The climbers who conquered two of the most beautiful seven-thousanders of the Himalayas at once - Pumori and Ama-Dablam as part of the Ukrainian-Russian team, spoke about the mystical moments of their journey
“For example, on Pumori (7,121 m), the guys climbed the route of the highest category of difficulty, for the first time for a domestic club team since the independence of Ukraine,” said the head of the expedition, an international master, President of the Donetsk Regional Mountaineering Federation Sergey Kovalev. - In the Himalayas, monsoons come in the summer: below - continuous rains, and above - snowfall, so the mountains become avalanche-prone. We had to change the climbing tactics, and the fact that we are all alive proves that it was correct. Especially considering that this year someone died in every Russian-speaking team …
Did you try to look for the mythical lost Shambhala? Or do you believe that this is just the highest form of consciousness existence?
- I do not believe in either that she is lost, or in this formulation, - Sergey amused. - Shambhala is everywhere. She is within us. Therefore, to say that she is in the Himalayas is at least strange. Rather, on the contrary, these mountains are the right place to find it in yourself. Actually, you shouldn't get attached to geography. Shambhala is a path somewhere, the evolution of humanity. And since this concept came to us from antiquity, it was overgrown with all sorts of speculation and myths, which, in my opinion, have nothing to do with reality. Hence all the fables about the Atlanteans, lakes with living and dead water. We swam in Manasarovar, a "live" lake, but we didn't notice any special effect!
Riot of the sky over Kailash
Pumori and Ama-Dablam do not abound with sacred places, like neighboring Kailash - a mountain of almost perfect shape. And its name is translated as "crystal". According to Buddhist ideas, the whole world is gathered around her, so she is the real navel of the earth. Pilgrims from everywhere come to this six-thousander for the bark - a ritual walk, 53 km long. The higher you go, the more irritation and fatigue accumulate, and by the Dharma-La pass the sensations reach their climax. All this symbolizes the senseless burden of base passions that we drag with us through life. And when you manage to realize this, then all the "garbage" will remain behind the pass, and you, renewed and inspired, go down. A person who made 108 such rounds is considered holy enough for the inner bark around the main shrine of Tibet - the golden pagodas.
- After the first bark, we decided - why there, let's go to the pagodas, take a walk, we will cope in two hours, - Sergey Kovalev recalls. - As soon as we left, a huge cloud began to gather in the cloudless sky over Kailash. This front began to move in our direction, with gusts of wind, snow and rain in our faces … But as soon as we abandoned our plans, the weather, as if by magic, improved. The most interesting thing is that there was not a cloud in the sky a week before!
Saved a pillar of light
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The Himalayas sometimes bring surprises beyond the control of the human mind.
- Mountains are at the junction of the meeting energies - the Earth and the Cosmos. Therefore, you can see anything there, - says Sergey. - Here UFOs are almost a constant phenomenon! No flying saucers: as a rule, these are luminous objects that hover above the ground, arbitrarily changing the speed and direction of movement, which in itself is unthinkable for man-made objects. And you can't blame everything on hallucination, because several people simultaneously observed it …
The most extravagant of the visions saved him with a friend during the descent from Annapurna - a severe Himalayan eight-thousander.
- We walked in complete darkness, through an icefall, - Sergey recalls, - dangerous by migrating cracks. And when it seemed to us that we were completely lost, a column of light penetrated the thickness of the ice! It was he who showed us the way.
At high altitude in a thin atmosphere, consciousness begins to change, presenting bizarre or even painful surprises. Only healthy pragmatism can save you. Dreamers and mystics cannot survive here.
“You get used to constantly seeing yourself from the outside, because, in fact, mountaineering is a dynamic meditation,” Sergey Kovalev shared. - It's quite inconvenient, especially when you have a kettle of boiling water in your hands, it is difficult to concentrate. Sometimes, you stop, and a picture rolls over you: a Central Asian bazaar somewhere in Dushanbe, watermelons, melons, “babai” in striped dressing gowns, and everything with flowers, smells, noise … This wave is so real that you understand: not only you see, but you yourself become visible to them. The only question is which of the realities to stay in! Sometimes, with a sharp movement of the head, the world breaks up into pieces, like a chain of freeze frames, leaving behind a bluish-gray space. And behind him - emptiness …
Safari for a three-eyed kitten
Climbing Pumori and Ama Dablam turned out to be difficult both physically and morally, even for experienced climbers.
Oleg had a nightmare all night - a mutant cat with three-eyed kittens loomed outside the window. The hunting rifle didn’t want to shoot at the evil spirits … Oleg still didn’t “wet” the animal with an ice pick, so as not to disturb the neighbors, but in the morning he asked to go upstairs without a queue in the hope that the devilry would lag behind.
The three for him is a significant number: - On the eight-thousander Shisha Pangma (Himalayas, 2007), bad weather delayed us half a kilometer from the top. For two days in the tent I was tormented by wild migraines and insomnia. Sometimes I forgot and saw myself … with three heads, all of them just splitting from pain. And there was only one pill! And all night long I could not decide which of them would get it …
Multiple champion of Ukraine, mountaineering instructor Igor Storozhenko, Makeevka
- We strained the tight deadlines, it was very difficult, because for the first time we "swung" to two peaks at once in one expedition, - Igor Borisovich noted. “Therefore, the homesickness was felt more acutely than usual. The mystics did not notice, but there were happy accidents! Take, for example, the case of the Russian Dima Mikhailov's glove. She fell out on the rise, there was no time to go down for her. The next day, I see a crow fight in the air, and 10 meters away from me the loss falls!
Miner, drifter of the Belozerskaya mine (Dobropolye) Vitaly Kutny
- It was especially difficult on Pumori, - the miner recalls, - the breathing apparatus turned out to be rather weak. 20 years of underground work is no joke … Until we returned to base camp, we could not sleep at all. Now I plan to rest, and go to the gym, run, prepare for the next expedition. For her sake, I had to give up the post of foreman of the tunneling brigade: I realized that I could not pull it.
Ivan Moldovanov, chairman of the public organization “Committee for Development, Health and Sports of Mariupol”, winner of the Ukrainian Mountaineering Championship
“I was struck by the grandiose scale of the mountains, lined up with a huge theater, the complete absence of roads and technical devices, and the Sherpas capable of manually building five-story buildings,” the senior mate admires. - During the ascents there was no fear, but we were tormented by hunger and thirst, we just dreamed of drinking mineral water. In order to somehow brighten up life, they dissolved the effervescent “Upsarin” or “Milistan” in the tasteless Himalayan water, and thus they were saved.