On the Route - 3rd camp

Section of the route between the second and the third camps

DUSHARIN:

We went on the route on the 25th of July at 2 a.m. The weather was terrible. It was snowy and the wind was knocking us down. In two hours my group and the group of Dosaev, getting soaked to the skin, gathered near the beginning of the fixed ropes. After a short time negotiation we decided to turn back. By 8 a.m. we reached the ABC and started our breakfast to the friendly smiles of the guys.

On the route between the 1st and the 2nd camps

Andrei Mariev ascends using the rope

Next day the weather was slightly better, and we decided to repeat our attempt. We somehow forgot our previous instructive experience and again planned to rush to the second camp at once. To be sure, we already had a fair acclimatization, and we didn't want to spend one more night on the route. Bad weather did its job - all the day we were making the trail in the snow anew, both for us and for our neighbors. After 16 hours of continuous hard work we finally reached the cave. In the evening Piotr Pustelnik dropped in. It turned out that he lives there alone for 3 days, fixing ropes. Cave is not a tent, it's a quite tolerable lodging. But 5 people was a maximum amount for a cave at that time. So all Dosaev's quartet and Andrei Volkov stayed in the cave, Ilya and me went to the "Saleva" tent and Victor Kolesnichenko went to the "Kangchenjunga" tent. It showed so much at night that towards morning our camp broke, and we didn't get enough sleep. Andrei and the youngsters got blocked by the snow in the cave, and they were digging themselves out for 2 hours. They could have suffocated in there. "Kangchenjunga" was behaving fine, nothing happened with it.

The weather didn't get better in the morning, and we had to wait before we would be able to set the third camp. So we could have some rest. We started moving at 11 and were able to cover 500m of height. We left the luggage there. When we descended back the guys had already expanded the cave so that 8 people could fit in there. Six members of the international expedition came up that day. Krzysztof paid a visit especially to thank us for the path made. By that time we established some kind of relationships. We are taking the ropes up and they are fixing our ropes. We use the ropes fixed by the international expedition members and it really saves our strength. Now, getting acclimatized, we started to help them a little. That evening we saw another side of our relationships.

VOLKOV:
At 6 p.m. Carlos Buhler came to the cave with his rucksack and asked to stay overnight with us. He said that there wasn't enough space in the tents of the international expedition camp and they asked him to go down. It was very unusual. Actually, it meant that there was a serious conflict between Carlos and other people from the international expedition. You never should rely on others being in such expeditions. Life and work conditions are extreme. There is not enough time and opportunity to help others. We could easily reject his request, and it would be understood rightly. But we had enough room and, following the Russian tradition, we give refuge to a man that get into trouble. At that time we didn't think about the reasons and consequences. In the morning Carlos offered his help with luggage lifting. We accepted his offer, but warned him that we had only had one tent per 4 people. So there wouldn't be enough room for him. Carlos understood that.

In the cave at 6,500m

After 8 hours of climbing we stopped and decided to set the tent at that place. Carlos didn't have anything to do, but to go down. We had no strength to follow the plan and to get to 7,500m. The altitude was about 7,100m. It was a difficult night. Ivan had a stomach ache and Ilya's liver hurt. They had to go down in the morning, and then Victor and I returned to 7,000m to take the luggage and to lift it up to the tent. So we had set the third camp on the route. There we had enough food, 4 sleeping bags, 6 coils of rope (50m each), gasoline and 2 gas-stoves with gas cylinders. On our way down to the camp we had met the group of Udin. They were carrying the luggage to set the next camp. The scheme of ascent we designed was working rather well.

Volkov's diary

Dusharin's diary