Pik Korzhenevskoy and Pik Kommunizma. From Moscow, Tom Dyer, Ed Hirschowitz, Matt Koehler, Dave Rhude, Peter Stock and I on July 12 endured a four-hour flight and an eight-hour bus ride to the Achik Tash Base Camp. We left Achik Tash on July 14 by helicopter for the Moskvin Base Camp. Before leaving, we learned of the sérac fall on Pik Lenina which killed 40 climbers. On July 19, we started up Pik Korzhnevskoy (7105 meters, 23,3110 feet), establishing camps at 4700, 6100 and 6300 meters. Unfortunately Hirschowitz was striken with cerebral edema at Camp III on July 23 and descended with Koehler and Stock to Camp I. On July 24, Dyer, Rhude and I left Camp IV for the summit at ten A.M. via the south ridge (Tsetlin’s route). We summited around three o’clock. We descended to Camp I on the 25th and met Stock and Koehler on the way up. Shortly thereafter, Koehler lost peripheral vision and developed double vision, forcing him to turn back. Stock then teamed up with a Frenchman and summited on July 27. On July 28, I left with three Swedes, Jerker Fredholm, Lars Cronlund and Rickard Strand, for Pik Kommunizma (7483 meters, 24,550 feet). Following Borodkin’s route from the northeast, we established camps at 5800, 6600 and 6900 meters, the last on the summit of Dushanbe on July 31 on July 31. On August 1, Fredholm, Cronlund, Strand and I summited on Pik Kommunizma in shirt-sleeve weather and descended to the Pamir Ice Plateau at 6100 meters and the following day to the Moskvin Base Camp.

Larry G. Hall