight saving). Give us a piece of your mind about Rope Climbing Techniques at solo ascents.

Canadian Rockies. Mt.Sarraill, first ascent

V.B.: For hardest solo climbs when I have really to be belayed I use the BEAL Top Gun 10,5 mm or Flyer 10,2 mm. I prefer to use a dry rope of 60 meters length. Though in some cases it would be is better to use shorter ropes. When I climb alone a hard route, I use only a single rope.
There's a difficulty with using double ropes. It is good at climbing in a two-man team, but we in fact speak about solo-ascents.

Solo climbing technique is enough simple. When I climb a simple or moderate route at my estimate I do not use any rope in general.

On the routes of average grade or harder than average complexity I just use a thin rope such as the Ice Line 8,1mm that I clip periodically directly into a karabiner at my harness. But it is just virtual belay. I use it when I am confident with a high probability that I will not fall.
It is the other matter when you climb difficult walls - everything becomes to be adultly. After running the rope through the Gri Gri I set up a reliable anchor at a station and the other end of the rope pitch at my harness. Then I pull the rope through the Gri Gri. Process of such climbing is slow enough and is applied only on a hard relief.

I suppose that Chomo Lonzo approximately 6900-7200 meters, the average part of the wall, I should climb in such style. The wall in this part is uncompromisingly abrupt. .

MR: The same question about working with a double rope when you climb in a two-man team...

V.B.: As a rule, when I climb in a two-man team I use two ropes of small diameter, such as the Ice Twin 7,7mm, Ice Line 8,1mm, or Cobra 8,6mm (every in length of 60 m). Choice of a rope is defined by character of a relief and some other factors, such, as general length of a route, its complexity, and an opportunity to get it off in cases of unforeseen circumstances.
Sometimes I just take a single rope such as the Joker 9,1mm, plus a thin kevlar "Dinemma" 5,5 mm in a case of a needful descent.
We used the last mentioned combination of ropes last year on a new route on McKinley.

MR: Tell us about your list of gear that you have when you start parking your things for an expedition :)
Or what do you take already on the wall.

Valery Babanov in Canadian Rockies

V.B.: It stands to reason a pair of ropes, a set of rocky pitons (about 12-16 pieces), 7-8 ice-screws, a set of friends and stoppers, a rock hammer, two Grivel ice axes.

Some pairs of gloves and mittens, a down parka and a light sleeping bag made by BASK.

Instead of a tent I take a hammock-tent that can be one point pitched at any site of the wall.

On the wall I will take sublimated products for some days and the JetBoil- a stove, cup/pot and gas canister in a single package.

I plan to take both models of supreme lightweight, high altitude triple-boots Scarpa, "Phantom-6000" and "Phantom-8000". Which boots to climb in I will chose in situ.

MR: Do you plan only hard wall ascents (here and everywhere we have in mind ascents not only in the Alps but of high-altitude class – in the Himalayas, etc.) for yourself? Or you do not preclude the high-altitude object (for example, К2, Lhotse, Annapurna, Nanga Parbat, etc.) via an already opened route? For example, to return back to the same summit on your own route in the future?

V.B.: Personally for me I examine the "8-thousanders" only on its walls.
If to climb Lhotse - only South face. If to climb Annapurna- only South or West faces.
The "8-thousanders" proper doesn't interest me, though they are very beautiful. Walls and buttresses, leading to their summits are highly attractive than a summit in itself.
In mountaineering the process of ascent and climbing attracts me instead of a summit pure and simple.

If I am obliged to climb "8-thousanders" on simple routes, I don't deny that, but that will be ascents with guiding clients. But here I am referring to the other mountaineering. It is good too, and it has the right to exist.

Helping someone to get to a summit a guide gives him a fantastic opportunity to plunge into the nature, into the severe mountain world. For certain this man will open here much new. And your aim is only to help him to do that.
In mountains people become to show a great improvement. And the more people will join the Mountain world the better will be Our World.

MR: Whether was it interesting to you potentially to climb (solo or in Alpine style in a two-man team) hard walls in the former USSR- for example, peak Kommunizma South -West face (nobody has climbed it of late), Khan Tengri, some peaks of less altitude but more abrupt (Gornyak 5013 peak, Ak-Su, peak 4810 etc.). Or these walls are little-known in the West and it is difficult to find sponsors for such projects- it's not in the Himalayas after all?

Valery Babanov: Kantenga expedition (Himalayas)

V.B.: As for the big mountains and big walls in Pamir and Tien-Shan it is prospectively interesting. But if to be on the straight, I do not know would I have an opportunity to get there in the near future.
And that is not the case that all other mountains, except for the Himalayas, are not most branded and it's difficult to find sponsors for project financing. The real reason is different: there is other energetics in the Himalayas that possess and vanquish you. The Himalayas put a spell on you, and you are ready to spend huge money for mad projects with the one aim- to go there again.
It is difficult to explain - you have to make your own passway through that. The people with hearts won by the Mountains will understand me.
As for 4- and 5-thounsanders that are even very hard technically: what for have I go too far if I have such walls close by: there are walls of 1,5-2 kilometers in Canadian mountains and in the Alps. Complexity of some of them does not concede Ak-Su. I climb these walls.
But basically, all of this climbs I consider as training ascents (even very complex technically) for climbing huge walls in the Himalayas or Alaska.

The matter is that at some stage of climbing career, let call a pikestaff a pikestaff, you understand, that all previous ascents (let they were even super-complex technically but were not high-altitude - up to 5000 meters), you can predict with a high probability: and success and failure. And right from here you loose a soft fragrance of something that so fiercely invites us in mountains. A certain charm of uncertainty vanishes.

It turns out: you approach to a wall, look at the top that is lost somewhere in the sky, estimate how much time do you need to climb it and start climbing. But the trouble is seated in that fact that you already know with a great deal of probability that you will ascend it. It is merely a question of time. And where is uncertainty?

Well, then... uncertainty is in the big mountains. Where walls exceed 2000-2500 meters, and the altitudes are above 6000 meters not to speak of 7- and 8-thousanders. It is similar to extravehicular activity.
Frequently, starting an ascent in a two-man team on a huge wall in the Himalayas or in Tien-Shan you cannot predict whatever result. Sometimes it can be that you have an "outward half of ticket": only up to the summit. There is no other way back, only over the top. You just do not have enough gear to descent via the route of ascent.

Here is the uncertainty, the drag with intoxicating note. Except for climbing skills, the engine of survival starts to work inside us. Intuition and instinct get into the work, a man became to be like a spring compressed up to a limit. During such ascent something changes inside us.
Therefore it becomes clear why the climbers that were on Lhotse South Face and suchlike with few exceptions are not interesting to play other games. It's the other calibre.

It is clear that you come to this gradually. In the beginning everyone has his Elbrus, then - his Ak-Su. Well, further developments are made in heaven...

Project Sponsors: «BASK», «SCARPA», «GRIVEL», «BEAL», «JULBO».

Photo from Valery Babanov's archive
http://www.babanov.com