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Foul Weather, Pre-Acclimatization
Here is a schedule and trip report for my unsuccessful July 2024 attempt on 7134m Pik Lenin.
Atrocious weather – high winds and heavy snowfall throughout my time on the mountain – prevented me from climbing any higher than ~6100m on this attempt. Despite no summit, my main objective in this climb of Pik Lenin was thorough pre-acclimatization for 7010m Khan Tengri, where I was very well prepared and ultimately successful. Although I failed to summit Pik Lenin this time (and didn’t even enjoy myself much!), the time spent was still highly worthwhile; I was so well acclimated afterwards that a rapid ascent of Khan Tengri was possible for me. Take a look at my far more detailed Khan Tengri trip report for a broader discussion of the pre-acclimation strategies which I have now successfully employed multiple times.
Rather than its own goal-oriented expedition, this 2024 attempt on Lenin felt more like an warm up mission, and a very boring one at that. The foul weather kept me camp-bound, and there was loads of downtime with very little to do. Happily, Ak-Sai’s services are top notch, and I was comfortable throughout the endless waiting, waiting for good weather which never came. The following trip report, rather than a more interesting narrative, is essentially just a rough edit of the point-form journal which I kept while in the camps. I hope that it will be useful in some capacity.
Images and details from my successful 2017 Pik Lenin expedition can be found here.
Schedule and Calendar
Here is a calendar outlining my acclimation routine and climbing activity throughout my 2024 Pik Lenin climb. I have also charted out the elevations used for my acclimation rotation – with the subsequent Khan Tengri expedtion added on. This attempt on Pik Lenin was predominantly an exercise in acclimation, and despite no rotation above 6100m, the routine I followed was sufficient for a solid acclimatization suitable for ascending into the low 7000m range.
Pik Lenin Journal
6.27
3 am arrive Bishkek, and direct to a Bishkek hotel.
Massively jet lagged! I slept all day long.
6.28
Flight to Osh was delayed. Slept all day and went grocery shopping at night; happily the day prior I had seen that everything stays open until 10 pm, likely due to the summer heat?
6.29
Osh 850m to BC 3620m
Awake at 2am. 8am flight to Osh, 40 minutes.
Drive to Lenin BC, hot in the car!
Much faster than other experiences. About 5 hours from Osh, arrived at 4pm.
BC is luxurious; awesome food spread, comfortable mess hall, hot showers available 24/7, and now has fast internet with a local SIM card. I used the carrier ‘Mega’ and had full bars, an extremely fast connection in my tent. Unrecognizable to the BC infrastructure of 7 years ago, when I ate in a yurt or in a group tent.
Ak Sai has stepped up their service offering. I was deeply impressed by the quality of the new Ak Sai operated Moskvina Basecamp in Tajikistan during my 2023 Pik Kommunizma expedition, and I was equally impressed by their improved 3600m Basecamp facilities on Pik Lenin.
6.30
Short acclimation hike to 3950m, on the Pik Petrovsky ridge. Going to 4000m is not really worth it for the additional distance involved.
7.1
Rest Day in 3600m Basecamp.
7.2
8:50 am depart 3600m BC.
12:25 pm arrive 4400m camp. Time of 3:35.
Steady rain and wind in the early morning had me nervous about making the hike up, but the weather cleared completely after breakfast. This was a major relief; hiking to 4400m camp in heavy rain would be truly miserable.
I gave the horses 27kg of equipment and food, and carried about 10kg myself.
I departed 3600m BC at 8:50, and arrived at 4400m Camp at 12:25, a time of 3:35. I was surprised to be an hour faster than my 2017 time, as I didn’t feel that I was rushing. Indeed, I stopped twice to take quite significant tea breaks.
Lunch at 4400m camp was an all-you-can-eat buffet, available right after I arrived. I was astonished and delighted by the quality and variety of fruit on offer! While 4400m camp offers the same infrastructure as I experienced in 2016 and 2017, the food has improved significantly – especially as it is now buffet style.
7.3
Short acclimation hike. I departed 4400m camp at 9am, arrived 5100m Pik Yuhin at 11am, time of exactly 2 hours.
11:50 start to descend and 12:35 arrive, in time for lunch. 45m descent time. I took a nap in the sun at the top of Pik Yuhin, good for acclimatization.
7.4
Easy walk to the base of the route up the glacier. Forecast called for heavy snowfall, and as such I felt undecided on next steps. I also felt some urgency in my need to find someone to rope up with for the icefall!
7.5
Rest day.
