The Tsagan-Shibetu range is located in the western part of Tuva, the small Russian republic bordering Mongolia, west of Lake Baikal. The climate of Tuva is equivalent to the far north of Sibera, with treeline at 1,900–2,000m.

Mountaineers started developing the region in 1978, and since the early 1990s Krasnoyarsk Mountaineering Federation mountaineering competitions (alpiniads) have been held here in late April. Climbs in the region are considered to be winter ascents if they are done before May 15. The highest point is Mt. Munkhulik (3,577m), and at first climbers focused here but gradually moved east. Eventually they saw a mountain to the east that had a big, steep wall that was much more difficult than all other climbing routes of the region. This mountain was called Vostochny (“East”) Peak (3,361m).

One gets here by traveling from Krasnoyarsk to Abakan by plane, train, or bus, then by car through Abaza and Ak-Dovurak to the village of Shui, then on a dirt road along the Barlyk River, then along its Malyy Ak-Kem tributary as far as the car can travel. The distance from Abakan is about 600km. To reach Vostochny Peak, one heads southwest, traveling up the river ice to the edge of the forest. From there, one goes along a plateau to the south for about four hours to reach an assault camp (2,600m) under the north face.

Mountaineers first attempted to climb the north wall in 1989, but the climbing was too difficult and the weather too bad. The next attempt occurred 10 years later, in the beginning of May 1998. A Krasnoyarsk team led by Valery Balezin made the first ascent of a pillar on the left side of the north wall (given 6A but later "stripped" to 5B). This route was champion of the CIS in the rock climbing class that year. Today Vostochny Peak boasts nine graded routes ranging from 1B to 6A. During this season four more lines appeared on the wall.

On May 1, Stanislav Katanaev and I climbed the 1999 Balezin Route (6A), which runs up the left side of a pillar leading directly to the summit. During this climb, we studied a line to the right, climbing more directly through the lower wall. The wall looked very monolithic, but we managed to detect fine cracks through binoculars. Since we’d completed the Balezin route in under 11 hours, without fixing rope, we planned to climb our new route in the same style: without fixing, in a single push, with minimal equipment and climbing mostly simultaneously.

We woke at 3 a.m. on May 3 and started climbing at 4:30. To save time I led the whole route. There were two cruxes. The first, on the ninth pitch, should be climbed early in the morning in winter, because the overhanging crack is filled with rocks and frozen dirt. When the sun comes out at lunchtime the protection points become very unreliable. (I think in the future bolts will be placed here, though the crux can be climbed without them.) The second crux is on the upper pillar: a series of thin, flaring cracks that required tension traverses to switch cracks. The protection points are very unreliable.

We summited Vostochny at 5:35 p.m., climbing the entire route in a little under 13 hours. The route was 580m and graded 6A, but was much more difficult than the neighboring 6A route first ascended by Balezin. [During the 2014 season, two other routes, both graded 5B, were completed on either side of the 1999 Balezin Route and the new Katanaev-Zhigalov Route.]

On May 6, Timofei Ivanov and I climbed a new route on the rib to the left of Balezin’s 1998 pillar route (the first route on the wall). We started at 8:15 a.m., following steep snow to the crux rock buttress below a big ledge halfway up, and summited at 4:50 p.m. The route was 630m (20 pitches) and graded 5B.

Alexander Zhigalov, Russia, translated by Ekaterina Vorotnikova