The True Summit Location of Peak Pobeda

The True Summit Location of Peak Pobeda

Eric Gilbertson (Seattle University), Katie Stanchak (University of Washington), Konstantin Smirnov, Anton Scherbakov

Summary

The main summit of Peak Pobeda is a 700m long ridge with three key areas – East, Central, and West – all of similar height. Elevation data was analyzed from Soviet ground surveys, satellite measurements (SRTM and TanDEM-X), Digital Elevation Models, and photographs taken on the summit ridge. Data indicate the highest location along the summit ridge depends on the year the measurement was taken and which measurement is considered. Measurements were taken with different methods and in different years between 1943 – 2021. Each location -East, Central, and West – has been the highest or tied for highest in at least one measurement. The variation in measurements could be due to yearly variation in cornice formation and and snow depth along the summit ridge, which dictates where the highest location is for any given year. Climbers reaching any of the three regions should be able to claim an ascent of Peak Pobeda. This conslusion is consistent with historical Pobeda ascents. Reports from the first five ascents of Pobeda between 1956-1969 show climbers reaching each of the three regions.

Introduction

Peak Pobeda (also known as Jengish Chokusu or Tomur Feng) is the highest mountain in Kyrgyzstan and one of the five Snow Leopard peaks — the 7000m peaks of the former Soviet Union. It has an accepted summit elevation of 7439.3m, as measured for the East region of the summit by Soviet ground surveys conducted between 1943-1980 [1][2]. Topographic maps showing Pobeda were published in 1943 (Rapasov) and 1991, based on these surveys. Pobeda was first climbed in 1956 on an expedition led by V. M. Abalakov, via a route now known as the Abalakov route [3].

The main summit of Pobeda is a 700m-long ridge oriented in an East-West direction, with three key regions — East, Central, and West. These are shown in Figure 1 as viewed from the Northwest and in Figures 2 and 3 as viewed from locations on the summit ridge. This report analyzes which of these regions contains the highest elevation of the main peak of Pobeda.

For historical context, the first ascent team led by V. M. Abalakov climbed the North ridge to the Central region and continued to the East summit region, where they placed a summit cairn, as noted in the original 1956 trip report [3]. See page 32 of the report for a description of the summit day. When describing the location where the summit cairn was placed, the report says [translated from Russian to English], “The cairn is located on the rocks slightly below the ridge towards China on the Eastern part of the summit massif of Pobeda Peak”.

The second ascent, in 1958 led by I. Erokhin, climbed the East ridge to the East summit region [3i].

The third ascent, in 1961 led by K. Kouzmine, climbed the West ridge to the West summit region, then continued to Central and East regions, and returned the same way [3ii]. See the Historical Context section at the end of this document for more details about these ascents.

Modern climbers now take one of two main routes to the summit region. The Abalakov route follows the North ridge to the Central region of the main summit. The normal route follows the West ridge to the West region of the main summit. Several other routes exist on the North face that reach the summit ridge at different locations.

Most climbers on the normal route stop at the West region of the main summit (see, for instance, [5]). Ascents of the Abalakov route are less common, but reports indicate some climbers continue from Central to East summit regions (see, for instance, [6]) and some continue from Central to West summit regions (see, for instance, [7]).

Several climbing reports, including first ascent reports by Denis Urubko for the Dollar Rod route [8][9] and Gleb Sokolov for the North Face via Peak Armenia [10] present route diagrams showing the East region as the highpoint. Other reports [11][12] present route diagrams showing the West region as the highpoint. Other reports [5] show route diagrams showing the Central region is highest.

The normal basecamp for Pobeda is on the South Inylchek glacier 12km NNW of the peak. From basecamp the West summit is closer and some climbers say it looks slightly higher. But this is potentially deceptive because the East and West regions of the summit are different distances away from basecamp (the East region is farther away), and a 12km distance is pretty far to judge height difference by eye. Only actual measurements can definitively determine which region is highest.

I (E.G.) have a background in surveying mountains around the world to determine true highpoint locations. In 2023 I conducted ground surveys in the Gissar range in the Uzbekistan/Tajikistan border region and discovered that Alpomish (4668m), a previously unclimbed and unsurveyed peak, is fact the highest mountain in Uzbekistan [13]. My partner Andreas and I made the first ascent of the peak, and the results are recognized by the American Alpine Journal (scheduled for publication in the 2024 edition).

