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Karakorum: Amin Brakk BASE jump debrief - Into the void
Sep 26, 2004 10: 40 EST
In June/July, 2004 the "Russian Extreme Project" team of 4 climbers, a camera-man and a photographer, set off to climb a new "Russian" route on Amin Brakk’s (5850m) West face.
The expedition leader Valeri Rozov's goal was not just to get to the top, but to do a B.A.S.E. jump from the summit. This was the first Russian climb on the mountain as well as the first BASE jump from this wall ever. Here goes the second and final part of the debrief:
Second task: Jump!
The good news came not on the 20th as planned, but on July 22:
”At 6 pm (local time) Valery Rozov made a successful B.A.S.E. jump from the Amin Brakk wall. The jump-point was slightly below the point where the route joins the summit ridge; located approximately 300 meters below the top.
We spent hours dropping stones into the void
The jump point was at about 5550 meters. The jump was in a wing-suit (S3). The altitude difference was about 1000 meters; free-fall time was 30 seconds. The main problem was the landing area: A broken glacier and moraine lines. It took a long time to make up our mind about jumping; we spent two hours dropping stones into the void to check their trajectory. Under the exit point, in 5 seconds flying, there was a large ledge: All the stones broke against it. Finally Valeri dared to jump and flew three meters away from the ledge...”
A spin in a time-machine
Reported Valeri: ”The feeling after the landing is simply indescribable. It was like going for a spin in a time-machine. For so many days, you were fixed to a vertical wall, your mind totally focused on holding on to it. Then suddenly, only in one minute, you materialized down below. On a horizontal plane - safe to go where you want, to do what you want. It’s Fantastic!
The debrief
The next night, when the entire team was back and safe in BC, Valeri sat in front of the computer to write a debrief:
“The team successfully descended last night. Everything turned out almost without incident (we dropped one backpack and one trunk with a portaledge tumbled down). We are all safe and sound and will leave for Kande already tomorrow. We have fulfilled practically all our plans. We climbed a very serious route on one of the most beautiful and most complicated walls of Karakorum; using the wing suit, we also made a B.A.S.E. jump from the wall in very uneasy conditions.
The wall is not totally vertical, it has a system of ledges. Unfortunately, we couldn’t open a full-length new route. Due to unusually bad weather while climbing the upper half of the wall we had to switch to the Czech variant, easier and faster.”
Facts and results:
Difficulty of the route: А3, 6А.
Vertical meters (altitude difference) in the technically complex section: 1250 meters (from 4600 to 5850 meters over sea level).
Length of the route: 31 pitches.
The ascent took us 22 days (11days fixing the rope, 11 days on the mountain).
We stayed in the area for 33 days. During the ascent there were only three days of actual summit weather; the rest of the time it was raining or snowing.”
The expedition was back in Moscow by the first of August, already planning new expeditions. “We look forward to see you again soon!”
Amin Brakk is located in the inaccessible Pakistan Mountains that represent a real climbing Mecca. Amin Brakk is one of the most complex and extended walls on Earth, considered even harder than Trango Tower.
The tower was first attempted in May 1996 by a Basque team: The experienced Spanish big wall climber Jon Lazkano, along with Adolfo Madinabeitia and Jose Carlos Tamayo made a capsule-style attempt on the 1,200m granite face, then unclimbed. After 15 days on the wall the trio were forced to give up at about 300m below the top, worn down by bad weather, cold temperatures and lack of food. They estimated that another three to four days of good ‘climbable weather’ would be needed in order to reach the summit.
The Spaniards made several attempts until 1999 when Pep Masip, Miguel Puigdomenech and Silvia Vidal climbed this Spire and dubbed their route ‘Sol Solet’ (VII 6C+, A5). The ascent took 34 days. The route has a technically complex section of 1650m in length and 22 pitch, graduated A5 and 6c+ (vertical!).
The Amin Brakk walls include 150m-long sections of А5 (maximum difficulty level for aid-climbing) at about 6000 m altitude. Lack of snow on the wall forced the climbers to haul up water.
The Russian Project Extreme to Amin Brakk team-members were : Arcadi Seregin (Ussuriisk,45), Alexander Lastochkin (Moscow, 42), Sergey Kovalev (Lenensk-Kuznetsk, Kemerovo region, 38), cameraman Lev Dorfman (Moscow, 43), and photographer Dmitry Lifanov (Moscow, 37). They all have impressive big wall climbs all over the world. Valeri Rozov is also Russia’s, Europe’s and World’s champion on Parachuting.
Images of the climb and Valeri’s BASE jump, courtesy of the team and Mountain.ru
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