DUSHARIN:
While we were preparing to go up, we had decided to attempt the summit
if everything was all right. The fact that the group of Sergei Penzov wasn't
fixing ropes gave rise to doubts, but we had a fair acclimatization, had
a good rest and were in a cheerful mood.
But the summit attempt failed. Some things had happened that gave us
little chance of success. First, the group of Dosaev could only fix one
long rope above the 4th camp. Then we had "lost" Ilya Sabelnikov. He had
some liver troubles, and when on the 7th of August we started ascending
from the 4th camp he felt bad and could only advance 15-20 meters. So he
tied his rucksack and turned back. We didn't spend the night at 8,000m,
but returned to the 4th camp, mostly because Ilya didn't have wireless.
Finally, the weather was just terrible. It didn't stop snowing. I still
think that we had a real chance. It was not clear whether we could reach
the top or not, but anyway we could start the attempt from 8,000m in spite
of a difficult job fixing ropes.
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The fourth camp
Section of the route between the 2nd and the 3rd
camps
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