Beginning - Togliatti

DUSHARIN:
The main issue in organizing such an expedition is money. We had got some definite guarantees from our head sponsor - AvtoVAZ (due to the fact it was with Everest team) and went into expenses at our own risk. Informal contacts and good old acquaintances gave us hope for receiving the needed sum of money. We were talking about $100,000 for a 3-month expedition for 20 people. We managed to gather only $70,000. Of course, it was a large sum of money, but it didn't cover all our expenses. We had to review the budget and limit it, taking only the most necessary things. We were looking for money and equipment wherever we could and the team shared the rest of the expenses. We counted every penny.

AvtoVAZ headquarters

Karakoram view from the 3rd camp (7,100m)

VOLKOV:

Resolving money problems wasn't the only thing we had to do during our preparation. We knew a little about conditions under which the expedition would be held in China and we knew a little about the mountain itself. We had to answer the following questions:

How should the team be organized in completing all the jobs for preparing the route for the ascent (it would be necessary to hang 4,000m of fixed rope and to set 5 upper camps) and to save resources for the decisive storm?
How much food products are required for entirely isolated team for 2 months? How much and what will we be able to buy in China or to transport there?
How to restrict ourselves using just the most necessary things (the delivery of each kilogram of freight to the base camp will cost us 5 dollars, and we'll need a minimum 3,000 kg)?

All these questions had to be solved quickly.

It isn't necessary to have many people organizing an expedition. A team of 3 people, with the same aim, can do a lot if they have a great desire and aren't afraid of various technical problems. We had such people and we managed to complete the preparations.

Volkov's diary

Dusharin's diary

Alpine Club history

High-altitude ascents

While organizing the expedition