Valery Babanov (Nuptse East): "Hello! On March, 23 we have a rest day"

The weather is not fine, usually at the afternoon a steady snowfall settles in. We could reach 5800 meters, right to the point, where I spent night my previous attempt. Every day Nuptse wall and its south ridge is getting whiter. Even at the base camp it's cold enough. Early spring or late winter? Yesterday, on March, 22 I took over 40-meter difficult rock pitch wearing my rock shoes at 5800m, and in 20 minutes large sheets of snow came crashing down the face above.

In fact, the route seems much different from the previous year. Last fall the rock became frozen in place in a thick sheet of ice. This year, though, it's pure rock. It concerns especially crux pitch upper 6000m.

Though, it's not exactly promising weather, tomorrow we are about to leave the Base Camp for free days climbing bivying on the route.Every inch that we now jumare up or climb up from BC towards the high point we've already reached has been gained by countless hours of work.

Valera, Volodia
Base Camp, Nuptse
Source BASK, Translation: www.Mountain.RU

25.03.2003