|
Resume Rainier Denali Khan
Tengri
Festival Khan Tengri Speed Climbing Competition 2003:
August 1st, 2003 6:11 hrs. RT
Method:
Plastic Boots
Start Time:
5:30 AM August 1st Base Camp
(13,400 ft.)
Splits:
Camp 1 (16,400 ft.) - 1:38 hrs.
Camp 2 (17,600 ft.) - 2:14 hrs.
Camp 3 (19,400 ft.) - 3:05 hrs.
Camp 4 (20,800 ft.) - 4:00 hrs.
High Point (21,500 ft.) - 4:19 hrs
Base Camp (13,400 ft.) - 6:11:40 hrs.
End Time:
11:41 AM
Festival Khan Tengri 2003 Speed Climbing Competition via Kuzmin
Route:
I recently competed in an international speed climbing
competition in Kazakhstan. The race was held on August 1st, on the
7010-meter/23,100-ft. peak named Khan Tengri. Held every three years,
the Khan Tengri event is the premiere speed climbing competition
in the world. In 1997, American Alex Lowe won the competition on
the Kyrgyzstan side of the mountain. In 2000, Denis Urubkov, of
Kazakhstan won the event. This year, a new route was chosen for
the competition. The Kuzmin Route ascends the North side of the
peak via a rock and snow ridge, is much more technical than previous
routes. Due to the poor weather the top 500 meters of the route
were not fixed by race day. The high point of the race this year
was approximately 6,500-meters/21,500 ft. Asia Tourism lists the
high point of the race at 6,800 meters, but having climbed to the
top of the Kuzmin route August 4th I think it was a bit lower.
The race began on August 1st at 5:30 AM sharp. Five competitors
out of the ten that were registered to race were lined up at the
starting line. Some of the competitors did not show up for the competition.
There were officials at Camps 1,2,3 and 4 to take names of the climbers
and relay the positions to the spectators. The starting elevation
was 4100 meters or 13,400 feet. The total elevation gain during
the race was 8,000 ft.
As the race began three of the competitors began to run across the
first mile and a quarter to the base of the Kuzmin Ridge. I did
not want to dump too much lactic acid into my muscles too early
so I held back from running. In the first mile I passed Alexander
Rudakov to move into fourth place. I stopped at the base of the
ridge to fasten my crampons. There were a total of 55 fixed lines
along the course, thirty of which lead to camp 1. By the fourth
rope I had passed the Russian to move into third place. Andrey Puchinin
and Sergey Brodsky held the first two positions. They were about
250 meters ahead. Camp 1 was at 5,100 meters, which I reached by
7:08 AM (1:38 min). Camp 2 was at 5,600 meters and, in third place,
I checked in with the officials at 6:45 AM. Between Camp 2 and 3
Sergey was able to pass Andrey on a bulge in the glacial headwall
a half-mile below Camp 3. Sergey had the hometown advantage and
knew that the race was not going to the summit. Sergey wore lightweight
leather boots and had jettisoned all extra equipment.
At camp 3 (5,900 meters) I was still in third place. Between Camp
3 and camp 4 at 6,300 meters there is a long plateau that allowed
me to run and closely group the first three competitors. I managed
to close the 300-meter gap to less than 150 meters. Sergey Brodsky,
from Kazakhstan, and Andrey Puchinin, representing Kyrgystan, still
held the first two positions. I was pacing myself for a very long
race and still did not want to exert too much energy too early.
At 6,500 meters there were two officials to register the climbers
at high point and turn the competitors around for the descent to
the finish line. The high point for me was reached just after the
four-hour mark. This gave me an average ascent pace of over 2,000
ft/hr above 13,400 ft.
Sergey Brodsky was the first athlete to the high point. He had the
advantage on the descent because you can travel twice as fast down
as we were headed up. Andrey was about five minutes behind, and
I was about two minutes behind Andrey. I raced to catch them on
the way down. By Camp 3 I had caught up with Sergey and passed him
while he stopped to talk with the officials. Moving into second
I was able to descend the fixed ropes through the rock and ice bands
in hot pursuit of Andrey. By Camp 1 he was still in the lead with
thirty fixed ropes to the bottom of the ridge. He made one tactical
error though. Unbeknownst to me, Andrey had removed his crampons
near Camp 3. Below Camp 1 there was a steep headwall that was blue
glacial ice. Andrey was forced to rappel while I ran past him using
a wrist wrap technique. He let out a yell 'No' as I passed him with
only a thousand feet vertical to descend to the glacier. I quickly
negotiated the remainder of the fixed ropes and ran the last 1.25
miles across the North Inylchek glacier to the finish line. I managed
to put five minutes between Andrey and I during the final two miles
of the course. The final leg of the race was not visible to the
spectators. As I ran up out of the folds in the glacier the crowd
was astonished that the American had moved into the lead. I finished
in first place with a total elapsed time of 6:11:40 hrs. Andrey
Puchinin of Kyrgyz Republic finished in second place with a time
of 6:16:43 hrs. Sergey Brodsky from Kazakhstan finished in third
place with a time of 8:24:30 hrs. Five minutes separating the first
two competitors was the closest finish in the Festival Khan Tengri
history.
LINKS:
Photos:
Khan Tengri Gallery
Explorer's Web: www.mounteverest.net
Asia Tourism: www.asiatour.org
|