In the USA I’ve conducted extensive ground surveys of peaks in the Cascade Mountains in Washington using a theodolite, surveyor sight levels, a survey-grade differential GPS unit, and photographic analysis using custom software. I’ve used my measurements to determine the true 100 highest peaks in Washington. My work has been checked by professional surveyors as accurate [14].

In 2018 I used a survey-grade differential GPS unit and sight levels to determine and measure the true country highpoint of Saudi Arabia. This is now recognized by the Saudi Climbing Federation [15]. In 2021 I conducted ground surveys in Togo [16], Ghana [16], Benin [16], Gambia [17], Guinea [18], Ivory Coast [18], Guinea-Bissau [19], and Senegal [20] to determine the true country highpoints of each of those countries.

Methodology

I used three types of measurements to determine the location of the highest point on the Pobeda summit ridge. These are Soviet ground surveys conducted between 1977-1980, satellite-based measurements taken between 2000-2021, and photographic analysis.

The Soviet ground surveys [1][2] were conducted by surveyors bringing theodolites to locations of known height and position. They would point the theodolite towards Pobeda and measure the angular inclination to either the East or West side of the main summit. Using the distance between the theodolite and the measured point on Pobeda and trigonometry, they calculated the relative height of the measured point to the theodolite location. They then added the relative height to the known elevation where the theodolite was located, and thus got an absolute height for the point of interest.

This is the same surveying procedure I use with my own theodolite surveying peaks in Washington. Typical theodolites have 20 arcsecond or 1 arcsecond angular resolution. Soviet survey maps exist for Pobeda at scales 1:100,000 and 1:50,000 for measurements taken between 1943-1980 and published in 1991 [1][2]. These map scales are sufficiently detailed to distinguish between the East, Central, and West regions of the main summit ridge.

If a standard 20 arcsecond mechanical theodolite were used to measure Pobeda from the South Inylchek basecamp location 12km away, this would be capable of a vertical accuracy of +/1m in the elevation measurement. A 1-arcsecond theodolite would be capable of +/-0.1m vertical accuracy. Given that the elevation is given to the nearest 0.1m for the surveyed height of Pobeda (7439.3m in the East region of the summit ridge), it is likely that a 1-arcsecond theodolite was used.

Satellite measurements from several different missions have been conducted over Pobeda between 2000-2021. A satellite’s position and elevation are known with high accuracy. To take surface elevation measurements, one or more satellites send a light signal towards the region of interest and measure the time for the signal to return. This measurement can be used with the satellite’s known location to determine an absolute height measurement of the sampled point on the earth’s surface.

Between 2017-2021 Airbus Defence and Space flew the TanDEM-X Mission in a partnership with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) [21]. Elevation measurements were taken for all landmass on Earth, including over Pobeda. Samples were taken at 0.8 arcminute spacing (approximately 24m horizontal spacing) with stated absolute vertical accuracy +/-2.5m and relative vertical accuracy +/-4m (90% confidence interval). This data is not publicly available, but it is the most recent and most accurate satellite-based elevation data available for Pobeda. I purchased this data for the Pobeda region for $1200 USD and analyzed it using QGIS [22], a publicly-available software commonly used by surveyors.

In 2000 the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) was flown aboard the space shuttle Endeavor, taking elevation measurements for all landmass on Earth between 56 degrees south latitude to 60 degreen north latitude. By 2015 data was released to the public. The measurements were taken at 30m horizontal spacing with stated absolute vertical accuracy +/-16m and relative vertical accuracy +/-10m [23] . Elevations between measured points have been approximated by many different digital elevation models (DEMs).

There exist different sources that use different Digital Elevation Models, all based on the same SRTM data. The models used in this analysis were accessed via Google Earth, Google Terrain, Gaia, Floodmap, ArcGIS, Open Topo Map, and topographic-map.com. All of these Digital Elevation Models are freely available to the public.

Google Earth uses a range of data sources to create Digital Elevation Models. The base data is from SRTM, but other data sources include LiDAR, Data SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, GEBCO, Landsat/Copernicus, IBCAO, PGC/NASA, and US Geological Survey [24]. The final elevation for a specific point is found from a combination of all of these data sources and an approximate model between sampled points.

Google Terrain provides a topographic map interface for the google elevation data for Pobeda using a slightly different DEM.

