How to prepare an expedition to Russia

The story begins on Friday, April 20. I call the central office MakTsentr and asked to take part in an important conversation. It is necessary, it should be. At the table sit several members of our firm and two visitors. I briefly introduce the state of affairs: someone is going somewhere in the Himalayas for some climbing on the mountain with an unknown name to me. Have an idea to give the expedition satellite phone and even some device to climber could send email to Moscow. Go to imagine climber dangling from a rope over a hundred-meter precipice and joy fills the PDA: "The weather is great, I feel good, relieve ..." During the conversation, start to clear up the details of the enterprise. The ascent is planned at the peak of Meru, located on the Gangotri, in the Indian Himalayas. By Himalayan standards, the top is not the highest ("only" 6500 m), but hitherto no one has managed to climb it. The main causes of failures of previous attempts proved: a complex rock-ice route on the way to the top and the unpredictable weather in this part of the great mining district. This year, the peak of Meru are trying to win two simultaneous expeditions: American and Russian. Training of Russian and engage our guests, representatives of the general sponsor - the company "BASK", the domestic manufacturer of equipment for travelers, and a representative of the provider Inmarsat satellite terminals firm RIEM-Division ". Americans are planning to climb together, a bunch in the "Alpine style" that is light on the shortest route. Our Valery Babanov sent to storm the alone, and he intends to handle the wall for many days with all seriousness. Valeria image created is a sophisticated solo ascents. Last year, he single-handedly set out to storm the walls of the top Kangtega that in Nepal. Having the hardest part of the route on the rock wall, he managed to reach the crest Kangtegi and heavy snowfall in almost zero visibility down to the high-altitude camp. And the climb was done in violation of all agreed deadlines and when Babanov time has not arrived in Moscow, my friends have experienced quite a few unpleasant hours. The fact that in past expeditions Babanov did not take any of telecommunications. News from Moscow in such a situation reached by chance, word of mouth ...