| Last minute info: 22.10.2003 11:25: The rest of the expedition, Rumi, Stamen, Bobi, Zjeko i Christo have just arrived in Delhi. They will attempt to change dates of their tickets to return to Bulgaria earler. 23.10.2003 11:25: They are returning to Sofia on 26-th of October 2003, 22:00 with Aeroflot. |
Meet him as a king!**
At our arrival at the base camp I counted the tents - 25. I hadn't expected such attendance, I had heard of no more than two expeditions per season. Now there were Korean, Dutch, French climbers and us - the Bulgarians.
The Koreans stood out with their "Mountain Hardwear" tent that looked like a spaceship with round portholes. They were sponsored by seven big companies and attempted the Australian route (the icy gully in the middle of the wall). Their team consisted of people with rich experience - most of its members have climbed above 8 000, one of the group was for the fourth time at Thalay Sagar - and I found it really strange that only two climbers were trying for the summit. They told me that the ice was thin, the anchors for the fixed ropes were bad and that it was very dangerous. Quite a naive explanation. They came back from 6 400 m because one of the two climbers got ill.
The three Dutch climbers attempted to climb the East face on a new route. During their final attack the weather was bad and it was snowing, but they managed to reach the top. They were wonderful people. They weren't for the first time in the region. one of them (Melvin) had climbed the neighboring mountain peak - Brigopant. The Dutch expedition made a nice route - always sunny!
The French guys were four. I think they were attempting to make something like a 400 meter variant of the normal route along the gully. Two of them made it, the other two - didn't. They started for the summit from 6350 which was too low. It was quite difficult to communicate with them.
We were a great team. We had everything we need. Our cook was wonderful. His name was Jenak. It was a real pleasure to communicate with him. He didn't know any European languages nor European meals, but he was so charming that everything turned out OK. Our liaison officer was called Bra and was really helpful. There was no need to force my opinion on anybody, nor to act as The leader. We took our decisions together.
Everyone told us that our route was a very dangerous, extremely difficult and beautiful project. We already knew that. The thing we didn't know was the drastic change of temperatures after the end of September. Most of the days were sunny, the weather was stable, but the temperatures dropped dramatically. That made us speed up the whole process. (We had planned to work on the route from the 2nd till the 15th. We hadn't planned to sleep on a portaledge - we had taken it just for emergencies.)
 | The North-West face of Thalay Sagar with the routes |
 section with old fixed ropes Dutch route Korean - the highest point French variant positions of our port-a-ledge |
The moment we decided that we had had enough time for acclimatization we all moved up to the French АВС /at about 5400m/.
Together with Zheko and Hristo we equipped with ropes the way from the normal route to the beginning of out rock-and-ice wall. We decided to fix on the wall about 550 meters static rope, to gradually move our portaledge upwards and afterwards to go for the summit. With 6 nights spent on the portaledge we finally reached 6400 meters. There were days in which we climbed only about a 100 meters because of the great technical difficulties. on the sixth day Zheko decided to climb down for a day or two rest at "the green grass". He wished us luck and descended. Hristo and I took a backpack with a gas stove, a small pot and very few clothes. on the previous day we had fixed 200 meters of rope above the portaledge - the last rope. We had 60 meters dynamic rope and 60 meters 6mm rope.
On the 11th of October we started early in the morning. After the end of the fixed rope we climbed 60 meters of ice, 70 meters mixed terrain, 35 meters ice, 50 meters slates (awful belaying points), another 50 meters of slates, and 80 meters of snow and ice till the shoulder below the summit at 6700 meters. I had thought that when I reached the shoulder I would go to the Southern side, that there would be no wind and that from there I would belay Hristo. But the wind there was as strong as on the NW face. Hristo climbed up and we discussed the situation. The only possible solution was to dig a snow cave. I was belaying Hristo and he started digging. I couldn't stand the cold - I joined him to get warm. In about an hour we were ready to move into the cave. We had very little food and absolutely no bivouac equipment. We used every thing we had for sitting, putting on and getting warm. We were massaging each other's feet, trying to keep them warm. At some point we even managed to get some sleep.
At 8 o'clock on the next day - the 12th of October - we got in touch with the ABC and told the group that we were heading for the summit. We walked along a rocky edge. Here and there we saw remains of old fixed ropes but they were of no use. Suddenly we came to a vertical chimney, IV+, where the rock was - to put it mildly - friable. While I was climbing it I was thinking that this peak had saved some surprises for us till the very end. Hristo came and offered me to lead the last rope to the summit. It was very kind of him, but I let him go first. When one is at 6904 there is absolutely no difference who's first and who's second. Throughout the whole journey I was filming with my video camera. Hristo is one of the toughest men I've seen. We reached the summit at 12:47.
We tied the Bulgarian flag at the only possible place. We took pictures, sang the Bulgarian hymn, and I interviewed Hristo. We stayed at the summit for about half an hour. on the way down the most difficult turned out to be the snow and ice slope under 6700 meters and the band of slates where there wasn't a single secure belay point. It took us many hours to reach the good anchors we had used on the way up. It was already dark and we had only one headlight at the abseils. The strong wind blew streams of snow powder over us. We reached the end of the fixed rope and sighed with relief. Hristo climbed one belay point ahead of me. I heard a cry. Hristo writhed with pain. He had fallen about 10 meters and had hurt his pelvis. It was good he carried the backpack. Slowly and carefully we reach the portaledge.
As Hristo says: "Everything is great!" It turned out it wasn't like that. I tried to take off my shoes, but I couldn't. I cut the inner shoe and pulled out the feet, which no longer felt like mine. With Hristo we started to "work on them". After 6 nights on a portaledge and one night in a snow cave the sleep finally took its toll. In the morning we cut the sleeves of Hristo's turtleneck and used them for my socks, I put on his three layer shoes and headed for the ABC with no luggage. I left everything with the hope that somebody would use it during the second attempt and would bring it down. After 2,5-3 hours Vallia met me at the end of the fixed ropes with hot tea. In a while Hristo also came down, carrying quite a lot of luggage. I told Valia: "Meet him as a king!".
Nikola Levakov
21st of October, 2003
Clinic for thermic trauma, Sofia
________________
* This part of the route follows another route that reaches the saddle from the South (editor's note).
** The title is chosen by the editor for publication of the material in Climbing Guide
Translation: Tcveta Misheva
To previous article about "Thalay Sagar 2003" in Climbing Guide
The following photographs are selected from available at the moment. Pictures from the climbing will be available after processing of the video-camera material.
 | In Bulgarian embassy in Delhi – Valia’s birthday |
 | The group was accompanied by Chris, the son of a embassy worker, who was “cleaning” the different obstacles on the road to base camp |
 | On the road |
 | Around the road |
 | Bra, liaison officer, who have also helped a lot |
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