Gaia is an online topographic map source using data from SRTM and Open Topo Map to create a Digital Elevation Model of terrain [25].

The floodmap.net source [26] uses a digital elevation model using data from Mazpzen [27], TNM [28] , SRTM, GMTED [29], and ETOPO1 [30].

ArcGIS World Topographic Map uses data from dozens of sources provided by the global GIS community to create a Digital Elevation Model. Topographic maps of the Pobeda area are provided at 1:72,000 scale [31].

The topographic-map.com source uses TessaDEM, a 30-meter digital elevation model with stated vertical accuracy +/-2m or better for 58% of the data [32]. The vertical accuracy for the area around Pobeda is not specified. TessaDEM uses data from AW3D30 [33] and MERIT DEM [34].

Open Topo Map is a topographic map generated from Open Street Map and SRTM elevation data to create a Digital Elevation Model of the earth [35].

Finally, I used custom Geopix photographic analysis software [36] that is capable of measuring relative heights between peaks based on a photograph. I used a picture taken from the top of one summit region looking towards the top of the other summit region and measured relative heights. The software relies on knowing the coordinates of the two rival locations, the coordinates and elevations of at least three peaks visible in the background of the photo, and the pixel locations of each peak in the photo. It corrects for photographic and atmospheric distortion in the image, and gives a relative height measurement with standard deviation.

I have validated the accuracy of this analysis software using ground survey data on peaks in the Cascade Mountains, Washington. I have compared results of the photo analysis software to Lidar data, to theodolite measurements I’ve taken, and to differential GPS measurements I’ve taken all in the Cascade Mountains [37] [38] [39] [40].

Results

Elevation data were collected for each summit region from the ten sources of absolute elevation and the photo analysis providing relative elevation. The raw data can be seen in Table 1.

For the Soviet surveys, the highpoint of Pobeda was directly surveyed with a spot elevation of 7439.3m, located in the East region of the summit ridge for both the 1:100,000 (Figure 4) and the 1:50,000 (Figure 5) topographic maps. The Central and West regions did not have spot elevations, so the elevation is given as a range between the lowest and highest contour lines surrounding each of those locations.

The TanDEM-X survey from Airbus was provided as a GeoTIFF file which I analyzed using QGIS software. Given that the stated relative vertical accuracy was +/-4m, I created a contour plot with 10m contours to be greater than the potential error range (Figure 6). For this data both the Central and West regions were between the 7410-7420m contours, with the Central region encompassing a much larger area. This means the Central and West regions were tied for the highest point within the error of the measurement, with the Central region more likely the highest. The Eastern region was between the 7390-7400m contours.

On Google Earth (Figure 7) I selected the spot location with the highest local maximum elevation in each summit region. This showed the Central region was the highest at 7453m.

For Google Terrain (Figure 8) the elevations were given by contour lines, though no spot elevations were given. The East region was the highest, between the 7400-7420m contours. The Central and West regions were both lower, with no distinct local maxima location evident from the topographic lines.

Floodmap.net (Figure 9) gave spot elevations instead of contour lines. I determined the highest spot elevation in each region. The Central region had the highest spot elevation at 7432m.

Open Topo Map (Figure 10) gave contour lines but no spot elevations. Three distinct local maxima are evident from the contours, and I found the Central region was highest, between the 7420-7430m contours. The East and West regions were both between the 7400-7410m contours.

ArcGIS (Figure 11) gave contour lines and a spot elevation of 7126m at the Central location. There were distinct local maxima for the West and Central locations, but not the East. The Central and West locations were tied for the highest, both between the 7400-7420m contours, though the Central was enclosed in a larger contour. The spot elevation of 7126m in the Central location appears to be an error since it is not consistent with the contour lines.

Gaia (Figure 12) gives contour lines showing three distinct local maxima. I found the highest spot elevation within the highest contour of each location. The Central region was highest at 7430m.

Topographic-map.com (Figure 13) gave a shaded elevation map and I found the highest spot elevation in each region. The East region was highest at 7453m.

Open Topo Map (Figure 14) gave contours for the summit ridge with local maxima for each region. The Central region was the highest, between the 7420-7430m contours.

For the photographic analysis I first analyzed a picture taken from the West region looking to the East region. This was from from a 2015 ascent by Gennadii Kopeika [4] (see Figure 2). I found the peaks were within 1m of the same height, with error in the height difference +/-2m.

