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An interview with Chad Kellogg, recent winner of the Khan Tengri speed climb
14:14 p.m. EST Oct 29, 2003
Back home in Seattle, Washington, Chad Kellogg is resting after an epic summer of climbs spanning from Alaska to Kazakhstan. Starting off with a speed climb record of Denali in June, continuing on to win the Khan Tengri speed climb, a traverse of Khan Tengri, a summit of Peak Pobeda, and an attempt on Lenin. There will be more about Chad’s harrowing climb on Pobeda later on this week.
At the time of the race, officials had Chad’s winning time at 5 hrs 11 min. Since then, the time has been corrected to 6 hrs and 11 min. In realty this time is rather inconsequential as the race was only to 6800m, not to the summit, and there was really nothing to compare it to since the last time the Kuzmin route was climbed was over 13 years ago.
Chad’s travels to Kazakhstan were not without incident – deportations due to visa issues, other competitors posing as TV reports to find more about the unknown American. Previously Denis Urubko, one of Kazakhstan’s best climbers won the Khan Tengri race, and before that, the late American ace, Alex Lowe won in the 90’s
Back to his day job, but raring for his next expedition, ExplorersWeb caught up with Chad and chatted about this past summers events and his Khan Tengri win:
ExWeb: So, you had been sitting behind a desk for quite a while, what spurned you to up and quit your job to head over solo to Central Asia?
Chad: I was training for a speed ascent of Mt. Rainier and my wife told me that this year there was the Khan Tengri climbing festival. I decided to get in contact with Asia Tourism and see if I could register for the race. After sending them a brief resume they gave me an invitation to compete.
ExWeb: What was plan for training?
Chad: My plan was to go to Alaska and train for the speed climb on Denali. Alpine Ascents International hired me to guide a Denali trip after I had completed my personal agenda. Then I was to go to Kazakhstan with minimal down time and acclimate to a higher altitude. My Kazakhstan agenda included the speed climbing competition and three other 7000 meter peaks in thirty days.
ExWeb: It seems you ran into a bit of a debacle on the way over to Kazakhstan with Visa's and flights - what happened?
Chad: The debacle was almost a showstopper. I did not have a visa to Kazakhstan when I arrived at the Airport in Almaty. Kazakh border patrol promptly deported me on the next flight back to Amsterdam until Asia Tourism could get me an emergency visa from the embassy. I had to buy another ticket to Almaty Kazakhstan for $1400 USD.
ExWeb: You paid for this trip all by yourself - wasn't there a grant out there to help fund an American climber in the speed climb? Did you apply for it?
Chad: I applied to the Anatoli Boukreev Foundation but they had already awarded the $1000 to a Portland guy. (Turns out he did not even show up and the grant was never awarded.) That money would have made a big difference. I had to go for broke on this expedition though. I quit my established job and emptied my savings to go train in Alaska. Then I had to put my plane ticket on the Visa and go solo to compete against the Kazakh speed climbers on their home mountain. But hell, don’t let fear stand in the way of a good time!
ExWeb: What's your take on speed climbing in general?
Chad: I think speed climbing could be the next level.
ExWeb: Any relation to the Kellogg's of breakfast cereal fame?
Chad: I wish I were related. Oh I really love oatmeal…just kidding.
ExWeb: What's the word on Kazakhstan and climbing over there in Tien Shan - the mountain, the people, etc. . do you like it better than Nepal?
Chad: Climbing in the Tien Shan is comparable to the Alaska Range and the Himalayas. The mountains are steep with clean unclimbed lines everywhere. Most of the climbers stay near Khan Tengri. Beyond that there are so many cool mountains with nobody around hours from base camp. In addition, there are many first ascents of 5000 and 6000m peaks still available.
The people in Kazakhstan were friendly despite the language barrier. There are buses in Almaty that for fifteen cents will take you to the foot of the nearby Zailiski Alatau mountains. Then A five-kilometer walk will put you at the base of some 4700m glaciated peaks.
In my experience the Nepalese were an extremely friendly and gracious people too. I liked Nepal because I could experience such culture on the trek into the mountain. In Kazakhstan you don’t get that as a big Russian helicopter drops you off at base camp. The climbing in the Himalaya and the Central Tien Shan are both tremendous.
ExWeb: What was your strategy for the race - preparations, special equipment, etc. .
