Region: Central Asia and The Far East

Paul Hersey & Graham Zimmerman, both from New Zealand plus Yewjin Tan from Singapore (June-August 2008)

These strong technical climbers from New Zealand planned to make the first attempt on the steep West Face of Harturtay (5127m) in the Schurovkovo Valley in SW Kyrgyzstan. However, when they saw the face for themselves, they realised that it had large sections of rotten rock bands, from which they witnessed a number of rockfalls, so they shifted their objective to the impressive North Face. On this they made the first ascent of the 1400m Central Rib over three days, recording Grade 5.10, AI4, & M4. The valley contains many opportunities for impressive first ascents, but their own efforts on these were thwarted by the onset of bad weather with heavy snowfall.

Note: Local name for Harturtay is ‘Kyzyl Muz’ and for Schurovkovo is ‘Jiptik’, and it is recommended that these names be used in future references to the area.