To find this measurement I used three identifiable peaks in the background, Peak 6762, Peak 6810, and Peak 6747. Elevations and locations were taken from the 1:50,000 Soviet topographic map. I entered the coordinates of the West and East summit regions, the coordinates and elevations of the background peaks, and the pixel locations of the East region and background peaks. Because the height difference was within the error bounds of the measurement, this is considered a tie, and they are equal height within the error of the measurement.

I repeated the analysis on the Central region in this photo, and found it 11m +/-2m shorter than the West region.

I have several photos from my and my partner Andreas’s trip from the East and Central regions looking towards the West in 2021. However, the background is too cloudy to find enough background peaks to give a meaningful measurement. Thus I have only used the results from the 2015 photo from the West region.

The data from all measurements are represented visually in Figure 15. This shows the elevation for each region relative to the Central region, for each measurement (thus the height of the Central region is plotted as zero). Vertical lines for each dot represent error bounds. Measurements given by a contour interval range were assumed to be the middle of the range with error bounds extending to the upper and lower limit of the range. Across all measurement methods, either the Central or East Peak is highest, and there are three measurements in which the West Peak is tied for highest with either Central or East.

Figure 16 also shows all measurements for each region in a box plot. For each region the box is centered about the mean measurement with the edges of the box showing one quartile above and below the mean, the vertical lines extend to the highest and lowest measurement excluding outliers, and the horizontal line is the median measurement.

These plots allow comparison between the ten absolute height measurements and the one relative height measurement (from the photographic analysis).

We conducted an ANOVA statistical test comparing the 11 different measurements for each peak: West, Central, and East. The model was not significant, with a p-value > 0.05 (p = 0.129).  This means the different height measurements for each peak are not significantly different.

Despite the non-significant ANOVA, we still conducted a Tukey HSD post-hoc test to determine if any pairs of regions were statistically different in height. This resulted in p-values of 0.26 for the Central-West pair, 0.14 for the East-West pair, and 0.93 for the East-Central pair. Because all p-values are greater than 0.05, we cannot conclude that any peak is higher than any other peak, based on these sets of measurements. We note that these statistical tests assume each measurement is equally valid, as we have no concrete evidence to the contrary.

Discussion

Of the 11 measurements analyzed, four show the East region as the highest, four show the Central region highest, two show West and Central regions tied, and one shows East and West tied. Thus each individual region was highest or tied for highest in at least one measurement. Statistical analysis showed that, based on all measurements, we cannot conclude that any region is higher than any other region.

Of all the measurements, the Soviet Surveys from 1943-1980 has the smallest error bound in vertical accuracy at +/-1m (assuming a standard 20-arcsecond theodolite was used). This showed the East region is the highest. The Central and West regions were low enough to be outside the error bounds in this measurement.

However, the TanDEM-X satellite measurement from 2017-2021 showed West and Central regions tied as highest and East low enough to be outside the error bounds. And the photographic analysis from 2015 showed East and West tied and Central low enough to be outside error bounds.

There are several possible explanations for these discrepancies. The first is that cornice formation along the summit ridge is very significant, and varies year to year. I’ve personally seen cornices over 10m tall on Pobeda, and these sometimes collapse. It’s possible that in some years cornice formation is highest in the East region, some years in the Central region, and some years in the West region. The elevations of these regions may be so similar that differences in cornice height and snow depth from year to year are significant enough to dictate which region has the highest elevation in a given year.

Theodolite surveys, satellite-based measurements, and photographic analysis cannot distinguish between snow and underlying rock. These measurements measure the highest visible snow.

Another explanation is that existing measurements are not yet precise enough to accurately determine which region is the highest. Only with more accurate measurements can this be determined.

One such measurement would be to take a 10-arcminute sight level to each summit and measure relative heights. I brought this measurement device to the East and Central regions in 2021, but unfortunately suffered from frostbite on my fingers and could not risk taking my hands out of my mittens to take the measurement. It’s also likely the bubble level had frozen in the device anyway and a measurement would not have been possible. So, this measurement would be very difficult to take unless conditions were ideal.

Even this solution would only give a measurement valid on that particular day. A different day in a different year could result in different snowpack heights and cornices formation along the summit ridge. If the snow ever completely melted off the entire summit ridge, then a definitive measurement could be taken, but of course that is unlikely to ever happen.