Chad: I ran hills with serious vertical relief near my home to increase endurance. Then I moved to the highest peak in North America to acclimate. After six weeks at altitude in Alaska I flew home, washed my clothes, replenished my food supply, and flew to Kazakhstan. I wanted to refine my gear and strategy on Denali.
Setting the speed record on Denali was an indication that I was on track for the KhanTengri competition. Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking hooked me up with Scarpa Alpha boots and custom fit liners. I bought a Whippet ski pole with ice axe head from Black Diamond and lightweight down pants and jacket from Feathered Friends. The only thing that would have helped me more was learning Russian.
ExWeb: The race itself was rather exciting - what was the key factor that got the win for you, was it strength, acclimatization, strategy, etc. . . ?
Chad: The race was extremely exciting from my vantage point. I had previewed the Kuzmin route up to 6000m. The lines were still being fixed while I trained on the Classic route. I looked at the times that Denis Urubko had on the classic route in the 2000 race. I knew the splits I needed to the top of the peak in good time. The night before the race we had a group meeting and it sounded like the race might still be held to the summit of the mountain despite the fact that the Kuzmin route was much more technical than the Classic and Southern routes.
The morning of the race the two Kazakh climbers must have known that the race was only up to the 6500m mark. One of the competitors, Sergei, had no down jacket, mittens, or plastic boots. When the horn sounded we were off…
The key factor that got the win for me was that I had been climbing and descending thousands of vertical feet every day with loads for two months at altitude. I was not the first climber to the top of the route. The first three climbers were grouped within 150 yards, but my strategy was to hang close and pass on the last 250 meters of the climb. The fact that we stopped 500 meters short of the summit caught me off guard. I was on pace to set the new speed record on Khan Tengri at a little over 6 ½ hours. I was still in second place with six fixed lines to descend on the ridge when I passed Andrei Puchinin for the lead.
He made a tactical error in taking his crampons off at Camp III. When we hit the blue glacial ice on a headwall he had to rappel and I caught him using a wrist wrap on the rope. A combination of strength, acclimatization, and strategy ultimately won me the race. I believe that I trained harder for this race and stayed more focused on the task at hand.
ExWeb: What did you think about your fellow competitors? The whole scene in base camp leading up to the race, right after, and then the following days.
Chad: My fellow competitors were experienced core climbers. In Kazakhstan if you are one of the elite climbers you get paid by the government to climb. There were a few tricky plays though. Unbeknownst to me when I arrived to base camp Andrej Puchinin asked if he could interview me for a local TV segment. Under the guise of a television reported he asked me pointed questions about my training that helped him gauge me as a competitor.
Sergei Brodskey kept to himself with his climbing partner Artem Rachkov. There was one Russian competitor Sergei who was an ultra marathon runner.
The scene before the race was one of uncertainty. The weather was poor and the teams fixing lines high on the mountain were making little if any progress. Each day the race was postponed another day for four days consecutively. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to lose significant acclimatization. After the race everyone was partying and singing. It was time to have fun. I still had not reached the summit so I partook in a little Vodka drinking with my fellow competitors.
ExWeb: The race wasn't exactly to the top, but you did summit afterwards - can you tell us about that?
Chad: Two days after the race I was climbing up toward Camp III. When I reached 18,700 ft. I pitched camp in the bottom of a crevasse next to a Russian guide and his client. I hung out with the two climbers and celebrated the clients 35th. Birthday with them. The following morning I got an Alpine start and began to break trail for the summit in a foot of new snow. Above Camp III the snow was thigh deep on the plateau. At Camp IV I ran into the Camp Chief Yuri with a client and a Kazakh climber that had soloed the Kuzmin route the day before. Apparently he was the first person that had climbed the route to the summit via the Kuzmin in thirteen years.
Despite the new snow I pushed on. The difficulty of climbing increased as I crossed onto the North face and began scaling near vertical rock. Eventually the rock gave way to the North Ridge where the conditions changed to mixed rock and ice.
Near the top of the ridge there was a couloir that drained onto the 10,000 ft. North face. I began to wallow up the 50-70 degree steep chute. An avalanche broke off beneath my front points and swept the route off of the North wall. Shaken I continued with purpose, determined not to be killed by another avalanche. There seemed to be one false summit after another. I reached the true summit at 4:45 PM nearly ten and a half hours after I began.
