In reply to jamesfrome:
Going to the Andes, particularly Bolivia, would be a better intermediate step, tbh, but Lenin is not the worst choice. I did it a few years ago, using Ak-Sai Travel, who were very good. I bought the package with full BC service (i.e. mostly just meals and a tent) but no guide or anything above BC.
It is one of the easiest big mountains to organise logistically and is certainly not remote - you turn off a main road and drive to BC in a van! There is television, sauna and cooks in BC and dining tent in ABC/C1. This removes a lot of the work and stress of climbing a big mountain and makes things much easier.
Like all commercialised mountains, guiding companies try to guide them too fast to fit holiday timeframes, not allowing enough time for *all* people to acclimatise properly and summit with safety. As with Aconcagua, most clients just make it, in discomfort and with no margin.
There were no fixed ropes when I did it in August 2012, though there were remnants of maybe 20m of thin cord lying in the snow at the steepest bit on summit day around 6700m(?) which was not at all necessary anyway. If you can't climb this terrain without fixed ropes you should go away and get better until you can, otherwise you're a danger to everyone around you.
Do not underestimate the avalanche danger. Though the C2 site was moved from the place where over 40 people were killed in 1990, it is still a dangerous area. We sat in C2 (a dirty, sh!++y place by August) and watched a very large avo rip down and take out the track not far below camp. An hour later about 30 people walked across there.
Everyone starts too late by normal big mountain or Alpine standards (though in that case half an hour earlier would have been fatal). It gets very hot down low, so we started at 2am and were in C2 by early morning, whereas many just followed the crowd, leaving C1/ABC around 8am and baking in the heat and slush. There were a few large crevasses around 2/3 of the way to C2 that were worth being roped up for.
It can be quite windy up high and both C3 sites are hit by wind. The first one is on a slope that did not look very convenient (and requires a short uphill trudge to get back to after summiting) so we camped in the second one, in the col around 6300m, that was quite windy, but OK. Summit day was good weather but cold, maybe -20C at least, though it warmed up later in the morning. You definitely want warm gear, including face protection, for that summit morning.
I was climbing alone above C3 but there was a group just behind me, and one French group far ahead who started around midnight. If I had not been able to see them on the summit from some way away, I would not have been sure where to head, as it's very very low angle up there and many of the little tops look the same, so be careful if you are first up and in front. Of course only one of the little tops has a bust of Lenin sitting on the rocks.
Having attempted a couple of other much (much) less popular and harder 7000ers, and an 8000er, and I can say that Lenin is far easier and more doable than most 7000ers. Just watch those avalanches.
Post edited at 00:18