Historical Context

For historical context, we present details of the first five ascents of Pobeda (between 1956 – 1969), and details of notable subsequent ascents.

First Ascent

In 1956 Vitaly Abalakov’s team climbed Pobeda via its northern ridge (Abalakov’s route). This expedition was described in the original Abalakov’s expedition report [3]. Quoting from the report [translated from Russian to English], “the summit cairn was placed not on the highest point of the ridge, since the ridge was snowy. The cairn is located on the rocks a bit lower than the ridge (to the Chinese side) on the eastern part of the summit ridge of Pobeda Peak”.

Understandably, at that time there was no debate whether Abalakov’s team reached the true summit. The “victory over Pobeda” was more important. Abalakov had stellar reputation and he reached the summit in a big team of 11 climbers. They even brought a movie camera on top.  The 20-minute movie about that expedition is available here [41] .

A book about the expedition was written in 1958, showing pictures of the ascent team on the summit ridge (Figure 17) and and route diagram (Figure 18)[42].

The first (famous) picture, Fig 17, is shot on the summit ridge facing the West.  Here the ridge in the background appears materially higher than the location of the summit team. The second picture, Fig 18 magnified, shows the route of the team. Clearly, Abalakov made no secret that they put the cairn right where they crested the summit ridge.

The latest book about that expedition entitled “Moments brought from the summits” was written by Konstantin Kletsko in 2012 [43]. Kletsko was a summiteer in Abalakov’s team and later became Snow Leopard #4.

Figure 19 shows the route of the expedition as drawn by Klesko.  Figure 20 shows Abalakov’s team collecting rocks for the cairn that they put up on the closest rock to the left (East) from where they crested the ridge. Quoting from the book: “Abalakov and Gusak [another participant] went a bit further to the East, returned and said that the cairn should be put here as the ridge in the East was approximately the same.”

You can see that the rock where Abalakov’s team put up a cairn was quite prominent. Subsequent expeditions on Abalakov’s route never reported seeing such a prominent rock at the top of the ridge, which confirms the hypothesis that the snow cover in 1950s was lower than in later years.

Second Ascent

The second successful expedition to Pobeda took place in 1958 and was led by Igor Erokhin [3i].

Below in Figure 21 is an illustrative panorama of Pobeda ridge shot from Khan Tengri area by a Russian tourist team led by Sergey Romanenkov [44].

And the modern scheme of the routes in English [45]

Erokhin initially aimed for the full traverse of Pobeda starting from the East Pobeda (this is a summit of 6762 meters altitude to the east of Main Pobeda) to the Main Pobeda summit (7439) and continuing along the ridge to the West Pobeda summit of 6918 meters, subsequently named Vazha Pshavela. However, the Mountaineering Federation of the USSR (the main state body for alpinism) did not approve that plan. Erokhin’s team obtained a permit for the ascent of East Pobeda, traverse to the Main Summit and descent via the northern ridge along Abalakov’s route.

Figures 23 and 24 illustrate the route and are from the article in the official Soviet periodical “Conquered Summits” from 1958-1961 [46].

After acclimatization, almost the entire Erokhin’s team went for East Pobeda. They erroneously assumed that East Pobeda had altitude of about 7000 meters, while it was in fact 6762 meters. 44(!) people were able to climb East Pobeda, which was a huge success considering that it was the first climb ever of that mountain and almost all summiteers had zero high altitude experience. During the climb Erokhin selected 13 participants who would continue the traverse, while the others had to return to the base camp.

From the route diagram above it can be seen that the summit bivouac was put up at the western edge of the eastern plateau from the Main Summit. The bivouac’s altitude was later listed at 7100 meters. Clearly, the summiteers did not plan to traverse the summit ridge. Instead, they aimed to summit and return to the bivouac.

The information below is collected from the book “Victory of Igor Erokhin” published in 2009 [3i].

On the summit day one person of 13 stayed in the summit camp due to tiredness and frostbite. The other 12 went up leaving “all but the warm clothes” in the bivouac. A 50-year old participant (Vano Galustov) stopped 100 meters from the summit and Erokhin ordered four more people to take him down to the summit camp. The remaining 7 participants reached the summit.

