Big Wall Update-Jannu: Russian climber Alexander Ruchkin came in with a dispatch after descending from 7200 meters following almost 5 days of work on the Wall. The descent was almost as hard as the effort to keep going up, with the most of the fixed ropes frozen into the rock under centimeters of ice. Note the word “almost.” Here’s Ruchkin’s account of what it is like to work day after day at 7200 meters (edited for clarity):

“We were unsteady on our legs for weariness, and were like drunk cows on ice because of the erased points of our crampons. The portaledge hanging at 7200m allowed us to begin work earlier, not wasting time on climbing on the fixed ropes. The wall from 7000 m and above is steep granite alternating with cornices. The cornices would represent a problem at sea level, but at 7000 m all the more. There are cracks in which even the most thin pitons do not go into not to mention fingers…You rest against a cornice, and you have to try belayer’s patience climbing on the smallest chocks. If you get in wide cracks you find inevitably in them frozen or jammed stones in which you use camalots or friends that hold you only on the verge of falling. Constant hanging strains all muscles so that after you fall entirely exhausted into the portaledge and you can not even move. The expectation that the wall will become less abrupt soon is deceptive. Pershin and Totmyanin, who came to replace us, have been working on the wall three days and still the cornices and overhanging don’t come to an end. It is The Impossible Wall and probably unique. There are no analogues to it in terms of complexity and steepness at such altitude. And nevertheless she is [being] climbed. We have got very little left to climb. May God give us the good weather.”

C’mon God, give them a break. These guys deserve to get to the top. Unfortunately, though, in the high mountains prayer is rarely enough…



Creature Comforts: “This would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to drag this f*cking box spring up the mountain…”