In October, Galina Chibitok and Anastasia Petrova (Russia), and Marina Kopteva (Ukraine), climbed the 1,900m northeast face via a line they named the Battle for Love (VI 6b A2). The three started work on the route on September 23 and climbed for 18 days in capsule style, making nine camps, nearly all in a portaledge. The lower section of the face was characterized by moss-covered cracks and slabs, and the upper by ice-covered rock, which made protection and belays difficult to arrange.

At Camp 9, more or less out of food, they received a forecast for a three-day weather window, and so decided to climb nonstop to the summit. In a 52-hour return trip from their portaledge they climbed 770m, reaching the top at 1:20 a.m. on October 9. By noon the following day they had descended to base camp. The three women climbed a total of 3,100m, placed 35 bolts, and endured snowfall on nearly all days.

At the time the women were not aware that this face had previously been climbed. In 2008, Japanese Hiroyoshi Manome and Yasushi Okada climbed in alpine style from November 12–15 to complete Moonlight (ED). The lower and middle sections of the Japanese and Russian-Ukrainian routes are more or less the same, but in the upper section the Japanese kept left, climbing steep snow and ice to the east ridge. The three women worked up rock to the right, eventually finishing up the final section of the northeast pillar.

Lindsay Griffin, Mountain INFO, from information provided by Anna Piunova, mountain.ru