Russian BASE climb expedition

[skreamer 1]

Story here.

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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 Mountain is situated in inaccessible Pakistan Mountains and considered the most technically complex wall in the world at the present. 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.

The expedition leader, 39 year old X-gamer Valery Rozov's goal was not just to get to the top, but to do a B.A.S.E. jump from the summit. The acronym B.A.S.E. stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth; the four types of platforms used in this kind of sport. This was the first Russian climb on the mountain as well as the first BASE jump from this wall ever.

Taming the monster lizard

Bad weather and sheer vertical walls were the main obstacles to overcome for the Russians. They often climbed in low visibility and snow storm conditions.

The six-member team reached Base Camp on June 22nd, just to find how bad the Karakorum weather can be: Before they could even fix the first pitches, snow storms held them up for six days. "It seems the weather decided to check how serious our intentions were,” they wrote in their online diary.

The opening of the new route took nearly a month, including delays due to storms, some difficult decisions about the best line to climb, cold, suffering and very exposed passages. As time was running out and the weather didn’t improve, the Russian team decided to switch to the Czech route at one point on the upper section of the wall. Therefore, the route is not new in its entire length.

Ur! Ur! Ur! – Summit!

Finally on July 19th at 4 pm the Russian Extreme Project team summited the mountain, having overcome ice-covered rocks, deep snow below the summit tower and non-stop blizzard.

"Ur! Ur! Ur!" the team would report "Now the climbers know the secret of Amin Brakk."

The monster-wall had been tamed. The climbers described it: “Amin Brakk looks like a giant lizard (the multi-kilometer ridge comes to an end with a colossal towering "head"). The "Lizard" “sometimes is deep asleep under cold indifferent stars then suddenly is awoken by the first sunrays at eight o'clock in the morning. By the afternoon the sun livens up the ice, snow and stones. Then the "Lizard" shakes off; provoking avalanches and rock falls, notifying all the area: ‘I'm not sleeping, I guard the secret, the eternal transcendental country by day and night!”

The next task was a B.A.S.E jump. The chosen exit point was a small ledge on the summit ridge, about three hundred meters below the top (it is impossible to jump right from the summit because of its domed shape)."

Jump!

Two days after the summit, in a cryptic message from Valery Rozov, ExplorersWeb got word; "Today 21/07/2004 (Russian Extreme Project) "base-jumping" from Amin Brakk!!!"

We held our breath. The good news came the next day: ”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, due to the dome-shaped summit.

Wearing an S3 wing suit, Valery bid adieu to his five man climbing team and took the 30 second free-fall before opening his parachute.

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 were dropping stones for two hours to check the fall line instead of making up our mind to jump. 5 seconds of drop and the stones hit a large ledge. If you make a normal push at the beginning of the track you will fly it over but if you do not you will have serious problems. Finally Valery dared to jump and flew over the ledge with three-meters to spare.”

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.”

The Russian Extreme Project Amin Brakk stays in our memory for pioneering, ingenuity and courage.

Climbing a fuck-off big technical mountain and then jumping off it with your wingsuit - cool!
Will

[shunkka 0]

congrats to all involved in this great project
pictures here
http://www.mountain.ru/expeditions/2004/amin_brakk_REP/photo/index_eng.shtml

nice work

PS... it`s a repost
old link http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1178258;search_string=Russian%20Extreme%20Project;#1178258

-------------------------
"jump, have fun, pull"

[Lee846 0]

Some pics & stories here http://www.ruexp.ru/eng/

Between two evils always pick theone never tried

[pchapman 279]

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5 seconds of drop and the stones hit a large ledge. If you make a normal push at the beginning of the track you will fly it over but if you do not you will have serious problems. Finally Valery dared to jump and flew over the ledge with three-meters to spare.”

The question of being able to out-fly a ledge must be a big issue in the low air density high in the Himalayas. Even the most experienced wing suit pilots are unlikely to have their "eyes calibrated" to assess what they can outfly at high altitude, compared to low. Less air resistance, less dynamic pressure to 'get you flying' after a given number of seconds.

(Vertical acceleration would be slightly higher due to less air resistance, but that won't be a huge factor in the first few seconds when air resistance is low anyway. )

It reminds me of course of the original Base Climb video of Feteris and Singleman (if I got the names right) where they tumbled extensively after launching from one the Himalayan T_ _ _ _ _ Towers.

No ledge or wing suit were involved, but they didn't get the aerodynamic control they were used to lower down. Plus helmet cams weighed more in those days!

(Technically it sounds like Rozov's issue wasn't whether his full flight glide angle would pass over a distant ledge, but was mainly whether he'd start getting significant forward movement to outfly a small ledge.)