On page 179 there is a quote from Andantin Belopukhov’s book (published in 1993):

“Vano [Galustov] must be helped down. All his “rope” [roped up team], five people, went down. The other “rope” continued their ascent to the summit. In a couple hours we reached the highest point. As we had guessed, no man’s foot had ever stood here. Abalakov’s team was absolutely not in that place. Not much lower but quite further away horizontally.  The ridge went far from the summit with a barely noticeable decline in altitude. But the highest point – stood apart from the ridge. There was snow everywhere on the ridge with hanging cornices. And only here there were rocks. We put together a huge cairn.”

On pp. 176-177 Valentin Bozhukov takes on a more accusing tone:

“The ascent [on Abalakov’s route] continued along the northern ridge via a rocky path almost in the middle of the summit ridge a bit further to the west, to its lowest part – in the saddle, from which ascents continue to the east and to the west. To the east – a longer narrow rocky ridge with snow cornices, up to the tower, on which we sat. To the west – a shorter snowy ascent, which can easily be seen on (summit photos of 1956). The tripod, installed by the Chinese during Pobeda climb of 1960s (in fact in 1977, as per Wikipedia[57]) stands lower on the left from that western ridge now. Research by Russian cartographers, based on modern space photos, witness that the eastern part of the summit ridge – Erokhin’s cairn – is higher […] than Chinese tripod – by 90 meters.”

Erokhin’s expedition was hugely successful (record number of participants, goal achieved and nobody was hurt). The traverse continued for 13 days in poor weather.  Compare that to failed expedition of 1955, which aimed for the same route but out of 12 participants only one survived… the initial climb to East Pobeda.

However, it does appear that ambitions of Erokhin’s team went too far. They originally reported that all 13 participants summitted, while in fact only 7 of them reached the highest point. They also stressed that they did not see “traces of any human” on the summit.  After obtaining coveted gold medals (meaning state funding for the respective mountaineering clubs), they acknowledged the lie. And initially, they were not critiqued.

Turns out that the USSR was preparing the joint USSR-China climb of Everest in 1959 and Erokhin’s team was needed there. However, the Everest expedition was cancelled at the last moment due to political fallout between China and USSR and the knives were out. Erokhin’s team was disqualified and disbanded. Erokhin died shortly thereafter in a climbing accident.

Erokhin’s team did not make an attempt to find Abalakov’s cairn. Instead, they claimed [without factual evidence] that the Eastern point was visually higher than the rest of the ridge. In the extensive book about their expedition, there is only one summit photo (see Figure 25).

Third Ascent

The expedition of 1961 was fairly small and consisted of just 6 participants. They aimed to traverse Pobeda from the west to the east but ended up summitting from the west (now classic route) and returning the same way.

The expedition team consisted of five Georgians and was helped by an experienced Moscow-based high altitude mountaineer Kirill Kuzmin, who later became Snow Leopard #2. Four participants reached the summit ridge. Then, two participants (including Kuzmin) continued along the ridge to look for the cairns.  They found Abalakov’s cairn easily and changed the note there. Then, they continued along the ridge and clearly saw Erokhin’s rock which rose above the ridge with the cairn on top. However, they could not climb the rock due to heavy snowstorm and retreated. On descent three Georgian participants died. A report by Kirill Kuzmin can be found at [3ii] and good quality photos of the climb can be found at [47].

After that climb the count on Pobeda was 27 dead and 16 summiters.

The expedition by Kirill Kuzmin effectively put an end to speculation that Abalakov’s team was not on the summit. However, it did not solve another old problem.  In fact, the first (and reasonably successful) expedition to Pobeda took place as early as 1938. It was led by August Letavet.  At the time, nobody knew the true altitude of Pobeda. It was simply assumed it could be higher than Khan Tengri, which itself was first climbed only in the 1930s. Three participants of Letavet’s expedition (Sidorenko, Gutman and Ivanov) achieved an altitude of 6930 meters and put up the cairn there (known as Gutman-Ivanov’s cairn) with a portrait of Stalin. However, their altimeter was old and could be wrong.

After Abalakov’s expedition a special Soviet commission decided that Letavet’s expedition did indeed reach the summit ridge(!) of Pobeda. They concluded that (reportedly) comparing photos from Letavet’s expedition with photos of Abalakov’s expedition. However, photos from Letavet’s expedition are nowhere to be found. Besides, its participants never claimed the first ascent, reporting that the summit day was “foggy”. Also, from the point they reached they reported seeing one big high mountain far away to the East.

