Lenin Peak of 7.134 meters is the highest peak of Zaalay Ridge, situated between Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan,  and belongs to Pamir’s mountains.

This is one of the five peaks of 7.000 meters of  former Soviet Union. There is the third highest peak with 7.134 meters. Other peaks  are Communism of 7.495 meters, Korzhenevskaya of 7.105 meters  situated in Pamir. And Pobeda of 7.439 meters and Khan Tengri of 7.010 meters are situated in Tien Shan.

The summit is covered with snow and glaciers and there are many routes to climb to the summit. There is the first mountain for tackling if you want to get the prized honorary title “Snow Leopard”

.Lenin Peak is the most accesible mountain of 7.000 meters, that should not give you any type of cheating, because the tecnical difficulty is not so big, we must not forget the great distance that separates their height camps and changing weather, also we will stay close to the place named “death zone”. It is easy to see people who belittle this mountain can have serious consequences. The normal route is not technical route, but reguires good acclimatizacion and experience in high mountain, excellent physical condition. Some people decide to get off the mountain skiing, that does not involve a lot of risk.

History:

Originally called Kaufman mount and considered for some time the biggest summit of Soviet Union, changed this name to Lenin in honor the founder of it. Communism peak of 7.498 meters is situated in Pamir,  was concluded highest after some measurements later.

Lenin Peak was discovered in 1871 by geographer and explorer A.P. Fedchenko who gave the name of Kaufman in honor of the governor of Turkestan. You can see this peak at great distances, having the form of asymmetrical pyramid dominates Alai valley. The summit is always snow and rock outcrops on the edge N. The face of it is a huge NW slope of snow framed by edges E, N and W, is the most frequented route.

The first ascent to Lenin Peak goes back to 1928 featuring by international expedition of russian, german and austrian, who reached the summit by south side On September 25. That is when the peak was renamed Lenin Peak.

In 1930 a soviet expedition led by Krilenko had to leave the summit by reason of bad weather and intense cold. Only in 1935 Loukine, Tohernauka and Abalakov got the first russian ascent.

In 1936 one hundred seventy climbers met on the slope N by foot, but nobody reached the summit. In 1937 for the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution was organized great climbs back to the three “seven thousand” of Soviet Union. On this occasion eight climbers reached the summit of Lenin Peak. This year when a small plane piloted by Lipkin equipped by great  material was crashed. The road that follows the spur caused the accident is called Lipkin way.

In 1950 for the 80-th anniversary of the birth of Lenin was organized a new expedition led by V. Ratzek and reaches the summit by Lipkin way, one of two normal routes. In 1954 was opened the second or Rasdelnaya way wich followed the ridge W. In 1950 the true summit was trampled.

In 1974 the summit ridge was unleashed by hurricane for about 7.000 meters of altitude, when the women’s team from USSR led by Elvira Shataeva and seven women attempted to get the summit. A furious wind broke all tents exhausted all forces of participants. They could save some things like any radio equipment. They gave a report at 10:00 a.m.  It was terrible weather but 15 minutes after received message the one group of climbers from base camp left to attempt to rescue. The japanese group left their place at 6.600 meters for going top edge. After two hours of efforts, playing with their life, unable to reach them and unfortunately couldn’t save them. Just could  hear the last tears and words of farewell  by radio.

One year later their bodies were taken down and buried in a place near Petrovsky Peak, where the monolith is situated and will be able to visit it.

On July 13 of 1990  great  earthquake produced a large avalanche that came from the slopes of Lenin and Razdelnaya Peaks (6.148 meters). The Camp nº2 is  situated for about 5.300 meters of altitude, called “frying pan” was completely buried.  That night a lot of groups of climbers from different countries were preparing to leave for Camp nº3 when the great avalanche of snow and ice took everything. Forty- five persons were disappeared under the white mantle. Only two persons russian and slovak were saved. Forty- three persons, twenty of them were athletes from Leningrad  died. It was terrible tragedy, although the searching for several days with help of experts and helicopters was only found the body of one woman. On September of 2008 were founded almost all missing bodies.

It is necessary to say, there is a beautiful mountain, symbolic, hard, harder than it seems, but as our friend, the climber Ramon Portilla said mentioning to the tragedy experienced by spanish group on K2, “the mountains are not good or bad, are only mountains and are there”.

