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发信人: xqyang (山在那里), 信区: OutDoor
标 题: West Face Nomal Route
发信站: 瀚海星云 (2005年05月19日17:08:46 星期四), 站内信件
West Face Nomal Route
Type: Long Basic Snow/Glacier climb
Difficulty: Russian grade 5A
Time Required: Expedition
Summit Elevation: 24757 ft
Submitted by Johan Heersink on Sept 23, 2003
Last edited on Nov 20, 2004
How fun/worthwhileis this climb?
Approach
Best starting point is the city of Kashgar in the extreme West of Xinjiang province. Here you find everything to supply your team, plenty of agencies who can help you with permits and so on, and transport to the foot of the mountain can be conveniently
arranged. A drive over the famed Karakoram Highway will bring you in about 6 to 7 hours to either Karakol Lakes, (Lodging in Yurts or rooms in main building), or Subashi, (camping out in the meadow). From 3700 meter Subashi on the 3 to 5 hours walk in
to 4450 meter base camp starts. Mostly camels are used to take the gear of expeditions up the trail, but if you are in need to make strict economy it is also possible to hire donkeys for the job from the locals of the villag. A donkey carrying 50 Kg
costs about 50 yuan or 5.5 $, depending on your negociation qualities.
Route Description
Base camp is situated on a rock strewn meadow plateau, very roomy and convenient because of the pressence of a crystal clear stream coming of the right hand moraine.
From Base camp a very well defined trail goes up the left hand ridge, bordering on the gap between Kuksay and Muztagata peaks, in which the Khmatolja glacier is flowing. The trail might be steep in some parts and full with a lot of loose debris of all
sizes, but it is without any technical difficulties and acclimatized good walkers can do in 2.5 hours, 4 still being and adequate time. 3/4 of the way up is a simple stone enclosure, which is convenient for resting and cacheing supplies and gear. At
around 5000 meter the snowline is reached and the ridge peters out in the lower snowfields. Although neither steeper nor more technical, the going gets tougher here as the snow often is in bad condition and quite mushy on warm afternoons. A great
number of tent platforms is found between 5150 and 5400 meter, all however are very wind exposed.
From camp I up the route goes to the left hand side of the snowfields towards a convenient gap in the imposing serac band, which stretches upwards for several hundred meter. Here there is a lot of detouring around seracs, but they are rather stable
and the risk of one collapsing is minimal. Also there are many crevasses but in summer most are well defined and easy to get around. One very big crevasse must be crossed, but for years on end it has been very well bridged and in season there is
always a fixed rope there. Angle in the Serac zone is very gentle and there are even a few short descending stretches. Above the serac zone a rather steep deep snow wall of approximately 200 meter height must be climbed, before the route bows of to
the left were camp II is found. Sites for the camp differ a little per year and per team, from 6200 to 6400 meter, but everywhere convenient platforms can be dug in the snow.
Moderately steep snow fields lead up from camp II, but conditions of the snow is often bad. Some hundred meter above camp there is again a small zone of seracs and crevasses, which must be skirted. Up from it it is monotonous wide snowfields,
undifficult but exhausting and there is a slight risk of hidden crevasses: American climber Jeff Mendenhall died in one while descending from camp II in the summer of 1999. Again, the campspots for camp III differ from team to team, the lowest at
about 6700 meter the highest at nearly 7000 meters. In general the higher the better.
From camp III to the summit the monotonous snowfields continue, now ever more sloping of. Technically completely without problems, but there is some risk of getting lost in the wide monotony.
Muztagata summit is a slight rockoutcrop, broad and mostly snowed over.
( More "Route Description" photos/images | All Muztagata photos/images )
Serac zone of Muztagata.
Just above the 5400 meter camp 1 on Muztagata Normal route a huge zone of seracs is found. From down below they induce some fear into climbers, but there is little reason for that, as easy, non technical, spurs can be found in between them without
difficulty. Camp I is situated exactly under the seracs, and on first sight, some might think this spot very dangerous to avalanches coming from collapsing ice towers. But like the whole of the huge glacier face of Muztagata West face, the ice of the
seracs is strangely inert, and the towers almost never seem to collapse. The few that do nicely crash of to the left and over the precipe into the deep trench in which Kuksay glacier sits, doing no harm to the camp whatsoever. Some warn that one day
this migh turn out different and the whole camp might go down in an unsurpassed disaster.
Essential Gear
Muztagata West wall is not a technical climb and ice axes and crampoons are of very little use, (although crampoons might be wise to take later in season when some parts get iced up). Walking poles and snowshoes are of much more avail, and the best
way to progress upward are mostly cross country skies. Muztagata however is a quite cold mountain, and very good clothing, boots, tents, sleeping bags are needed.
Conversion of Russian grades
For all my mountain routes I am mainly using the Russian system of grading them, as I think it is the most convenient one for mountains of over 4000 meter where the effect of altitude plays a role in the difficulty. The Russian grading system is the
only one to include Altitude, Objective dangers, Previous climbs, Succes rate and so on in the rating. It is however very difficult to converse Russian ratings into the more commonly known ones "Alpine" and "UIAA" and ongoing discussions rage about
it. I think that the standard table that Robin Collomb and Andrej Wielochovski designed for their 1995 "Pamir-Trans Alai Mountains" map is the most accurate we have at hand. This table was devised for a mountain of around 5000 meter high, as mountains
have greater height the Alpine and UIAA grades become progressively lower than in the given example. If the mountain has lesser height than they become progressively higher:
RUSSIAN GRADE ALPINE GRADE UIAA GRADE
1A F I
1
B PD II
2A PD II
2B PD-PD+ III
3A PD+ 3
3B AD-D III-
IV
4A D IV
4B TD<
/td> V
5A TD V
5B
ED- VI
6A ED-
VI
6B ED VI and
upwards
6B Special ED VI and
upwards
RUSSIAN PASS GRADING;
To complicate things some more a different system of grading passes is used, of which it is even harder to make a conversion, so best is to just describe them;
NC (nog grade): Comfortable for pack animals, or even veh-
icle track.
1a ; Rough, possibly steep path, but often used
by pack animals.
1b ; Might require some scrambling or the use
of ice axe and crampons
2a ; Requires easy technical climbing and good
snow and ice technique
2b ; Requires moderately difficult technical
climbing.
3a ; Involves a variety of technical difficulties
and possible objective danger
3b ; Sustained technical difficulties and/or
serious objective dangers, (equivalent to
UIAA grade VI)
Muztagata normal route is a Russian grade 5a, corresponding to Alpine grade D and UIAA III/IV.
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※ 来源:·瀚海星云 bbs.ustc.edu.cn·[FROM: 218.22.32.162]
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