Karavshin. Where Dreams Come True

Mountains have a pull of their own. At first, you only hear about them. Then—you start dreaming. And suddenly, you’re standing at the base of Asan, loaded with gear, a backpack heavier than your own doubts.

Inna Kravchenko and Tatyana Shchekinova spent three weeks in Karavshin. Not just “spent”—they climbed, got exhausted, climbed again, and got exhausted once more. All of it real.

Karavshin. Where Dreams Come True. “Steel Angel”: women’s climbing award

The journey began long before the first pitch: Moscow, Osh, watermelons, strawberries, jeeps, horses, a hike — and finally, Karasu. Base camp. A walk into the 4810 cirque for acclimatization. After that — technical work. Or maybe not?

The first on their list was the Yellow Wall — Diagonal route. A long day, the summit, a descent in the dark. Next — the Gorbienko 5B route on Asan. They chose it deliberately: a route that could be climbed free. Tatyana led the lower key section up to R9, Inna followed with the haul bag, then they switched. The weather was moody: rain tried three times to drive them off the wall — but failed. A night on a ledge — well deserved. Dinner, water, jokes, and stars. They reached the summit the next day at 14:10. Seventeen rappels ahead, and by 21:00, they were back on solid ground.

Their next adventure — the Pogorelov 6A route. Again, two days on the wall, another bivouac, reaching the summit at 16:40, followed by rappels by moonlight. The last descent at 22:00, and by 1:40 AM back at base camp. “Completely wiped out, ” as the girls honestly wrote. But this is exactly what life in the mountains is about: hard, exhausting — but somehow recharging you from within.

And, as Tatyana said, “the morning is wiser than the evening.” Because in the morning you wake up and realize — you did it. And you want more.

It’s worth noting that the Rostov all-female team completed the route in a record time for women’s teams. The Pogorelova route on Asan has been climbed by all-female teams three times, and each ascent has been faster than the last.

In 2011, the female pair Marina Nechaeva and Natalia Prilepskaya became Steel Angel award winners after completing the route with aid in four days (44 climbing hours).

In 2014, the Krasnoyarsk all-female team—Ekaterina Matyushevskaya, Marina Popova, and Alexandra Mentovskaya—finished the route in 2.5 days.

In 2025, Inna Kravchenko and Tatyana Shchekinova climbed the Pogorelova route in just two days.

Tatyana Shchekinova:

The 6A Pogorelova route on Asan already sounds serious. And we didn’t doubt for a second that it wouldn’t be easy. We tried to lighten our load as much as possible — but then we got news that the water source had dried up. That meant adding 8 more kilos of water to our gear, which had to be carried from the base camp. Inna carried the hardware, rope, and six liters of water. I carried the rest. We started after the heat of the day, at 16:03.

An hour and a half later, we caught up with the guys from Krasnoyarsk heading for the Timofeev route. With them, the approach felt a lot more fun.We reached the ledge planned for our bivouac. The guys had a tent, technically for two people, but… we just said, “Well, then we’ll spend the night with you.” And the gentlemen didn’t refuse. It was hot, sleep was restless.

We woke up at 4:00, had breakfast, packed the camp. At 6:06, we started under the route. Inna led. I jumared with the backpack and almost fell off the first rope in an overhang. But I quickly realized I needed to adjust my system, and things went much smoother.

By 11:00, Inna reached “Ogurets” — the first possible bivouac. We planned to reach the “Balcony” — the second bivouac. We got there before noon and decided to keep going. Then came the crux section: six pitches of technical climbing. The weather began to turn, wind picked up, and a black cloud approached. But it held. Cold, yes, but dry. We moved carefully, steadily. When there were only 20–30 meters left to the “Balcony, ” twilight had set in. Inna worked on the AID in the dark. I followed, nearly falling asleep on the belay station.

At 23:00, Inna finally reached the “Balcony.” Hooray. We pitched the tent, had a quick dinner, and at 00:30, went to sleep.

Up at 4:00. Probably the hardest morning of the whole climb. Not even my favorite buckwheat porridge wanted to go down. But delaying wasn’t an option: the weather was forecasted to worsen, and ahead lay the ridge, an exposed section with no shelter. Next section: 4,5 pitches to reach the ridge. I climbed first. On the first pitch, I got into the zone: focused, alert. The climbing was interesting—especially a memorable chimney.

At 11:00, I reached the ridge, Inna followed. About 500 meters of easier ridge climbing (III–V grade) remained. The problem was different: protection points weren’t always available, and our climbing shoes had started to rub. But we endured.

