Central Council of DSO "Avangard"

To the blessed memory of Ukrainian climbers Artur Glukhontsev and Vitaly Timokhin

we dedicate

Ascent to South Ushba via the Central part of the West wall

(report on the ascent)

V. Monogarov Kiev—1965

The route via the Central part of the West wall of South Ushba, traversed by the combined team of CS DSO "Avangard" in July 1965.

West wall of South Ushba. The upper part of the wall is not visible.

• Route of L. Myslyaev's group, 1960
• Route of A. Kustovsky's group, 1963
• Route of our team, 1965 (in the circle—backpacks of A. Glukhontsev and V. Timokhin)

Beginning of the West wall. The final point reached by B. Romanov's group in 1962 (in circles—a carabiner and a wedge of B. Romanov's group).

X. Final data on the wall assault

The entire route to South Ushba via the West wall had an altitude difference of 1525 m and consisted of:

• lower, relatively easy part,
• middle, steep part,
• upper part of medium difficulty.

The route traversed by the team is of great technical complexity, very interesting in sporting terms, logical and beautiful.

The route via the Central part of the West wall of South Ushba, with a length of 605 m, was traversed in 7 days (78 h 50 min).

A lot of time was spent on pulling up backpacks, as it was complicated by a large number of:

• cornices
• overhanging sections.

Pitons and ropes left by A. Glukhontsev's group were not used due to their unreliability.

Sections of the wall with holds were traversed by free climbing. Thus, sections were traversed:

• R6–R7
• R13–R14
• R18–R19
• R20–R21
• R21–R22
• R22–R23

The total length of these sections was 270 m, i.e., almost half of the route. The rest of the wall could not be traversed by free climbing due to its steepness and complete lack of holds.

The entire route via the Central part of the West wall was extremely technically complex. The route could only be traversed with technique and experience in free climbing on steep cliffs, as well as the ability to use the entire arsenal of high-level rock climbing techniques.

A particular difficulty during the wall traversal was the section R16–R17 before the chimney. In this section, it was necessary to traverse huge slabs detached from the wall (roches moutonnées). It was not possible to bypass these slabs. On the route via the Central part of the West wall, more than 50 m were traversed on overhanging cliffs with a steepness of 95–100°, 300 m on cliffs with a steepness of 90°, and 200 m with a steepness of 80°.

On average, 70–100 m were traversed per day. One day was spent on approaching the backpacks of the deceased, photographing the site of the fall, and lowering the backpacks to the observation group (the backpacks were hanging off our route).

The observation group, located at the foot of the West wall and consisting of climbers of the 1st sports rank O. Grippa and V. Gumenyuk, was tasked with:

• transporting the backpacks of the deceased to our base camp.

The route was complicated by bad weather. On July 26, snow fell in the second half of the day, and on July 29, a snowstorm raged, heavily snowing up the cliffs, and avalanches descended along the wall. On July 30, we were forced to wait a whole day for the upper part of the wall to clear of ice and avalanches.

In bad weather conditions, the following provided invaluable assistance:

• cloak-tent
• "Pamirka" tent, which we took to the wall.

On the wall, we spent:

• 4 nights in hammocks (see photo)
• 2 nights sitting
• 2 nights in the upper part of the wall, lying on a small ledge, wrapped in tents (see photo).

It should be noted that the relatively comfortable position for rest and sleep while sitting in a platform with back support against a hammock, which was attached to a piton hammered at chest level. Such an organization of overnight stay requires minimal time and effort, as usually used pitons are hammered.

Overnight stay on a ledge "lying down" in the upper part of the wall on July 29 and 30, 1965. To make the route more convenient for future ascents, it is necessary to:

• improve existing platforms.

Among the rock climbing equipment, the most successful were drill pitons, which, when properly hammered, can withstand loads of up to 1600 kg on shear and 800 kg on pull-out.

The team considers it a pleasant duty to thank Kiev climbers, Masters of Sports, engineers V. Yakovina and A. Kustovsky for improving and thoroughly researching drill pitons and drills.

The team also believes that on rocks with small cracks, where it is impossible to hammer a rock piton of standard design for effective belaying, drill pitons should be used.

Any pitons of reduced non-standard sizes (petal or shortened) are unreliable for belaying, and their use can lead to accidents, as it was with A. Glukhontsev and V. Timokhin.

