Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, Tadjikistan, Muzcol Area, Various Ascents

Publication Year: 1998.

Muzcol Area, Various Ascents. It was reported that the British-based company, EWP, led two trips into the Muzcol, a group of high summits in the southeastern corner of the Pamir. The first took place in 1996, when a team made ascents of five unclimbed summits. In August, 1997, a second EWP expedition of seven U.K. climbers, together with seven Russian guides, climbers and staff, visited the area, making a number of other ascents. The activities began on August 12, when, from a bivy at ca.4650 meters, Peter Bournell, Mark Dancy, Chris Mockett, Dominic and Suzanne Reid, Colin Sprang and Andrew Wielochowski climbed easy snow and ice slopes (2A) to the 5660-meter summit of Salters Peak. On August 15, Boursnell, Dancey, Wielochowski, Domenic Reid, Andrej Paschin and Sergei Semiletkin climbed Muzkolski (5895m) via the northeast ridge (3A). Meanwhile, Sasha Bolotov, Igor Gavrilov and Valera Morozov walked up the Zartoshkol Valley to the north, bivying at ca.5100 meters. From there, Gavrilov climbed North Muzkol (6129m) via the center of the southeast-facing snow slopes, which was repeated the next day by an easier line (3A) closer to the east ridge by Bolotov.

On August 18, Sprang and Paschin climbed Panorama (5929m) from the west (3A). Bolotov, Gavrilov, Semiletkin and Wielochowski climbed Fay’s Peak (6115m) via an easy glacier to the west face to the northwest ridge in four hours, giving the route a grade of 5A. On August 21, Edward Kapitsa climbed Odinakaya (5687m) via easy snow slopes on the west. (High Mountain Sports 182)