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The ascent of Eastern Sunrise, 6350mPamirs - Tadjikistan - Kyrgizstan - China |
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A gentle drizzle was falling and the hills were swathed in clouds, snow speckled the higher slopes. Everybody congregated to say goodbye to Iain as he set off towards Nura and the Chinese border. Although Nura is not an official border crossing between Kyrgizstan and China it is open to commercial traffic. Iain, presently studying Chinese at Harbin University, hoped to get through on the strength of his Chinese residents status. This would save him a long journey back to Osh, from where we had come over two weeks ago. From Osh he would have to get to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgizia and hence get tourist transport to Kashgar via the Turugat Pass border crossing.
The group watched him vanish into the drizzle, Sergei's final words still in their minds - "Don't tell the border guards that we are here - tell them we have gone back to Osh - we don't want them coming round here!"
A few days earlier Iain had made an unofficial visit to the westernmost point in China, on the first ascent of Zoria Vostoka (Eastern Sunrise), 6350m high, a beautiful glaciated mountain located at a point where the borders of China, Khyrgizstan and Tajikistan meet. This had been his dream for a year since he had last visited the area and got turned back on the mountain through lack of time and bad weather. The mountain is known locally as Kyzyl Su Bashi (the high top of the red river - referring to the Kyzyl Su river which flows from the Kurumdy Glacier eastwards to the plains of Tibet and the ancient and colourful city of Kashgar).
Iain had little high mountain experience on his first trip to the Pamir in 2000 with EWP, but he had a lot of enthusiasm, a blissfull lack of awareness of what he was letting himself in for and an adventurous spirit befitting his Scottish background. Over the course of two and a half weeks he climbed several mountains - some virgin and learnt to move quickly and confidently over glaciated terrain. His partner on the first ascent was Armin, a German who works for a publishing house in Bavaria. Armin helped to inspire Iain and to provide the impetus for the ascent of Eastern Sunrise. Armin, who regularly visits the Alps, was superbly fit and had a solid background mountaineering experience.
After establishing base camp not far from the Kurumdy Glacier an advanced camp was set up at Paradise Lake (4100m) on a carpet of edelweiss, gentian and other alpine flowers surrounding a little lake. From here the glacier leading up to the North Face of Eastern Sunrise (subsequently named Bowling Alley Glacier on account of the serac falls threatening it on the Eastern Sunrise side) was explored. From Avalanche Camp at the head of the glacier a scree and rock couloir was found up to the col named East West Pass. From this snow slopes interspersed with the occasional small seracs or crevasses led up to the corniced summit ridge.
On the first visit to the col Mike, Max, Alex, Paul and Zhenia walked up to 5300m where they established the rather uncomfortable "Twin Rocks Camp". From here they made the first summit attempt in poor weather. They encountered ever deeper snow and finally in near white out conditions and exhausted they retreated. Everyone descended to base camp but immediately the next day Armin, Iain and Stuart decided to push back up to the col with the aim of setting up an even higher camp from which to tackle the summit. Good weather helped and they forced their way high past the Twin Rocks. In places snow was thigh deep, finally they reached a small serac below which they cut out a small platform - "The Eagle's Nest" at 5780m. Sadly Stuart turned back on account of a sore throat so the next day just Iain and Armin worked their way up improving snow to the summit which they reached in fair visibility.
They descended down to the col. On their way down they met Igor and Valery who were making their way up to the summit from the "Twin Rock Camp" - this turned out to be a long hard push. Also on the same day Mike and Zhenia made their way up to "The Eagle's Nest" from where they made their successfull summit bid the following day. Finally, on the next day, with the weather still holding good and Stuart's health improved, he, Colin and Paul went up to "The Eagle's Nest" for their attempt. They were not so lucky with the weather but just managed to make the summit. The three descended back in deteriorating weather to the "Eagle's Nest" relying heavily on their GPS and altimeter. They packed up the tent and continued down to the more sheltered col where Valery and Igor were waiting as a back up team in the event of an emergency. That night it snowed and all five descended as quickly as was possible to the drizzle and comforts of base camp.
Alex and Max after their initial attempt turned their attention to the beautiful virgin - 5360m. They climbed this with Sergei starting from a camp on the Glacier of the Seven Brave Tractor Drivers. On a beautiful morning they climbed the North Face then followed along the exposed and corniced north east ridge to the pointed summit.
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ALW 14th September 2001