Kirill Kuzmin also looked for Gutman-Ivanov’s cairn on his climb and did not find any.  There is no evidence that anybody ever found it. However, there are still plenty of believers in Letavet’s success. One of them sent a letter to Konstantin Kletsko, who summitted with Abalakov.  Kletsko replied that he did not believe in Letavet’s success and provided the following photo (Figure 26) in his book [48] as his version(!) of what had happened.  The photo itself was taken by Vladimir Ratsek from a plane.  Keltsko just added the routes and respective cairns.

The leftmost route relates to the assumed route of Letavet’s expedition. The left cairn on the summit ridge of Pobeda relates to Erokhin’s expedition. The central cairn relates to Abalakov’s expedition. The МАЛ cairn [МАЛ is the abbreviation for International Mountaineering Camp in Russian] relates to the western cairn, which is most frequently visited these days.

The photo is present in the following article [48], which is quite tellingly entitled “Discussion through decades”. It discusses various claims to first summit of Pobeda.

Fourth Ascent

The expedition of 1967 managed to do the first traverse of Pobeda from the West to the East. It was described in the official Soviet periodical “Conquered Summits” for 1965-1967 (see [49]).

See p.53 for the article on Pobeda traverse. Pages 61-62 describe the summit day(s). “After 1.5 km traverse in deep snow we approached a rock at the eastern end of the summit ridge. Here is the cairn. We are at the summit.” Apparently, they refer to Erokhin’s cairn but no explicit mention of that is made and nothing is said about which note was in the cairn. Amazingly, the team then spent 4 days on the summit in a tent due to bad weather.  Thereafter, they continued the traverse, which took 20 days in total (base camp to base camp).

The 1969 season improved the score on Pobeda to 29 dead and 29 summiters.

Fifth Ascent

There were three teams that summitted Pobeda in 1969 – two on the classic route and one on Abalakov’s route. The first two teams joined their efforts on the summit day. The expedition was described in the book by Vladimir Mashkov “Summits of my republic” (he was referring to Tajikistan) published in 1978 [50].

Note that Mashkov founded the original international Moskvina camp in 1990 and worked as its boss until his death in 1998.

Regarding the summit day, Mashkov said they walked several hundred meters trying to guess the highest point.  They ended up walking so far to the East that they saw the ridge gradually bending down. Consequently, they built three(!) different cairns with notes in places, where the rocks seemed somewhat higher than the rest of the ridge.

Mashkov’s testimony is corroborated by the report of his co-summiteer Boris Studenin [51]. Studenin said he spent three(!) hours on the summit and they indeed constructed three big cairns.

It is surprising that summiters of 1969 did not find either Erokhin’s cairn, or Abalakov’s cairn. They also said nothing about the Eastern summit being more prominent.

However, this is evidence that the original western cairn was likely built as early as 1969.

In fact, 1969 became a threshold year for Pobeda Peak. In 1970, Pobeda saw as many as 63(!) summiteers. While tragedies continued, Pobeda was no longer viewed as an exceptionally deadly mountain.

Subsequent Expeditions

Note that Pobeda was closed for climbing from 1974 till 1980 due to the conflict between USSR and China. Chinese mountaineers climbed Pobeda in 1977 (according to Wikipedia [57]).  A book about that climb “Planting the Five-Star flag on Mount Tomur” is available in English [58].

Below are a few more relevant reports of Pobeda climbs starting from 1980s.

In 1983, Soviet mountaineers, which worked at various International Mountaineering Camps at Soviet seven-thousanders, were offered a climb of Pobeda at the end of the season as a bonus for their work. After the Soviet expedition to Everest of 1982, many were ready to go. Consequently, 27 mountaineers managed to climb Pobeda on a single day.  Vladimir Puchkov (summiteer of Everest) wrote an article about that climb [52].

Here is what he says about the summit location:

“The summit of Pobeda is very smooth and protracted. Exact definition of the highest point is such cases is difficult.  Therefore, the teams that summitted Pobeda put up a summit cairn where they considered it right.  That is why Abalakov did not find Gutman’s cairn of 1938 [here Soviet official version of 1938 expedition is upheld], while Erokhin did not find Abalakov’s cairn. Mishaps with the location of the summit cairn on Pobeda continue up till now. In 1981 the climb of the team from Minsk was not approved as they did not find the cairn of the [USSR] Sport Committee in bad weather, and installed their own. [The high-level Sport Committee team was training for 1982 Everest expedition on Pobeda at the time.] However, in 1984 the note of the Minsk team was found not far from the official summit cairn.”

