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Peak Lenin in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan, a former state of Russia, is situated northwest of Tibet (China) and north of Tadzjikistan. Going south you'll find Afghanistan (+/- 200km), Pakistan (+/- 250km) and India (+/- 300km). Peak Lenin lies exactly on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tadzjikistan, in the Pamir-mountainrange (39.31°NB, 73.01°OL).

 

map of Kyrgyzstan

map of Kyrgyzstan (click to enlarge)

 

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'Easy' 7.000m mountain...

summit of Peak Lenin (7.134m) photo credit: Hartmut Bielefeldt Peak Lenin (7.134 meter) is perfectly reachable. A truck will bring you all the way to basecamp at 3.600 meter. The normal route is not very difficult. Therefore the mountain is often climbed. A perfect mountain to get to know the world-of-the-great-heights!

 

Unfortunately there's a lot of advertisement about Peak Lenin being an 'easy' 7.000 meter mountain. Nonsense! Although there are no huge difficulties on the normal route, no expedition to a 7.000 meter mountain can be seen as easy. The smallest error can and probably will have desastrous consequences.

 

End of August, early September there are less climbers on the mountain than in July. This will give us a bit more space. Also - less nice - it's colder this time of year.

 

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First 7.000+ for Ice-X!

This expedition gives us a chance to reach 7.000 meter for the first time. So far Ramon reached 5.642 meter on Elbrus in 2000. Boris already climbed to 6.962 meter on Aconcagua in March 2002, just 172 less than Peak Lenin. The summit of Peak Lenin will be a huge step forward for Ramon. For Boris it's more about crossing the magical 7.000-meter limit.

 

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The mountain in facts

Other names/spellings

Peak Lenin - Pik Lenina
 

Elevation

23,406 (feet) - 7,134 (meters)
 

Location

Pamirs - Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan
 

Latitude

39° 20' N

Longitude

72° 55' E
 

Best climbing months

June, July, August
 

Year first climbed

1928

First climber(s)

Karl Wien, Eugene Allwein,
Erwin Schneider (German team)
 

Convenient center(s)

Osh, Kyrgyzstan
Dzhirgatal, Tajikistan

Nearest major airport

Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
 

Desaster

Peak Lenin has a recent history of disasters, as in 1974 all eight members of a team of female climbers were killed in a storm high on the mountain; and in 1990 an earthquake-triggered avalanche killed forty-three climbers.

 

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