At 16:40 — Asan’s summit. We did it! Five minutes later, the guys who had climbed the Timofeev route joined us for the rappels. The tactic was clear: I go first, Inna follows, brings the rope, the guys pull. Everything worked perfectly.

By 22:00 we finished the descent, had tea, ate the last of our food, and at 23:20, started descending to camp. Two hours later—we were back at base.

The result: Pogorelova 6A climbed by an all-female rope team of two, in two days. For us — it was pure joy.

Inna Kravchenko:

The conscious idea that I needed to visit Karavshin came a couple of years ago. It seemed something unreachable, extremely difficult… But saying it out loud, little by little, step by step, I began moving toward making it happen. Starting with difficult routes alongside more experienced climbers, then climbing with an all-female teams, in small groups… And by the end of last year, Tatyana and I had decided we were ready and really wanted to see this place. The more concrete preparation began.

We knew climbing as a pair would be tough. We tried to find additional partners, but couldn’t. So we decided to go as a duo, simply choosing routes suitable for our strengths.

The plan: a short acclimatization, then an easy one-day route, then a slightly harder warm-up, and the main objective — a route challenging but doable for a duo.

Route selection followed “the classic way, ” as we called it: first, Diagonal route 4B on the Yellow Wall; then Gorbienko route 5B on Asan; and finally Pogorelova route 6A on Asan.

We used Diagonal to get used to the terrain. Next, the Gorbienko route. Here we practiced simultaneous climbing Krasnoyarsk-style, honing coordination, with slightly harder ropes. Tatyana led the route first, climbing halfway; I followed with the bag, reached the planned bivouac, and we spent the night. The next day, I led, climbed to the roof, and together we reached the summit. Then 16 rappels back to base camp.

Finally, the main goal: Pogorelova on Asan, 6A, in a female rope team of two.

July 24 — 4:00 wake-up, 5:00 set off. At 5:03, at the start of the route got the ropes ready and started the approach to the ‘Ogurets’ at 5:30. Dawn. Climbing under Ogurets wasn’t hard; I met Tatyana, and at 6:05 we started the route.

By 11:10, I was at Ogurets. The climbing there was tricky — 3,5 ropes according to the guide. Sometimes I tried free climbing instead of using the AID, getting out of line and returning to cracks, placing intermediate anchors. Occasionally I missed stations for Tatyana and had to wait. Ogurets felt long. After that, more rope climbing, then transitions to AID. At the end of the second pitch after Ogurets: a pendulum and a bolted pitch. The bolts were old, some with worn middles—pretty scary. But the wall was bare otherwise. I loaded those old bolts — they held! Scary.

Pitch 4 and 5 after Ogurets: one crack, starting easy, blue and black totems helped a lot—without them, it would have been tough. Local iron appeared occasionally. Then a crack with anchors + pitons; no local iron left. Crack widening, anchors with bends helped. These ropes seemed even easier than Ogurets. Step by step, ladder to ladder… and there’s more climbing ahead.

By 21:00, I reached the start of the last rope to the balcony. Not easy: mixed climbing and AID, then a pendulum across the ledge, crack under two cams + overhang. Made a belay, rope was awkward, and Tatyana was approaching. Started AID on the cornice, building a “railroad.” A snail’s pace, but reliable.

By 23:00, I reached the balcony ledge. Tatyana jumared up, we set up camp, ate, drank, and at 00:30 went to sleep. Exhausted. Sleep was short; Tatyana also didn’t rest long.

July 25. 4:15 — wake-up. We were moving very slowly, fatigue hadn’t gone anywhere. Breakfast was buckwheat, then back to climbing. At 6:00 we started — Tanya led. Inside, angles, chimneys, slabs, fragile ledges…

By 11:00 we reached the roof. The terrain became easier, but we still weren’t in the mood — it was hard mentally. We continued with simultaneous climbing, Red-Yak style. Tanya climbed faster than I jumared, so she always waited for me. Passing gear on such terrain was tricky — hauling 30 meters across ledges was sometimes a real pain, gear got stuck, and I had to pull it back.

The last 70 meters we climbed simultaneously, setting intermediate belays along the pitch. At first it felt very difficult, but in the end it worked out well.

By 16:40 we reached the summit. Hooray! We took some photos, and at 17:45 we started rappelling. After a short rest at the bottom, we returned to the base camp.

After that, the groups started to leave the camp. We had maybe one more day there, but decided to head home too. Happy with the trip, proud of the routes we climbed and ourselves, we packed up and left, satisfied.