He describes the summit day as follows (on the classic route).

“The steepness of the summit ridge declines and a flat long slope starts. I am thinking – after this inflection there will be a drop, but then I see a new inflection, and so on until infinity. An hour has gone by and the summit cairn is not there. Finally, I reach a cairn, which was put together hastily from large stones. Inside there is a note by Boris Studenin’s group (a fellow reputable climber of the same day). But this is not the summit cairn. I go further and after 150 meters I finally see the ridge that drops to East Pobeda. On a flat granite rock there is a cairn with broken self-made ice axe. I take out a tin can. Inside there is a note by Vadim Smirnov group, which climbed Pobeda in 1982 [along the so-called Dollar route].”

In 1990, the first winter climb of Pobeda was completed by five experienced Soviet climbers. Sergey Bogomolov put together the report for the climb [53].

“Finally, we reached the ridge [they climbed on Abalakov’s route]. I cross it and face strong wind. I see the Chinese side vaguely. I want to go on the left to the East but Valery Khrishaty shows me the other side. Why? I always thought that the main cairn was closer to the East. No, says Valery, it is on the West. I did not start arguing. Waited till all the team is on the ridge and went to the right trying to shield myself from the wind and cornices. Chinese slope is all smoothly polished. God forgive I slip or stumble… [then he describes their protracted search for the cairn]. Here it is. Indeed, this is the cairn, where we left a can with the soil in 1985, when we climbed with the Americans. And we also passed it in 1988. We all gathered here then… We change the note.”

Note that the winter ascent of 1990 became the 3^rd Pobeda summit for each Bogomolov and Khrishaty. They were both highly experienced and still had a disagreement about the cairn.

In 2003, a Siberian team from Krasnoyarsk headed by Gleb Sokolov made a first ascent on the northern wall of Pobeda with the descent along the classic route [10].

Since it was effectively a traverse route, they took a special pride in reaching the East summit, which they described as a minor rocky pyramid. They looked for a cairn and did not find it. They said that climbers rarely reach that point, most of them stop at the cairn on the western side of the summit, which is lower. They walk further to the west on the summit ridge, bivouac and next morning continue on the ridge reaching the western summit in an hour. They see a flat stone with a cairn. There are a lot of human traces there – even a Playboy magazine. They gather for the summit photo.

Here we see that while the team views the East summit as the true one, they still gathered for a summit photo at the “most visited” cairn on the West.

We next highlight the detailed report of a very strong and experienced tourist team of Moscow Aviation Institute (МАИ), which climbed Pobeda along the classic route in 2011 [54].

They took a long walk to the summit on the flat ridge. They said that only during the third ridge “inflection” they saw the descent to the Abalakov ridge (or northern ridge) on the left.  Interestingly enough, they argued that the summit point was located where the (southern) ridge from the Chinese side joins the main summit ridge.

Figures 27 and 28 show the view of Pobeda from the Chinese side [55].

Finally, we present a link to the video of the 1985 Soviet TV series “Club of Cinema-Travelers”. The series is entitled “Veterans of alpinism”. It has Russian subtitles [56].

In the video Vitaly Abalakov (1956 expedition), Alexander Sidorenko (1938 expedition), Valentin Bozhoukov (1958 expedition) and Valery Putrin (head of mountaineering federation of USSR, he summitted Pobeda three times) are present as the TV host moderates discussion.

The TV host describes Pobeda at the beginning. At times 1:50 – 2:02 he explains that the name “peak” is not appropriate for Pobeda as the summit reminds the top of a two-sloped roof. Therefore, any exit to the summit ridge is considered the true summit.

Conclusion

Elevations of the East, Central, and West regions of the summit ridge of Peak Pobeda depend on the year the measurement was taken. Based on the set of available measurements, no region can be definitively stated as higher than another. The true highest point is likely determined by yearly cornice formation and snow depth, and this location varies year to year. Each location has been the highest in at least one year and at least one measurement. Climbers reaching any of the three regions should be able to claim an ascent of Peak Pobeda. This is consistent with historical ascents of Pobeda to the Central, East, and West regions, which all have counted as reaching the summit.

Author Biographies:
Eric Gilbertson has extensive mountaineering experience and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Katie Stanchak has some Cascades mountaineering experience and a Ph.D. in Biology.

References

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