Greeme Dingle greets our team
Graeme Dingle, who was the leader of the New Zealand team made the first attempt at Jannu North Face in 1975, greets our team (translation by www.russianclimb.com): The route your team is attempting is indeed audacious. We climbed the wall further to the left and reached the summit ridge but not the summit due to hurricane force winds. It was post monsoon and the wall was plastered in ice with extreme avalanche danger. For 1975 it was technically difficult - possibly one of the hardest climbs in the Himalaya at that time. The very best of luck to your climbers.
Best Regards
Graeme Dingle
May,14, 5-49 a.m.
News from Alexander Ruchkin:
14.05
Hi, friends, here's the Spring, by the end, at this high-altitude corner! And it isn't clear - is it good or no for us... We noticed it already during the last descent - our ice screws and stations melted off from the ice. It became wormer with every rope down. There were frozen waterfalls at 6000 m, and we found our ropes under the ice about some ñentimeters, and we had to free them from the ice prison, and to descend only after that. It's an impression that the Mount don't want to free unbidden guests who had broken her rest.
Tired hard, we went down with Mikhail Mikhailov along frozen ropes. Mike went the first and freed ropes from ice, used spesial Russian lexicon, and I followed him with the same words and tryed to put icy rope into gri-gri. Five days which we spent above 7000m gave the result - we were shaken because been very tired, and our crampon's teeth were rubbed out - so we looked like cows at the ice.
We leaved in the portaledge at 7200, so could begin to work earlier and didn't spend so much time to ascend by ropes.
The route from 7000 m is a vertical granite wall, with carnices which are already the problem at the sea level, not at 7000 m. Climbing grade above 7000 m is about 6B (Russian Grade) or A3 (if transmit the wall closer to the sea and use the rock shoes instead of Millets) There were cracks at the absolutely smooth wall, but the thinest hooks could't been installed into it, and what could I say about fingers? And after that relief, where we could find something, we went till carnice, where the first of us had to use the smallest nuts, stoppers, testing the calmness of the second of us. Then in the wide cracks, there were stones, wedged or frozen in ice - so we used camalots or friends, which safed us only at the edge of fall. The rock was constantly hanging ower us, and we had to strained all our forces - and felt then into the portaledge, tired, and couldn't move. Our expectation that the wall will soon be not so steep - is only an illusion, and our friends who changed us at the wall, have confirmed it.
Totmjanin and Pershin work three days at the wall, and carnices follower each other, and the rock hangs over as earlier. It's incredible wall, may be, it's the most difficlult wall at such altitude. But we climb it, and there are already not so far from the summit.
God bless us.
Ruchkin, May,14, 7-29 a.m 14.05.2004
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