Beginning - Bishkek

DUSHARIN:
We met at the base of the mountain's center "Tien-Shan", in Bishkek on June 25th. There were 19 people. The staff was rather variegated. Even we, the organizers and managers, did not know some of the participants. However, we knew that we needed the majority of them on the mountain. Those whom we trusted answered for the others. Some people were there only because they shared their part of the expenses. People from Novosibirsk were the initiators of the expedition and the owners of the permit. When we chose people for our team, we paid attention to their sports achievements and their ability to do certain tasks on the mountain. In such cases, we had to pay attention to individual peculiarities due to the fact that the job was going to be very difficult. We were going to face very treacherous conditions. Success was going to depend on the behavior of each member of the team.

Our team in Bishkek

VOLKOV:

Certainly, all the factors are rather relative. Not many people met all the requirements. It would be impossible to climb K2 with four people. We had to gather about 15 or 20 strong individuals and we did it.

DUSHARIN:
We had to meet with everybody and tell them about all the preparations. We told them all the things that had to be done for a successful expedition. I came here not only as a formal manager of the expedition, but I wanted to get a chance to climb the summit. We needed a specific organizing of the work that would allow me to stay off the current routine. I thought that groups of 4 should be organized so that all internal questions would be solved by such experienced people as Sergei Penzov and Volodya Udin.

Last preparations

We discussed all these questions in the evening of June 25th. Together with Volkov we prepared the text of the contract that every participant of the expedition had to sign. For Russian climbers it was an unusual form of participating in an expedition. It was necessary to distinguish friendly relationships and duty of every participant, his role and position in the expedition.

VOLKOV:

Everything was completed as planned. The only thing that surprised me was the serious attitude of the members of the team towards the contract, which didn't even had any judicial power. After the meeting Ivan talked to everyone personally, specifying financial questions and hiring a participant to do different jobs. It looked as if we completed our main task on the first stage. People understood that the mountain itself was not the only problem awaiting them.

Volkov's diary

Dusharin's diary

Expedition members

Text of contract

Verbatim record of meeting