On August 15, a team of Lithuanian mountaineers returned home from the Ak Shyyrak mountain range in Kyrgyzstan where they were the first to climb several peaks. They gave Lithuanian names to five peaks, calling one of them the Baltic Way.
The team led by Laurynas Marcinkus consisted of Vaidas Jazdauskas, Girvydas Kulakauskas, Simonas Krencius, and Dominykas Mazur. They represented the Vilnius Tech Tourist Club, Vilnius University Hiking Club, and KTU Hiking Club “Ąžuolas”. In three weeks, they climbed 9 passes and 6 peaks. Some of them were reached for the first time, so they could be named by the mountaineers themselves, according to the established tradition.
From now on, the Kyrgyz mountains will bear Lithuanian names of Hiperbolė, Vilnius Tech, Baltasis Tiltas (White Bridge), Žemyna, and Aušra passes, as well as Ąžuolas, Gabija, Perkūnas, Vilnius 700, and Baltijos Kelias (Baltic Way) peaks. They also called one pass Snake Island after an island where the Ukrainian border guard told the Russian warship to go “go f… yourself”.
The Baltic Way peak is in the centre of the Ak Shyyrak range. According to the climbers, it looks like a pyramid with three beautiful ridges and there are three very clear routes, so they decided to name it for the Balts. The names are more known to mountaineers than locals, mostly people who read the reports and study the maps. In 1959, a peak was named after Gediminas Akstinas, who was one of the first Lithuanian mountaineers. When he died, his friends reached a new peak and named it after him. For Lithuanians, it became the most visited mountain. Names are not officially documented in any way on the maps. It is a very long process, requiring approval by the local government, then the state. The World Association of Geographers can then register the name after a certain fee is paid. There have been initiatives to do this, but all of them have so far been unsuccessful, and no peak or pass named by Lithuanians has been officially registered.
In an interview with LRT.lt, the climbers said they spent four months training and preparing physically for the trip. “The rest is psychological. You can be physically well prepared, but you struggle if you think it’s hard and you’re not ready for it. Everyone has to make some preparation in their head, and there has to be motivation for it.”
According to Vaidas Jazdauskas, because you are carrying every gram you pack only the essentials – a sleeping bag, sleeping clothes, walking clothes for different weather, and general equipment, including pots for cooking and climbing equipment. Before the trip they decided how many grams of food they would take – approximately 600 grams of food per day, about 200 grams for each meal. Breakfast and dinner are shared and cooked for the whole group, and usually include a variety of porridge, pasta, rice, and lentils. They also carry buckwheat, cheese, canned meat, and dried vegetables for more nutrition. During the trip most of the group lost 6-8 kilos, burning 5,000-6,000 calories every day, and getting up to 3,000 calories from food.
The trip was rated 5 out of 6 in difficulty, based on how many passes are crossed, the distance walked in how many days, and the technical difficulty encountered.
They were consistently at between 4 and 5 kilometres of altitude, and lived according to the sun’s rhythm, getting up when the sun rose and stopping before sunset. “We do everything during daylight hours, except maybe a few days when you have to get up very early because there is a risk of falling rocks and so on. Breakfast is shared, and then you walk until lunch. We take more time for lunch, about an hour, to digest, and then we move on. We stop for an hour before the sun goes down so that we have time to eat and then get at least 8 hours of sleep in the dark.” The standard pace is walking for 45 minutes and resting for about 10 minutes, because of carrying a heavy backpack. Half of their gear was deposited near their halfway point ahead of time, because it would be impossible to carry the full 45-50 kilograms required for a 3 to 4 week expedition.
The travellers were attracted to Kyrgyzstan because the mountains there are wild, with no tracks, no huts, no people and no infrastructure – compared to the Alps, which are easy to get to and more densely populated.
The greatest danger they faced was lightning, which was particularly hazardous because their walking sticks had metal tips, which would emit sparks. With lightning close by, the climbers would look for a depression to lie in until it passed. Crevasses were always a danger, because they could often be covered with snow. There was less than the normal amount of snow in the area at the time, so avalanches were not a particular danger, but rockfalls were always a possibility because the sun can melt the ice holding the rocks to the mountainside.
Keeping their spirits up was a challenge, especially for one of the climbers who came down with a cold. Eating was the highlight of the day, especially when they found surprises such as horseradish or sunflower seeds, secretly packed for them by friends or relatives.
Why take the risk? The climbers know that mountains are inherently dangerous, there are risks that cannot be controlled. “It’s a personal decision because you know that you can die in the mountains… but there are always risks in life. But you want to live life to the maximum and not sit at home and be afraid that you might die in the mountains.”
These Lithuanian mountaineers were the second to climb the peak of the Forgotten Heroes, so named by the Ukrainians who reach it first in 2014.
