UKC

Hello does anyone have info or contacts of someone who's done either Belkin or SE Ridge in Khan Tengri? Really struggling to find information that is not in polish or russian and even when so there's not much details or contacts of the ones involved

many thanks,

Murilo

Have you seen this one?

http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12201223500/Khan-Tengri...

Thanks. Yes I did although I think the route they refer is the full traverse which would be russsian 6a. The SE traverse original route - Eastern pillar of northern ridge, V. Benkin, 1975, 5B - is apparently 5b because is shorter since starts from the mega pillar instead of further East (righter on the ridge).

A few year ago there was a Russia guy uploading extensive documents of info on the area, here on this forum. might still be able to find them! Anyway I downloaded a couple and now that I'm stuck at home with this chest infection, your post has prompted me to take another look at one. Don't think there's much more info in it than your already know, I can messenger you it if you want, its a bit of a wade! Anyway near the end there's recommendations for preparation, the starting paragraph made me chuckle!

"One of the main recommendations is to combine the team of friends, climbers you know or climbed together
before. Try to include at least one person with high-altitude climbing experience in the area. Try to avoid
unfamiliar people and, especially beware of single beautiful girls. Appearances can be deceptive and as a rule, they are not very skillful and have quite nasty character, which is usually thoroughly hidden while on the land. Who knows what follies they might reveal somewhere in the 4th camp at 6,400m. However, there might be exceptions".

"eastern pillar of northern ridge" - that sounds odd?

I thought the original route on the SE ridge did start, yes, on the eastern side, but still very much on the SE side of the mountain, nowhere near the north.

I do think there's scope for a shorter - maybe steeper but less involved/difficult - new route on the western side of the SE ridge.

Also, I think both ascents didn't follow the whole ridge all the way to the top? Certainly the second ascent linked above traversed off left. Maybe there's something horrible up there

I realised the other week that the border with China oddly changed back in around 2006, meaning the Eastern end of the South Inylchek is now China. I've read a couple of reports in the AAJ about ascents beyond this border without any recognition that this is actually now China. This includes the SE Ridge of Khan Tengri , which is technically now on Chinese soil. Hard to know how attitudes have changed with the border change, given 99% of visitors are unaffected due to them trying the normal southern route on Khan Tengri.

I thought I was the only one that thought anything of this! I noticed it several years ago - there were actually two borders, a red and a yellow line, as they have in parts of India where there is 'disputed territory', but just in the last year or two the 'inner' western line has become the sole border.

I passed this on to LindsayG a few years ago and he didn't seem to think much of it, so I just let it go. I can't believe more has not been made of it, either in mountaineering circles or in wider political circles. China did a similar thing with Kula Kangri, on the Bhutan border, in the late 90s or early 2000s, but that's a much less visited area so nobody seemed to care - except Bhutan, who lost their highest mountain.

It's bizarre that they'd change the border off the watershed of the main N-S range, just in this area, and take that odd sliver of the upper Inylcheck. It doesn't seem to make sense geographically and I don't know of a historical reason.

It's like China suddenly telling Nepal that the chain of peaks west of Everest BC - Pumori, Gyachung Kang, Cho Oyu - are now wholly within China and not half in Nepal at all.

It does, this pillar has being climbed and looks tough, russian 6a. check here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Khan_Tengri_northface.jpg

Just heard from Robert Cholewa who were attempting Belkin in 2016: "Conditions on the North Wall were very dangerous. Climate changes, global warming, are there. The serack from the northern wall threatened the first part of the Benkin route. Then a lot of snow fell down and there was a huge avalanche danger. After all, we went on the normal route through the Czapayew peak."

So might be that the pillar could be climbed up to the ridge but them one would have to come back down and avoid submitting via East ridge (5b) since the Belkin route might be quite dangerous.

Ah, OK, you're talking about the NE ridge.  I know nothing about the Benkin route.

The original line up the NE ridge was briefly the normal fixed route for a season or two about ten years ago. Can't remember the reason, but I do remember the final section to the summit turned a few people back, so the 'race' participants (Chad Kellog etc) stopped short.

There's a good view of the NE side in one of the Bayancol pics at: http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201214929/Bayancol-So...

I don't see the attraction in the north side at all, given that the south side is one of the most impressive mountain faces on earth!

Apparently it is all about securing the rights to water from glaciers...

Wow. But yes, that makes sense.