Acclimatization Rotation Done

The Madison Mountaineering Peak Lenin expedition team wrapped up their acclimatization rotation yesterday after spending three nights in Camp 2. In that time, the team climbed to over 6,000 meters on two separate occasions, building the acclimatization needed to go for the summit which stands at 7134m / 23,406ft. The team enjoyed good weather and climbing conditions throughout, and is excited to be back in Camp 1 where they can rest, recover, and get ready for their summit push! More to come from the Pamirs. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester checks in with this dispatch from Peak Lenin:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Peak Lenin (7134m/23,406ft) expedition. Today is July 12th.

Today, we wrapped up our acclimatization rotation. We descended back to Advanced Base Camp at Camp 1 (4400m/14,435ft). For the rotation, we spent three nights at Camp 2 (5300m/17,388ft) at about 5,400 meters. And twice we climbed to 6,000 meters and above. Yesterday, the team summited Razdelnaya Peak (6148m/20,170ft), which has an altitude of 6,150 meters. That name, Razdelnaya, means divided. The Tajik, Kyrg’s border runs over the top of it. And actually, that’s true of Peak Lenin as well, which is right on the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Overall, we had really nice weather for our rotation. Sunny skies and beautiful views for the first two days. Yesterday, a bit of snow was in the forecast, but it held off until the afternoon. And actually, the climbing conditions were really good yesterday. As we made our way up towards 6,100 meters, there was light overcast, which kept temperatures down, and made climbing really fun. No wind at all!

Today we descended back down to Camp 1. We’ll be here for at least two nights while we rest and prepare and watch the weather forecast for our summit push.

So, all is well here in Kyrgyzstan and we’ll be in touch tomorrow!

Climbing to Camp 2 (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Upper Camp 2 (photo by Terray Sylvester)

Looking down towards Camp 2 (photo by Terray Sylvester)

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

• Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

• @MadisonMtng
• @GarrettMadison1
• @terray_s