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Ukrainian
Lhotse Expedition
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Name
List
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Nationality
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| Vladimir
Pestrikov |
Ukraine
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Vadym
Leontyev
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Ukraine
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Vladislav
Terzyul
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Ukraine
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Update
5/20/2002: Dear EverestNews.com, The Ukrainians have
summited the 8516 meter high Mt. Lhotse Main on 16th
May. All members of team Vladimir Pestrikov, Vadym
Leontyev and Vladislav Terzyul reached the summit. On
Saturday, May 18, they descended in BC. More
details later. Very Best Wishes, Liudmila.
Update
5/31/2002: A 3 men lightweight Ukrainian team reached
the summit of Lhotse on May 16 following the 'classic'
route via the Khumbu Ice Fall & the West Face
route. The summiteers included Vladislav Terzyul,
49, Leontyev Vadym, 50 and Vladimir Pestrikov, 38.
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Ukrainian
Lhotse Expedition: Vladislav
Terzyul
bags his 11th 8000 meter peak including Shishapangma, Central.
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 |
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Vladislav
Terzyul
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Leontev
Vadym |
Sharing
their permit with a Japanese Cleaning Expedition
team, the Ukrainian had arrived at the base camp
on the 12 April to start their climbing.
They set up their CI (6000m) on 17 April, CII
(6400m.) on 18 April and CIII (7200m) on 24 April. After
setting up CIII all climbers retreated to
base camp and descended down to Dingboche for
a good rest to prepare for the summit bid.
On the 8th May, they started from BC to CII for
the summit push, climbed from CII to CIII on 9
May, made deposit of food and tent from CIII to
CIV on 10 May, climbed up again to CIV from CIII
to set up the camp with a tent on the 11 May and
same day descended down to Camp II for a two day
rest. On the 14th May, they climbed up to
CIII and then to CIII to CIV on the 15th May with
plan to head for the summit on the 16th May.
On
the 16th May, they set-out from their final camp
for the summit around 7 am with the weather
looking good. Taking time to watch the long
queue of Everest climbers making it to the summit
from the South Summit, they reached the summit of
Lhotse around 3 pm. Making themselves
comfortable on a narrow rock ledge just a man's
height from the corniced summit of Everest, they
watched a few of slow Everest climbers making
their way down to South -Col. The weather on the
summit was windy with thick fog moving around,
they made descent from summit around 4 pm and were
able to arrive at CIV around 6pm. Vladislav
Terzyul
Terzyul and Vladimir Pestrikov decided to
overnight at Camp IV whereas Leontyev Vadym
climbed down to CIII to spend the night.
Next day, with no Sherpa to help, they loaded up
all their equipment and clothing on their own and
climbed down it to the CII for the night and
making it safely to base camp next day.
This
was probably most the lightweight and minimum
budget expedition which set out with only 4
porters carrying the all personal clothing,
climbing equipment and high altitude food, fuel of
the expedition team from Lukla. For the base
camp meals, they shared mess with a commercial
Everest team which was arranged by their trekking
agent. Despite of the compactness of the
expedition, they managed to carry a sauna
fueled by two kerosene stoves. It was a big
hit with the climbers of opposite sex
members from other expedition team at the Everest
- Lhotse base camp. The expedition was organized
and sponsored by Ukrainian Mountaineering
Foundation and Alpine Club of Odessa.
About
the Climbers: For
Vladislav Terzyul, the success on Lhotse marks the
11th successful ascent in the list of 14 peaks
above 8000 meter including Shishapangma,
Central. Makalu, Dhaulagiri and Hidden Peak
are the 3 peaks remaining unclimbed in his list of
fourteen 8000 meter peaks. He hopes to climb
Makalu next autumn with a home team and then
attempt Dhaulagiri and Hidden Peak next year to
complete his list of all fourteen 8000 meter
peaks. Terzyul takes great pride and satisfaction
to mention that unlike many 8000 meter climbers,
all his climbs so far have been completed without
use of supplementary oxygen and support of
climbing sherpas. His first taste of an 8000 meter
success was on Kangchenjunga in 1993 with a joint
Indo-Ukraine Expedition - approaching the mountain
from the Sikkim side and followed the route
climbed by the Indian Army in 1977 along the
north-east spur / north ridge route.. In the
list of 11 successful 8000 meter climbs, he
considers his climb on the North West ridge of
Annapurna in 1996 autumn completing a very new
route with Polish climber Andrez Marciniak the
most challenging and fulfilling. Married
with two children Vladislav Terzyul live in the
Ukrainian city of Yunzy. He is today the most
famous living climber in Eastern Europe and much
ahead of other Eastern European climber in the
8000 meter summit bagging race. On his
recent climb on Lhotse, he was well amused and
equally concerned about the extensive
use of fixed line on the mountain by commercial
expedition guides. He comments with the
commercialization of the 8000 meter peaks, the
challenge of climbing an 8000 meter peak is turned
in to " everyone waiting for his/her turn on
the fix rope to the summit". He also
found it interesting to encounter with some of the
Everest climbers using oxygen right from Camp II
in their quest to reach the summit. Even
though he found fixed ropes put by other
expedition teams within 200 meter of the of the
summit, he thinks the normal route on Lhotse
technically not difficult and climbable without
fixed ropes.
At
50 years of age Leontev Vadym is pursuing his
dream to climb all fourteen 8000 meter peaks and
hopes to become the oldest person ever to complete
the list. He has already reached the summit
of four 8000ers: Cho-Oyu, Shishapangma, Manaslu
and Lhotse, and has climbed to the last camp of
Mt. Everest and Annapurna. All of Vadym's
climbs in the Himalaya has been without bottled
oxygen and support of climbing Sherpas.
For
Vladimir Pestriokov, 38, summit of Lhotse marks
his first 8000 meter success.
Both
Vadym and Pestriokov hope to return to Makalu with
Vladislav Terzyul in coming autumn season.
(Above
report based on an interview with on 23 May 2002)
AKS
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