Heavy snowfall, as forecasted. I had been tempted to ascend today, but upon seeing the weather at 2:30 am I decided to bail, and immediately went back to sleep.
7.6
Rest day.
A departing Swiss and Dutch couple gave me their remaining electrolyte tabs, wet wipes, and hand sanitizer. Their generosity put me into an excellent mood!
Deep snow makes for an unsafe route on the glacier; nobody goes up, nobody comes down. I felt happy to be in 4400m camp, and not trapped higher on the mountain.
7.7
Rest day.
Many groups decided to abandon their expeditions today, due to the poor forecast and the boredom of incessant waiting. I opted to wait patiently; I’d budgeted significant time for my summer mountain goals, and while very bored in 4400m camp, I felt that I could tough it out for a few more days. Ak Sai now has fast WiFi for $5 $USD per hour, and I made a point of using it once every other day to help kill time.
7.8
3:25 am depart 4400m camp.
10:45 am arrive 5400m camp. Time of 7:40.
With a favorable weather forecast, I finally committed to moving up to 5400m camp. I teamed up with a pair of fit Belgians so as to have three on the rope for the icefall – a best practice given the number and magnitude of crevasses on route.
I followed my normal strategy for acclimatization rotations, and packed an absolutely enormous load to carry up. I hoped to bring everything I needed to 5400m camp in one shot, thus enabling me to carry only a tiny, light daypack up when it came time for my summit attempt. My backpack was painfully heavy.
We departed Ak Sai’s 4400m camp at 3:25am, and arrived at Central Asia’s 4400m camp at 4:05. We arrived at 5400m camp at 10:45am, a time of 7:20 from Ak Sai’s camp or 6:40 from Central Asia’s. In 2017, with a similarly loaded pack, the climb to 5400m camp took me 7:40 from Central Asia’s camp – not a bad improvement!
On arrival in 5400m camp I was lucky and grateful to find a perfect tent platform waiting for me. Exhausted, my shoulders, back, and legs thrashed from my heavy backpack, I pitched my tent and immediately took a nap without unpacking anything else. After 90 minutes of sleep in the mid-day heat I spent an hour properly anchoring my tent, unpacking, and brewing a whey protein hot chocolate. I had no headache, nor any other symptoms of AMS; so many days waiting in 4400m camp had definitely provided me with a good base of acclimatization. For dinner I tried a freeze dried meal, but it was so revolting that I was only able to eat half of it. Luckily I had plenty of cheese, sausage, nuts, and chocolate to eat.
7.9
9:35 am depart 5400m camp.
12:55 pm arrive 6110m. Time of 3:20.
Depart 6110m at 1:35 pm.
2:30 pm return to tent at 5400m camp, time of 55m.
I went up on an acclimation rotation, hoping to tag at least 6000m. On my prior Pik Lenin expeditions, this single rotation to 6000m had been sufficient acclimatization preparation for a summit attempt.
High wind and deep snow near the summit of Pik Razdelnaya made for slow going. I opted to stop at 6110m rather than climb into the fierce wind and go all the way to the summit. I felt well enough at 6k, but would have preferred calmer weather. Back at 5400m some green tea, sausage, and cheddar cheese served as my recovery meal. I had a headache in the evening, which was resolved with an ibuprofen.
7.10
8:40 am depart 5400m camp.
11:55 am arrive Ak Sai 4400m camp. Time of 3:15.
2:05 pm depart 4400m camp.
4:45 pm arrive 3600m BC. Time of 2:40.
I woke up feeling quite well, and prepared a breakfast of whey protein hot chocolate, sausage, and mixed nuts. As I’ve undertaken more expeditions, I’ve come to rely less and less upon cooked food while at high camps. Cheese and sausage are reliably easy to eat, although not available in every country. Mixed nuts also offer remarkably high calorie/weight value, and are usually palatable when sick from altitude. Freeze dried food is majorly hit or miss for me, and can feel utterly inedible. It’s also expensive, heavy to deal with if uneaten once prepared, and time consuming to cook.
Our descent from 5400m camp was much slower than I had managed in 2017; three on the rope and one section made more comfortable with a rappel slowed us down. Ak Sai’s camp is also almost an hour past Central Asia’s on the moraine, and the final stretch of chossy rock is quite annoying in late morning heat.
I met the living legend Carlos Soria in 4400m camp; he had apparently just arrived with a Spanish team. I shook his hand and wished him good luck! Lunch in 4400m camp was an otherwise very pleasant reprieve from my high-altitude food.
Hike down to 3600m BC was uneventful, but for a heavy hailstorm which lasted about 30 minutes. BC was luxurious compared to camping higher, and the hot shower was especially welcome.
