Valery Rozov Base Jumping Amin Brakk Today - New Images
Jul 21, 2004 16: 57 EST
In a cryptic message from Valery Rozov, ExplorersWeb just got word; "Today 21/07/2004 (Russian Extreme Project) "base-jumping" from Amin Brakk!!!"
Mountain.ru posted some of their dispatches, the latest dating from July 16th when they were about halfway up the wall:
"Yesterday we worked the first day after taking a few off and made two pitches, including a series of cornices with a broad side of about seven meters. Most likely it is the crux of the route. The very bad weather holds. It is constantly snowing and the present forecast promises only more deterioration. The generator down below in base camp broke again. Dmitry Lifanov's trying to do something with it and sent one of the sherpas for spare parts, but he will not return for another two - three days. Today on July 14 the team with its full complement works on the wall. All of us are safe and sound and almost healthy. All our greetings to you!"
The acronym B.A.S.E. stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth; the four types of platforms used in this kind of sport.
Along with the four-member climbing team (Valery Rozov, Arcadi Seregin, Alexander Lastochkin and Sergey Kovalev) will be a cameraman from NTV (Lev Dorfman) and a photographer (Dmitry Lifanov), so we can expect some great pictures and live videos.
The Mountain, as the Russian site Mountain.ru describes it, “is situated in inaccessible Pakistan Mountains that present a real climbing Mecca. It is one of the most complex and extended walls on our planet; It is harder then Trango Towers.
Amin Brakk was first attempted in May 1996 by Basque climbers and got the attention of rock climbers back in 1997. The very experienced Spanish big wall climber, Jon Lazkano, together with Adolfo Madinabeitia and Jose Carlos Tamayo made a capsule style attempt on the 1,200m granite face of unclimbed Amin Brakk. After 15 days on the wall the trio were forced to give up around 300m below the top, worn down by bad weather, cold temperatures that caused minor frost nip, and lack of food. They estimated another three to four days of good climbable weather would be needed in order to reach the summit.
The Spanish made several attempts until 1999 when Pep Masip, Miguel Puigdomenech and Silvia Vidal climbed this virgin tower and named their route ‘Sol Solet’ (VII 6C+, A5). The ascent took 34 days. The route has a technically complex part of 1650m in length and 22 pitches of A5 and 6C+ (vertical!). It is considered the most technically complex wall in the world at the present moment. Extent of sites А5-graded (the greatest possible category of complexity) makes 150 meters (!) at the altitude about 6000 m. Lack of snow on this very abrupt wall causes additional complexities, and the climbers have to haul up water.”
Images of Amin Brak climbers courtesy of Mountain.ru and the 'Extreme Project' team.
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