ALPINDUSTRIA: RUSSIAN ADVENTURE TEAM

EVEREST 2003

Normal route, Tibet

Expedition page

Expedition chronicle:

29 April, 2003 Alexander Abramov reports from Camp I (7000, North Col) :

"April 28. 8:00 a.m. Radio conversation North Col (7000) - Camp II(7500). Abramov - Gudzhabidze.
Abramov: "Good morning. How's the team? What are your plans?"
Gudzhabidze: "The weather at 7500 is crap. We can't even peep out of the tent."
Abramov: "Next connection is at 9:00 a.m."
Meanwhile negotiations with altitude sherpas are going in full swing. They are saying that all sherpas are heading down, the forecast for the three nearest days is bad. It's snowing heavily, the wind is raging.
9:00 a.m. Radio conversation North Col (7000) - Camp II(7500). Abramov - Gudzhabidze.
Abramov: "The weather is bad. All sherpas are going down. They refuse point black to go and set Camp III"
Gudzhabidze: "Then we are going down too."
There is a snowstorm above the Col. Several climbers made an attempt to get to 7500m. We have no further information about them.
So, "Alpindustria Adventure Team" is among the first expeditions to have set Camp II at 7500m. That is a good result.
Soifer, Moskalev and Litinskiy will spend this night on the Col. By 12:00 they were already in Camp I. Everyone is OK"

26 April, 2003 Alexander Abramov reports:

?April 25. I am lying in a cold tent writing my diary. The night was very cold, the gas lamp didn-t warm two-person BASK tent at all. I was having nightmares about expedition matters. I had some problems with Sherpas. It all started on April 19. Leaving ABC for BC I told Sherpas to come down to BC with us. Only one of them obeyed. The rest neglected leader-s (my) words. I came to ABC on April 24, and decided to settle the situation, explain to them who is the leader and threaten to leave them partially without bonuses.

The point is that staying alone in ABC altitude Sherpas start working for other expeditions (for money, of course). And when the time comes to work for their own expedition, they fall ill. As a result of our conversation, Sherpas are addressing me now ?leader¦ or ?Mr. Alex¦. Tomorrow they are going to work on the North Col and higher.

You won-t believe it, but Mikhail Litinsky has returned. He had some rest in Old Tingry and felt better. So this morning Moskalev, Soifer and Litinski took off from BC.¦

Later: Today 4 sportsmen: Kaimachnokov, Gugzhabidze, Tsarev, Pushkarev and three altitude Sherpas took off for the North Col. They will spend a night there, and tomorrow all seven will proceed further and pitch a tent at 7500 with all the necessary supplies: four sleeping bags, food, gas, foam pads. The Sherpas will descend to 7000m.

The same day the other party of four: Abramov, Larin, Pashkov and Sergeev v will climb to the North Col. The ultimate task of this push: to set Camp 7900m by April 30, and spend a night there.

The first party of four started today at 11 a.m. for the Col. The rest engaged themselves in struggling with our expedition oxygen bottles. We put all 48 bottles on the moraine and supplied each bottle with the sticks of our main sponsors v BASK and KANT v and our media sponsors v ?Vertikalniy Mir¦ and ?Mountain.RU¦. Here on the mountain all expeditions have the same oxygen bottles v orange, of Russian company ?Poisk¦. They can be easily stolen, and oxygen is not cheap at all.

In the afternoon the weather abruptly changed to worse. Now it-s v15C in ABC with heavy snowfall and piercing wind. The toilet tent was taken away by a gust with all its contents.

The guys are already drinking tea on the Col and asking over the radio about weather forecast for tomorrow. We-ll try to find it out for them.

Bye.¦

25 April, 2003 Alexander Abramov reports:

"April 24. Today we made a heroic climb from BC to ABC. It is about 1300m of vertical gain and 20km overall. As it was expected, our two tents in Middle Camp were searched through, but as there they were empty, all the quick-draws had been stolen. Sergei Kaimachnikov was the first to arrive at ABC, he was followed by Igor Tsarev. Abramov was wise enough to go in the middle. The rest came soon after. A lot of short steep slopes on the way to ABC can drive one crazy. You think that after that hill you'll see a camp - but, oops, there is another stone-strewn field. In ABC we met Vasya Elagin. He climbed to the North Col yesterday and tomorrow is going down to BC.
The weather according to forecasts we receive from www.mounteverest.net will stay bad till May 4. Very strong wind is tearing the tents. The empty tents fly into the air. But we are grateful to www.mounteverest.net for the weather forecasts.
We plan to climb to 7000m first, then to 7500m and, if we are lucky, to pitch a camp at 7900m and spend a night there. But under such weather conditions we don't stand big chances.
Bye to everybody."