From September 14–16, Kirill Belotserkovskiy completed the first known traverse of the rugged crest of the Tuyuk-Su cirque, 25km southeast of Kazakhstan’s ex-capital, Almaty. As a guide in the area, Belotserkovskiy has climbed all of this group’s peaks and most of its routes, and he had previously attempted the traverse once before with a partner who was not sufficiently acclimatized for the effort.

Starting from the Tuyuk-Su base camp, Belotserkovskiy moved clockwise around the cirque. He gained the crest and headed south on day one, climbing seven peaks and using the rope only to rappel after one of the summits. Following a bivy at Manshuk Mametovoy pass, his route took him over seven peaks and several technical routes, including the north ridge of Manshuk Mametovoy (4,194m, Russian 3B), the north ridge of Mayakovskogo (4,208m, 3A), Pik Ordzhonikidze (4,410m), and Pik Partisan (4,390m). His second bivouac was at Igli Pass.

The final day started with the most technical climbing of the route, crossing the rock spires of Igli Tuyuk-Su (4A), where he hauled his pack twice. However, the non-technical terrain that followed would prove to be the most exhausting, as he continued late into the evening, climbing 10 summits over nearly 14km. He returned to Tuyuk-Su base camp 20 hours after starting the day at Igli Pass.

Belotserkovskiy carried an “anorexic” rack and free soloed most of the routes on the traverse. In all, he covered 27.3km and gained 3,742 vertical meters.

— Information from Kirill Belotserkovskiy, Kazakhstan