Many thanks for your report. I have just returned from Pik Lenin today. I am the “miraculously intact person” who survived the accident without injury.

1) I confirm the accuracy of your report, which is excellently and accurately written. The only points I am not sure about:
– Were the cut injuries of a victim sustained from the guides crampons or other ways, such as by hitting the crevasse wall?
– The total time until retrieving all victims and luggage from the crevasse, was 3 hours according to a rescuer. The accident happened at 10:15am and we started walking everyone down the glacier after 1pm, to arrive at the helicopter landing spot around 4pm.

2) The Russian blog / facebook post, referenced by previous comment, consists mostly of imaginations. The writer did not see the accident and his account is not based on facts.

Specifically,

a) Andrei, the Russian writer from the Facebook post, did not see the accident at all. The Russian blog post actually admits that their rope team walked far slower then everyone else. According to Ales, a member from the first rope team who was 5 meters behind me at the time of the crevasse accident, the Russian poster’s group arrived 25 minutes after the accident. If interested, can provide Ales contact details, and also Pavel, member of the second rope team immediately behind, who both directly witnessed the accident as it unfolded.

b) The Russian FB post is correct that their guide Vassily Pivtsov, an elite Himalayan climber, was the most professional guide who abseiled into the crevasse and took a critical lead role in the rescue operation, after he arrived on the spot 25 minutes later. In fact, Andrej from the FB post underestimates his own contribution. The other rescuers told me, that both two Russian clients worked extremely hard at the pulley systems. I am very grateful to them for helping to save us.

c) Rest of the Russian blog post is imagination, not based on fact, so I feel compelled to set it straight:

– Rope length was 21 meters for the 4 climbers, not 30m. I was tied in just behind the half-mark and the rest was in my backpack, because the guide did not want t use it. I have approx. 26 meter “backpack” segment of the rope in front of me here in Zurich, cut behind Climber 3. The rest of the rope was critically damaged by high impact forces and left at the Camp 1 storage tent for non-climbing purposes: the knots at climber 1,2,3 were damaged or impossible to untie without damage. My knot (Climber 4) was the only one easy to untie with hand and without damage, which suggests to me the rope was tight between me and Climber 3: at the accident time, I was the slowest of our rope-team and repeatedly asked the group to slow down, rather than yanking forward.

– I have never complained to Ak-Sai management about the guides. I have never run away from the group to a different peak. I did one or two extra hikes around the camp in free time, because I wanted to get better acclimatized.

– The deceased guide did not take responsibility for our “too fast” group. I asked to go with him myself, because the was a very kind person and I really liked him and his sense of humor, not knowing at the time, about his lack of safety. The other guides were ex/military officers with boot-camp manners, not knowing at the time, that they were much more professional climbers. Moreover, I was the only person able to translate from Russian to English, and acted as a liaision between the guide and the mostly English speaking clients.

In summary, I genuinely regret that we could not have prevented this accident and will make recommendations to the tour agency, to improve the safety standards on the mountain.

Best regards

Vaclav

Just read your report about that accident on Peak Lenin in which your source is blaming the guide. As you may be aware, it is too easy to blame a deceased person and there is often more than one side to any story. May I provide with a link to a Russian site containing a witness report, Google translate will do.

Here it is http://stolby.ru/news/2015/FA/kartina.asp

As you can see, the picture is not that clear anymore.

Cheers.