Kabru 2004

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The Story

The way is a circle. And the man is a little dot in the center of the circle.

Behind the members of the EXTREME SUMMIT TEAM, there stand numerous summits that they have conquered. But, this one is special! There stands the "Roof of the World". But, this one is different! This one is higher! The success in this endeavor, that our foot be the first to stand on it, gives us the right to name it, once and for all. And we have chosen its name - the SERBIAN WAY.

What is the SERBIAN WAY?

The way up? The way into tomorrow? The way to self-knowledge? The way to achievement? We do not know. We are looking for it. But, we have drawn the line to Kabru and we will follow it to the very top.

Serbia is just a small grain on this planet. Drawing a line at the Himalayas, we want to strengthen our own root and have one of its veins stretch through the very heart of the Asian continent. That is why this expedition is dedicated to our country and our people.

Once we have conquered the summit of Kabru next spring, we will have drawn the full circle. Its contents can be filled by everyone. But it is our task only to close that circle.

"A man decides to draw the world. In the course of years, he fills the space by drawing in the regions, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, houses, instruments, stars, horses and people. Before his death, he realizes that the enduring labyrinth of lines has delineated his own image". H.L. Borges (Buenos Aires, 31.10.1960). We have chosen our target. The Mission has started. Follow us...

The Plan

The Extreme Summit Team is the sports club which gathers all of the best local alpinists and other extreme sportsmen. Behind us there are a lot of scaled peaks of the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas and Caucasus, from Mount Blanc to Mount Everest (8850), the highest peak in the world. The members of The Extreme Summit Team plan on scaling Kabru, the peak of the Himalayas, in 2004. It is one of the highest unscaled peaks [?] in the world . This expedition is one of the most significant enterprises in the world in 2004. For domestic public, this is the enterprise which will definitely mark this year. The expedition will be realized in the pre-monsoon season, April-May 2004. Kabru is the highest unclimbed peak on the list of NMA (Nepal Mountaineering Association), and it is situated in East Nepal, on the very border with India. One of the highest peaks of the world, Kangchenjunga (8586m) is located some 10 km north of Kabru. The base camp will be located on the moraines of Yalung Glacier, at approximately 4750 m. Since this is going to be the first attempt to climb this peak [by their route], it is logical that direction “via normale” should be looked for, but we are going to follow “west face” direction, which is actually the primary direction. The expedition is going to start on April 1, 2004 and the return to Serbia and Montenegro is planned for May 15, 2004.

Update 4/25/2004: Kabru final climb begins

On the morning of 22 April, Dragan Jacimovic and Milos Ivackovic entered a cracked wall bisected by an icy waterfall, marking the beginning of the final climb on Mt Kabru IV, east Nepal, by the Serbian Way 2004 expedition. The team had marked this first part of the climb as probably the hardest and the most dangerous, and their foray yesterday proved them right. The often treacherous Himalayan spring weather is in full force in the Kangchenjunga region too, making uncharted territory even harder.

"Our starting point, chosen because it appeared to be the safest, was a sheet of ice mostly covered by water. But when we got there I could see up the waterfall, and ... it was falling from the sky! I saw these sheets of water come crashing down about 300 m. It was absolutely clear that we could not continue up this. So we crossed 200 m to the right of the waterfall, and entered the wall from there. That route again involved a lot of snow and water. In 10 minutes we were drenched and things didn't really improve over the next nine hours, until we returned to the Yalung glacier," said Dragan Jacimovic, the leader of the expedition, tired but satisfied. Jacimovic, who summited Everest in 2000, is the first and so far the only Serb to have done so.

Milos Ivackovic, 25, a Himalayan newbie, entered the wall first. "I read about Himalayan climbing in newspapers and magazines, I devour everything on the Internet. I had (ITALICS) expected something difficult. But I just climbed the most unsecured wall I've ever been on! I had to climb agonizingly slowly. The wall would just melt into this sludge of sand and mud wherever I found a foothold. And just as unexpectedly it would be totally dry, i.e., slippery, again. Probably one in four stones I touched, no more, was stable enough to support me. As I was in the lead, I had to be extremely cautious, to not dislodge stones that could hit and possibly injure Dragan," he explained. The weather isn't helping conditions on this porous wall -- there has been a good deal of new snow almost everyday this past week, sometimes as much as 30 cm in a matter of hours.

The Serbian Way team plans to scale the west face of Mt Kabru IV, 7,318 m. The course is about 2,800 m high, 400 m higher than the south-west face of Everest. The team plans to set up C1 at about 5,200 m, where Jacimovic and Ivackovic placed the fixes yesterday. "As we know now, up to here is the most dangerous part. But we anticipate setting up Camp 1 in the next two days, and then going all the way," says Jacimovic. 

ANAGHA NEELAKANTAN/ KATHMANDU for SERBIAN WAY 2004

/ Altitech2: Digital Altimeter, Barometer, Compass and Thermometer. Time/Date/Alarms. Chronograph with 24 hour working range. Timer with stop, repeat and up function. Rotating Bezel. Leveling bubble. Carabiner latch. E.L. 3 second backlight. Water resistant. 4" x 2-1/4" x 3/4" 2 oz. Requires 1 CR2032 battery. See more here.

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