On August 7, Russian alpinists Alexey Suharev, Ratmir Mukhametzyanov, and Alexandr Parfenov set a new route on the fourth highest peak in the Central Tien Shan, after Pobeda, Khan Tengri, and Pshavella.
The 6,873m mountain is located in China and known, in Soviet-style nomenclature, as Military Topographers Peak. The Siberian trio targeted the southwest wall, according to Anna Piunova of mountain.ru.
They spent six days on the difficult wall: two days up, two days down, and almost two more days working on the new line.
“It was the most difficult climb of my life,” said Parfenov. The three climbers made it back to base camp at midnight on August 8-9.
The new route on the west face (southwest wall) of Military Topographers Peak. Photo: mountain.ru
Before this achievement — the first ascent from the west — there had been only four routes to the main summit of this highly technical mountain: the northwest ridge (Vodokhodov, 1965), the northeast ridge (Korenev, 2003), the south ridge (Dzhuliy, 2006), and the south face route (Golovchenko-Nilov, 2021).
The Central Tian Shan section is the highest part of the Tien Shan Mountains, which span China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Safely down and free to clown around. From left to right, Ratmir Mukhametzyanov, Alexey Suharev, and Alexandr Parfenov. Photo: Alexey Suharev
