Three days ago, I went home from an incredible adventure in Kirgistan!
One month ago, David Lama, Stefan Siegrist, Giovanni Quirici, Photographer Rainer Eder and Filmer Christoph Frutiger with Family, we tooked the train from Moskau to Bishkek. It was a four day travel and for each for us a new and special experience!
But why we did that? In fact, the film idea we had, was to recognise the same travel like ‘Saladin’. Saladin was a Swiss alpinist who was in Kirgistan 60 ears ago for mountaineering. So the idea was to do the same way like he, that means the same travel, climbing in the same area and making the same summit called ‘Asan’. So our climbers guys were transformed a lot of times in the famous saladin, true actors for making an identical film!;-)
After days of sitting in the train, we went to the other extrem. Three days of walking to the basecamp. Normally it wouldn’t be so hard, but like cimbers, we didn’t find the true way directly, so made a lot of extra tours!;-) Happily we’ve had dunkeys for the transport, this makes things a lot easier!
After this too lang walk, we finally arrived to the basecamp. A really nice place in the grassland, with a clear spring trouth and all around 1000 meter big walls. We had three cookers, so the coddeled us all the time with the good Kirgise kitchen.
The same day, we went already to the Asan wall to found a good line. The next day, David and me, we began to open a new route in the middle of the wall. But after 2 pitches, the free climbing transformed into A0. Completly disappointed and desperated we walked down to the base camp.
Our goal for this expeditons was, to open a new free climbing route in the Asan wall. But this was quiet inpossible. The next day we talked a long time to an ‘insider’. A 50 years old russian guy, who was also positioned in the base camp with a russion team. So he told us, that it was like impossible to open a new route, because all the rock beside the existing routes is shit!
So we decided to change our goals. Now, we wanted to liberate the route Timefeev. A route opened by russians but not already free climbed. And this route was great!!!
A 800 meter route, 17 pitches. The first 4 pitches were 7b+ flats, then big flakes and then fantastic granit 7a and 7b crags. Climbing on this route was soooo great! The fact to be on 4000 meter altitude, the alpine style, the protection with friends, the big work to find a way to climb this route….fantastic!!!!
After four days of work, we were able to climb free the first eight pitches and they were also all fixed for the photographer and camera man. So after one day of rest, we started a summit go.
Alarm clock 1.00 am, one and a half hour of walk to the wall, two hours of jumaring and then the start at six o’clock to climb. After six more hours of climbing, we reached the Asan summit, 4200 meters. It was great! But not so funny was the rapelling. Always too long and we were already so tired and it begans to rain…but when we sat in the evening in the kitchen tent, this has been alredy forgotten!;-)
After two more hard days of filming in this big wall, the mostly part for the Mammut work was done, so we were free to decide what we wanted to do now. Fuzzy has been already gone at home for a competition, so Giovanni, Stef and me, we changed from our Karavshin valley to the Aksu vally. There were a couple of good friends of us from around Geneva.
We walked three hours to join them and the next morning at 4 am we began another long climbing day.
The route we did is called ‘peristroya crack’. A 24 pitches route with a fat crag from the bottom till the top. I have never seen something like that! The most difficult pitches were 7b, but the mostly around 6c. So we avanced really quickly and after 8 hours of the fantastic crag climbing I ever did we reaced the summit, also on 4200 meter altitude.
After this big effort it was time to leave and to travelling around in this beautiful country! In the next two weeks we have seen such a lot of things, far away from climbing but also soooo good and unforgettable….
