In August-September 2012, Ian Faulkner, Ian Cooper and I from the Oxford University Mountaineering Club took on the Big Walls of the Karavshin in Kyrgyzstan. After patching our way across the country, mollifying men with guns and sharing vodka with local headmen, we arrived in the heartland of Russian Big Walling. On one of our many rest days after a 10 day ascent of Pik 4810 we spied a new line on Kotina from the Ak-Su Valley.
Over three days we fixed a few hundred meters of rope up the soaring, unclimbed north-facing arête of Kotina, taking the cleanest line through some of the wildest and steepest features on the mountain. We tackled the rest of the line alpine-style in another three days. Fantastic three-star climbing on splitter granite cracks, corners and detached roofs led us through consistently steep territory, sustained at F6b/+, to the very top of the mountain without a single pitch of easy ground. The rock was solid and clean all of the way and we free-climbed every pitch. There were two large ledges on the route which split the cliff into three roughly equal lengths. These made ideal bivvy spots.
Within minuted of getting to the top of our 26-pitch, 1050m new line at F7a a snowstorm broke out, we quickly started the grim abseils. These begin a few meters to the right of the end of the route and are a mixture of threads and expansion bolts. We bivvied again on the upper ledge under a large boulder/small cave before finishing the descent the next day. We named our route ‘Dreaming Spires’ after its terminal feature, a hugely exposed pillar of golden granite with a knife-edge ridge connecting it to the main massif.
Our trip would never have been so successful without the help of friends old and new, and the generosity and welcome of the Kyrgyz people never ceased to amaze us. Last but not least, we give our heartfelt thanks to the Irvine Fund, without whom we could never have dreamed of such an adventure.
This trip report was published at:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5145
Also check out the pirated Russian version, for those who can read it:
Oxford Greenland Expedition 2013 