Description of Camps:

. Base Camp, where we will tackle the climb to the summit, is situated in Achik Tash, at 3.600 meters in a large meadow of grass. Few years ago it rodes for three km farther, where we could say the real climbing begins, but the goodness of the land and easy access to power supply opt us for this place. There is relative proximity to the slopes of Petrovsky Peak, that can help easy acclimatization. There are all services described in the programs.

. Camp nº1, 4.200 meters, is situated on the moraines of the glacier, there are no comforts like in Base Camp but could say it is a little advanced Base Camp. Great view of the mountain gives an idea of the the effort that remains to be done. See services in the programs.

. Camp nº2, 5.300 meters, is situated on the moraine in the right area of the vision we have of this mountain. This place called “frying pan” because when the sun hits it really does and the temperature during the day can be reached over 40ºc. Therefore, it is easy to get water without having to melt snow, dangerous, the quality of water may be harmful by consuming without proper treatment.

. Camp nº3, 6.100 meters. Is situated in the foothills of Razdelnaya Peak. This camp is calmer, less  populous, and traveling from one location each year depends on snow, wind and other factor.......

. Camp nº4 is situated on the ridge at an altitude of 6.400 meters. This area is few persons used for its exposure to wind, it is very difficult to sleep there, resulting in a lack of rest, that are very important at these altitudes.

Route description:

.Route NW.

From Base Camp we have for about three km through green meadows, where it really begins the climb. That is climbing up a pretty clear path on the right foot peak that rises before our eyes. Later this stretch is done by car, saving efforts to customers for an hour.

Once one starts to climb we will rock cliffs where you can see an impressive waterfall on our right.

We will continue through the meadows, where you will find a lot of groundhogs and a terrible smell of onions until we saw the rise to our left.

The terrain becomes gritty and decayed. We got to Puteshestvennikov Step(4.200 meters). Usually you takes for one hour to  one hour and half to reach there.

We can find a yurt for replenish the force on this hill. You can see the wonderful mountain from there, the great glacier that descends from it. We began the descent to the glacier, carefull! We must not get up, half way up the slope on our right follow the path. Don’t be confused. Not so long ago descended to the glacier across the river. Now is not necessary.

We followed the rocky path a good stretch by  the same level. We will reach to crossroads, take to lead off of our right to a ridge of rock. There is the last thing we can make out.

At this point following the path, carefull! There is the glacier to our left with a big drop and is the line of peaks on our right. This is a good idea to pick up the pace on this stretch.

After the nerves, we will ascend step by step. After we will go down at a great level toward a waterfall. It is easy to find horses or mules with their kyrgyz riders willing to help us pass (for some payment). If you will not pay you know what you have to do- to rise early and so much.

We have one short way but steep slope and we takes for twenty minutes for going to Camp nº1.

From Camp nº1, we will move on the moraine, heading south. It is easy to find landmarks if the season is underway.  Once inside the glacier, be careful with the scream,  which we will be dodging until reach the part where the glacier breaks. At this point, depending on the year, we can find a fixed line or just hanging serac doing a zig-zag. We will have steep snow slopes to reach the altitude of 5.000 meters, where we will turn to our right and it is easy to spot the location of Camp nº2.  This last part has almost no gap, but after the effort we will pay derly fot this.

Once at Camp nº2 we turn to our right (W), rising by a snow shovel of gap for starting the day and becoming heated. When the crown changed the direction to the south, we will find face to face with the last 300 meters of terrible climbing to Camp nº3. The first time is it impossible to know how much time it takes for it.

From the Camp nº3 the path is clear. We have 6 km of ridge, very large. But we must put all our attention. First from this camp descend for about 100 meters upthe hill and began to climb up the western ridge, and in few hours we could stay in a snow platform (6.400meters, where we could install a Camp nº4. We continue the ascent to guide us towards  a narrow snow ridge. The ascent has one or two hours. There is the most dangerous part of the climbing up to the mountain. In one houre we will enter into a snow camp of 500 meters. We climbed the rocky and scree area  after the crossing. It will take for an hour and more to reach the desired summit, which is marked by a pyramid of stones.  It is better, if you have not reached it at 2:00 p.m., turn around, return is very hard after the efforts, especially the last hundred meters.