Our team established that the cause of V. Timokhin's fall was the detachment of the eyelet welded to the petal titanium horizontal piton. The weld was torn during the hammering of the piton into the crack and did not withstand V. Timokhin's body weight. A. Glukhontsev's further fall could not be arrested by shortened pitons, which were pulled out.

The cause of A. Glukhontsev's and V. Timokhin's deaths was, first and foremost, incorrect tactics when moving along steep cliffs. The lead climber moved away from the belayer by 40 m on a single rope. To facilitate rope pull-through multiple carabiners, he did not thread the rope through all carabiners.

Unused carabiner of Artur Glukhontsev's group

Carabiners of Artur Glukhontsev's group. We found 12 undetached and undeformed drill pitons, on which there were no signs of remaining rope carabiners. We also found 4 well-hammered rock pitons of standard design with steel carabiners attached (see photo).

It should be noted that the pace of our team's movement along the wall was optimal compared to the pace of movement during the first ascent of a similar wall on the west. For example, the first ascent of "Devil's Needles" via the Red steep wall, 300 m long, took 6 days for the first ascenders. The team consisted of 5 people led by the Honored Master of Sports of Bulgaria, international-class climber G. Atanasov.

When traversing this wall in September of this year, we established that the route is traversed by climbing only one-third of the route, while the rest of the wall is traversed only with the use of artificial holds organized with the help of:

• drill pitons,
• regular pitons,
• wooden wedges.

(see diagram in the appendix)

Subsequent groups after the first ascenders ascended this wall in 8–10 hours along the pitons hammered by the first ascenders. Our foursome consisting of:

• V. Monogarov
• N. Mashchenko
• V. Goncharov
• O. Grippa

traversed this route in 15 hours.

The ascent to South Ushba via the Central part of the West wall is the most complex of all wall ascents performed by the combined team of CS DSO "Avangard" in previous years, both in the USSR and abroad.

Comparing the route to South Ushba via the Central part of the West wall with routes of the 6th category of difficulty traversed by us in Yugoslavia ("Triglav"—"Chopov pillar" 6th category, 1963), in Austria ("Dachstein", direct route 6th category and "Gizoyze"—5th category, 1964), in Bulgaria ("Devil's Needles" via the Red wall 6B category, 1965) (see photo), the team believes that the traversed route to South Ushba is undoubtedly a route of the highest, sixth category of difficulty.

It should be noted that the main criterion for evaluating a route as extremely difficult and determining its belonging to the highest category (e.g., 6th category) abroad, in Yugoslavia, Austria, and Bulgaria, is its:

• steepness
• traversal of steep sections and cornices
• use of artificial holds

Routes of the 6th category abroad are mostly not traversed by climbing. Even steep routes traversed by free climbing are classified as 5th category.

The team dedicated their ascent to the blessed memory of our good friends Artur Glukhontsev and Vitaly Timokhin.

On behalf of the team, Team leader and trainer, Master of Sports of the USSR V. Monogarov

The report was compiled by Master of Sports M. Aleksyuk and D. Lavrenko.

Route to "Devil's Needles" via the Red wall 6B category, traversed by members of our team in Bulgaria in 1965.

The 300 m long route was traversed by the first ascenders in 1961 in 6 days.

Vitaly Timokhin (1940–1964)

Photographs taken from the film found in A. Glukhontsev's backpack.

Artur Glukhontsev (1935–1964)

TABLE

Main characteristics of the ascent route via the Central part of the West wall of South Ushba traversed by the team of CS DSO "Avangard"

Overhanging steepness 95–100° – 50 m.

Altitude difference of the West wall — 605 m. Total ascent route — 1525 m. Including the most complex sections — 545 m. Steepness of the route via the Central part of the West wall — 80–90°. Including the most complex sections: 90° — 295 m, 80° — 200 m.

We installed a memorial plaque in memory of our friends at the foot of the West wall.

• Descent 30 m to Glukhontsev's and Timokhin's backpacks.
• Repacking backpacks, pulling them up to the ledge, and lowering them from the ledge to the observation group.
• Replenishing water supplies, for which we traversed the wall to the right.

Team leader and trainer

Bypassing a cornice to the left, section R9–R10