I decided that the avalanche danger was too high to descend the Kuzmin so I looked through the clouds for the Classic Route on the west ridge. I down climbed until I reached Camp III at dusk. I crawled into a snow cave with only a Down Jacket and prepared for a really desperate night. Inside I found Four Russians and a Polish climber. They gave me a cup of tea and some raisins. When I told them that I soloed the Kuzmin one gentleman shared his sleeping bag for the night. In the morning I climbed up over Chapaev and down to base camp.
The next morning I climbed 6000 ft all the way up to my previous camp where I had left my pack in the crevasse and descended back to base camp. The climb was a true test of my physical conditioning.
ExWeb: Now that you're back stateside, how are things?
Chad: Apparently I had not washed my socks for too long and when I cut my foot I got cellulites in my metatarsals, pretty nasty. My foot eventually healed after a course of antibiotics.
ExWeb: Do you have any plans for other speed climbs or trips? Any new goals or ideas?
Chad: I always have a outlandish ideas and huge goals. If I could get the funding together I would love to go to Nepal and Tibet with the Russian team next spring. The plan is to put up a new route on Everest from the Tibetan side. Money seems to be the limiting factor from attaining my goals. At the very least I am going to Tibet next fall with my wife to climb Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu. I want to try a speed climb on Cho Oyu.
Following my incremental approach I have a dream of setting the speed record on Everest. Those are my near-term speed climbing aspirations. I really enjoy technical rock and ice climbing. An expedition to Pakistan would be great. I really like big walls and Pakistan seems to offer unlimited alpine rock and altitude.
ExWeb: What's your take on the US climbing/mountaineering scene these days? After going to Russia and Kazakhstan and seeing what these guys are doing and what the mountaineering culture is like there - has that changed how you look at climbing?
Chad: The US rock climbing scene seems to be going great guns. The mountaineering scene seems like it needs an infusion of new energy. Comparing our climbing scene to the Russians and Kazakh climbers; they have a much more aggressive mentality. There are a handful of really talented climbers that I know who are pushing the grades at the lower altitudes.
There is less competition among the American climbers to push the grades at altitude. Our mountaineering culture seems less cohesive. In Russia they have a competition for one month every year from August to late September to see which team can put up the most difficult route. The winning team gets to go on an expedition to represent the country.
These guys are putting up some crazy lines. There is a price for this however, evident by the number of deaths. Maybe American climbers just have more to live for because our culture is so well off there is less suffering. The climbers in Central Asia have a much higher tolerance for objective hazards.
ExWeb: Do you have any 8000m aspirations?
Chad: I have many 8000m aspirations. I would love to have a chance to hammer out some of the big boys. One of my personal goals is to use speed climbing to ascend 8000m peaks in a push. These trips are spendy and to afford the expeditions I really need to get some sponsors on board.
ExWeb: Last question - there's been some controversy over another climber beating your Mount Rainier speed record set a couple of years ago - what are your thoughts on that?
Chad: This is a touchy subject. All I can comment on this is that I fired off Rainier in 5:06 roundtrip from Paradise to the summit and back. Not only did I sign the register, but I climbed to the top after I took the time to prove that I was there. I did not have an ‘official’ timekeeper because nobody was willing to get up at 5:30 AM at Paradise to time me, and this was my first speed ascent. I just wanted to see how I would do against the 5:08 time set by Dan Towner to the crater rim and back. I left a second watch at the Ranger station to hopefully be verified by someone else when I returned. The recent controversy is a waste of time and energy for me. I plan on climbing Rainer again and trying to reset the standard officially. It is not for me to dispute anyone else’s word. It is evident that I can back up my word with action. I climb because I love it and the challenge gives me a sense of fulfillment I have rarely found anywhere else. I climb for myself bottom line.
ExplorersWeb archive images from Khan Tengri:
Img 1: Chad K peeping out from the tent
Img 2: Big Russian helicopter headed to Base Camp
Img 3: Approaching Khan Tengri
Img 4: An avalanche viewed from Base Camp
Img 5: Lined up at the start of the race
Img 6: Spectators checking out the race through the scope
Img 7: A view through the scope - racers going through Camp II
Img 8: Victorious
Img 9: Yuri, the Base Camp manager congratulating Chad
Img 10: Competitors alike having some Vodka
Img 11: The entire festival crew in Base Camp - teams and competitors from Russia, US, Turkey, Georgia, and Iceland.
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