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!