"BASK – Great Sail Wall" expedition

A press conference devoted to a climbing expedition ‘BASK – Great Sail Wall’ was held in Saint-Petersburg press-center of ITAR-TASS on the 19th of April.
Expedition leader Alexander Odintzov, expedition doctor Mikhail Bakin and cameraman Ivan Samoilenko shared their plans with journalists.
For example, Alexander gave some comments regarding an aim of the expedition:

Q: Why have you chosen exactly this big wall?
A: Firstly, we had a sad bulk during our last two attempts to climb Latok III (Pakistan). At the beginning we got ten broken ribs, two broken legs and two broken arms. At the end we lost Igor Barvikhin. So this year we had no aspiration for Pakistan. Moreover, a political situation there is too unstable. We decided to postpone this stage of our project and to return to it later.
Secondly, Baffin Island is ‘Terra Incognita’ for Europeans – none of us have ever been in the region. Only a team of Alex Lowe had climbed Great Sail Peak several years ago. We met Alex at (better – on) the Great Trango Wall in 1999 and became friends. Several months ago Alex was killed in an avalanche on Xixabangma and his body was never found. In his honour we decided to climb the wall, where he was the first, and to break a new route in 50-100 metres to the right of his one.”

24.05.2002