Climbing in Ala Archa National Park
“Camp
commander! I wish to inform you that the Canadian Climbing Team has successfully
summited peak Corona II with no casualties.”
“To the
Canadian Climbing Team, the camp says HURRAH!”
“To the
camp, the Canadian Climbing Team says WELCOME!”
Yup, a
little surreal. We are all standing at attention, shoulder to shoulder at the
entrance to a climbing base camp at 3550m in the Ak Sai canyon, 60 km south of Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan. We have had not only a great climbing week, but also a rather
unique (and at times strange!!!) cultural experience. I wasn't too thrilled to hear about the "no casualties" report - isn't that supposed to be the normal way that things run??
We started
our climbing week by jumping in a van at our lovely hotel in Bishkek. The
previous 2 weeks there were 10 of us from the Calgary and Rocky Mountain
sections of the ACC; for this climbing week, 5 of our members were returning
home and we were being joined by 3 new folks
from Calgary, Hamilton and Waterloo Ontario.
A 90 minute
drive and a 4 hour hike brought us to base camp. Most of the foreign climbers
in Kyrgyzstan are focused on one of the three 7000m peaks – Lenin, Pobeda and
Khan Tengri. Almost all of the climbers at the Ak Sai camp were from Russia.
The guides were based in Kyrgyzstan, but were all from Russia as well. The
entire experience was, in fact, very Russian and very different from anything
that any of us had experienced before.
For
example, breakfast depended on when you were leaving camp, but the big meal of the
day was always lunch, which was served at 1400 if you had a rest day and when
ever you returned from your ascent if you were climbing. This actually made a
lot of sense, as it allowed us to carry a light lunch while climbing & then
fill up on a two course meal when we got home. Dinner was always at 1900, and
was either soup + salad or a heavier single course.
Both the gear and the climbing
were very Russian in style – you basically soloed until you encountered
technical difficulties, and then you sat while guides either put up fixed ropes
or checked the conditions of permanent ropes. Then you ascended the fixed ropes
while sliding a jumar (an ascender) to catch your fall if you slipped. After,
you rappelled the fixed ropes and then walked back down the glacier – we never
roped up on glaciers because they were all bare ice. There were few crevasses
since most of the glaciers were not very steep.
Alex borrowed this ascender from the camp manager, who apparently machined in decades ago from a purloined block of aluminum.
Our first
climbing day we all decided to take it easy & picked an easy scramble. The
entire team was successful on the ascent of Mount Boks, a 4293m scramble.
The next
day we tried something a little bit more difficult. Graded PD+, Mount
Baichichikie was 4516m high. It was mostly a glacier walk with a steep scramble
and some fun technical climbing at the end.
We took a
rest day and enjoyed the local shower facility – basically a stall with a water
tank at the top. The tank was filled with a couple of buckets from the local
stream. The camp staff set up small butane stove under the tank, and 3 hours
later the water was pleasantly warm!! Those of you who have gone weeks with
only a wash from a pack of “wet ones” would understand what a treat this was!
Our next
objective was the most technically challenging. Corona peak was 4860m high and
had several summits forming a crown around the summit glacier – thus the name.
We were moving an hour before dawn. Our guide originally recommended that we
move up to a high camp the day before, but we chose a moderately long day (12
hours) and a single push from base camp instead. When we saw the condition of
the hut at high camp, we all agreed that we had made the right decision! After
a glacier walk to high camp, the rest of the route was mostly steep ice, including
a 200m ascent to the summit ridge. Fun scrambling on solid rock at up to 5.4
took us to the summit.
We lucked out with the weather and were back in base
camp before the afternoon thunderstorms sprinkled our tents. The views from the
summit were spectacular – mountains cover 95% of the territory of Kyrgyzstan
and 40% of those are above 3,000 meters high so we had amazing views in every direction.
Our final
day of climbing we did without our guide – we originally planned a rest day,
but half of us headed up to Mount Uchitel (4540m) and the rest of us did a
technical ascent of Ratsik peak (4000m). Ratsik involved a few moves of 5.7
climbing, but there were pitons placed exactly where we needed them. Part of
the treat of that day was that the camp commander, who had been managing this
base camp every summer for 40 years, was ahead of us on the same route with his
wife and daughter. His techniques suggested that he felt that some of the rope
skills from 40 years ago were better than modern methods – like when he body rappelled
all of the technical pitches!
Corona, our climb from the previous day, is the highest peak in the background of this photo.
Our descent
back to civilization was slightly marred by an unfortunate incident with our
porters.
We contracted with our agency to have all of our heavy gear brought up
& down – we figured that we were supporting the local economy! Our old,
weak backs were not a consideration at all. When we descended to the valley
floor on the last day, we found that two of our porters had passed us on the
way down & had already deposited their loads in our van. However, the other
two porters were no where to be seen. After waiting for over 3 hours, we found
out that one of the porters had twisted his knee. However, he refused to give
up his load & struggled down with his pack. All of the porters were young university
students out to make a few extra bucks. We were all very impressed with this
young man’s fortitude and his dedication to his job. We asked him why he didn’t
just tell us that he was injured – the 8 of us could have easily split up his
20kg load – and he looked at us like we were from outer space! The thought of
not completing his responsibilities just never occurred to him.
We
celebrated our return to civilization with a traditional Kyrgyz meal at a local
restaurant, along with some great Kyrgyz beer and Georgian wines.
Our climbing
crew, who were amazing, wanted to show their appreciation for our organizing
the week, so they took up a collection with Jackie and I used to partially fund
the purchase of a painting. This original oil painting is about 3’ by 4’. We
got a crazy deal on it, since the art market in Bishkek’s main square was
shutting down for the day. We basically showed the vendor that we were willing
to give him all of the Kyrgyzstani Som (the local cash!) except for enough to
pay for our taxi back to our hotel. He accepted!
We will
always have fond memories of the friends we climbed & trekked with (who
were super fun) and of the Kyryz people, who genuinely wanted us to have a
great time in their country. This is a place that has not yet been wrecked by
too many tourists!