7.11 – 7.13
Rest days in 3600m BC.
I spent three days resting in 3600m BC, waiting for the deep snow higher up to melt and for the weather forecast to improve.
7.14
8:55 am depart 3600m BC.
12:10 pm arrive 4400m camp. Time of 3:15.
I took my time getting ready after breakfast, until my Belgian friends began urgently calling me, telling me that the Ak Sai truck was waiting for me. I was only partially ready, and still needed to drop my luggage in storage, brush my teeth, prepare water. I tried to hurry, but still took at least ten minutes… When I got to the truck a large crowd was waiting only for me; very unexpected and embarrassing!
The truck departed at 8:55 am, and drove us to the cliffs where the hike begins to steepen. I hadn’t taken the truck the last hike from 3600m to 4400m – indeed I had departed at 8:50 am and arrived at the cliffs *before* the truck! I paced only 15m faster with the ride. Despite a similar timing to my first hike up, I felt incredibly fresh and energized this second time. Three days of rest in BC had supported great recovery and robust acclimation.
7.15
3:25 am depart 4400m camp.
9:25 am arrive 5400m camp. Time of 6:00.
Awake early, we were treated to a cloudless sky bright with stars and a visible Milky Way. We made it to 5400m camp in approximately 6 hours from Ak Sai’s camp, or roughly 5:15 from Central Asia’s.
High wind as we entered the ‘frying pan’ was extremely cold, and balance was tricky at times. Likely sustained at around 40km/h. This tapered off as we reached camp, tired.
I found my tent in superb shape, undisturbed, perfectly anchored, and nicely set into about 10 cm of snow. It was warm and cozy inside, very well insulated from the wind.
My hard Kyrgyz cheese from Bishkek was amazing, totally fresh and unspoiled. I carried 1.5 kg of it up, and was able to eat large quantities right away. Major thanks to the Ak Sai Basecamp manager who helped me refrigerate it while I was rotating and resting in BC.
I felt myself developing symptoms of a cold: a very sore throat and runny nose. I was hopeful that it would resolve overnight, or at least not get worse.
7.16
I spent the entire day in tent, eating, reading, and resting. Wind was so severe that there was absolutely no way to move higher, and the prospect of descending also seemed risky. My cold symptoms were more or less the same; I decided to see how I felt the next day, and hopefully ascend.
7.17
10:20 a.m. depart 5400m camp.
1:40 p.m. arrive 4400m camp. Time of 3:20.
My sore throat had developed into a full-on head cold. I decided to descend, rather than risk the throat infection getting into my lungs. I’d been similarly sick several times prior at altitude, and knew that a lung infection could set me back multiple days.
Weather was also absolutely awful, with high wind and yet more heavy snowfall scheduled.
We departed 5400m camp at a late 10:20 am, slow getting ready and digging up the tent while not feeling well. Arrived at 4400m camp at 1:40pm, a time of 3:20.
Depart 4400m at 3:20, arrive 3600m 6:40. Many, many breaks on the way down, moving at a leisurely and relaxed pace.
7.18
5:20 pm depart 3600m BC and return to Osh.
7.19
Day spent in 850m Osh.
7.20
Flight to 650m Bishkek.
Images
Thoughts on Pik Lenin
This was my third time climbing on Pik Lenin, and the earliest in the season I’d ever been on the mountain. My main goal for the 2024 summer season was 7010m Khan Tengri, and my time on Pik Lenin was predominantly intended as acclimatization. That said, I did want to summit Pik Lenin a second time, tried my best to do so, and was shut down completely by weather conditions.
As acclimatization, my time on Pik Lenin served me very well, and I was able to make a rapid ascent of Khan Tengri – standing on the summit just over a week after departing the Pik Lenin basecamp. I feel that extensive rest intervals at 4400m camp, plus a three day stint in 3600m camp, produced a thorough ‘foundation’ of very good acclimatization. The quality of the facilities also likely helped, especially the hot showers in 3600m camp, and the abundant all-you-can-eat food provided in both 3600m and 4400m camps.
I would definitely return to Pik Lenin for another acclimation round in the future. If seriously keen to summit I’d definitely avoid starting any earlier than the last week of July. Weather was truly awful throughout my time on the mountain in 2024, characterized by high winds and enormous snow dumps. If I hadn’t summited Lenin previously, I would have been enormously disappointed and discouraged by the experience; conditions were simply not conducive to summiting.
No 7000m mountain is ‘easy’, and in poor conditions even the most moderate 7000er can become all but impossible.
The Cloud Ocean 