The Shatayeva Group

Eight climbers. One Mountain. A storm no one could escape. 

In this episode we are talking about the Shatayeva Group. In 1974 Soviet mountaineer Elvira Shatayeva led an ambitious all-women’s expedition to the summit of Lenin Peak. But when a brutal storm swept across the mountain, the team became trapped at extreme altitude with no shelter and no way down. 

Sources 

https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/01/sport/russian-climbers-peak-lenin-spt-intl/

https://time.com/archive/6878056/the-world-death-at-the-roof-of-the-world/

https://knapsacktreks.com/2020/11/frozen-heroines-deadly-pride/

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/14/archives/8-climbers-deaths-now-acknowledged-by-the-soviet-press.html

Transcript

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You can be the most knowledgeable and experienced person in your field, but when something as uncontrollable as the weather becomes a factor, no amount of preparation can guarantee the outcome you're hoping for. Welcome back to the Crash Lessons podcast. I'm your host Robin, and this is the Shetaiva group. Eight women set out for Lenin Peak and never made it back down. So obviously, we're going to be talking about another mountaineering disaster today. And I have to say, I think these types of stories are probably my favorite to research and talk about. I just find it very fascinating how something that could seem just like another day for some people turns into complete and utter chaos because of factors that can just change on the drop of a dime. And yes, I am referring to the weather, which does play a big part in a lot of adventure incidents, especially mountaineering ones. And there's also almost always questions that will probably never be answered. Even though you can safely guess what happened, there's still a lot of unknown. And before we get into it, since Sunday was International Women's Day, it feels fitting to be talking about a story like this. A group of incredible women, skilled, determined women who were pushing the boundaries in a sport that wasn't exactly cheering them on at the time. It's a heavy story, but it's also a reminder of how strong and capable women have always been, even when the world wasn't quite ready to see it. Now, um, these women were Russians, so the names I'm probably gonna butcher, but I'm going to do my best. So bear with me. Alright, so with all that being said, let's just get right into it. This story takes place in June of 1974 at Lenin Peak, which is on what is now the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the Pamir Mountains, otherwise known as the Roof of the World. Lenin Peak reaches 7,134 meters or 23,406 feet, and is one of the major mountains in the Pamir Mountains. And if you don't really have an idea of how high that is, then compare it to Mount Everest, which is 8,848 meters or 29,031 feet. So it's a over a thousand feet shorter than Everest, but it's still pretty fucking tall. For a seasoned veteran in mountain climbing, it is known to be one of the easier mountains, over 7,000 meters to climb. But just because the mountain is known to be easy to climb doesn't mean there aren't other factors that could make doing this climb the hardest or last day of someone's life. Similarly, I think a lot of mountain ranges around the world are subject to severe weather storms and changing conditions at any point. As well, there have been fatalities due to avalanches specifically on Lenin Peak. It is known for that. Another thing, this is similar to other mountains, is that there are multiple routes ranging in difficulty to reach the summit. With Lenin Peak, there are four different routes. There's the North Route, which is the most commonly used route, and starts in Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyzstan side. The south route, which is less common, a bit more steep, and comes from the Tajikistan side. And then there are the west and east traverses, which are known to be the most difficult routes because they use the ridge lines. The Shataiva group's plan was to take the northeast side and climb the peak to Lipkin Ridge and descend the northwest ridge toward the smaller Rasdelny Peak, which would make it the first traversed by man or woman at that time to reach the peak of this route. With this route. And then of course there was the descent. Okay, now that we knew a little bit about where this where the story takes place and the mountain, uh, let's go all the way back to 1974 where it all went down. In June of 1974, Lennon Peak was the host of a mountaineering camp. About 170 climbers from 10 different Western countries and 60 Eastern European and Russian climbers gathered at the base camp of Peak Lenin. This was happening during the Cold War, which went from 1947 to 1991 between the United States and its allies versus the Soviet Union and its allies. So it's kind of a big thing. Everybody's getting together. But around this point during the war, when the climbers gathered, was about the time where things were starting to be less hostile between everybody, and this was the first major American expedition allowed to happen there in the Soviet Union. The whole point of this gathering was to showcase climbers' skills and kind of bring up the new generation of climbers and just show them the way. This was also happening during a time when there were exponentially more male climbers than female climbers, and the female climbers were very much looked down on or not thought of as good or capable as the men. For a couple of the women in the group, it wasn't their first time climbing Lennon Peak, but it was their first time going without the company of a man. And this was a pretty big deal for the women in mountaineering sport. This particular climbing season for Lennon Peak had very rough weather conditions. Before the women had even started on their journey, a decent-sized earthquake hit the Pamiers, causing a massive avalanche, which had actually buried a couple of people, and one of the men that was buried ended up dying. Then another avalanche came hurtling through and took out two of the guys from the rescue team. So already the weather was not on their side, and little did they know they were about to get hit with what was described as the worst storm in 25 years. So the Shatyeva group consisted of eight women. There was Alvira Shateiva, who was 35 at the time from Moscow. She was the leader of the group and had earned the title Master of Sport, which was the highest level of athletic classification in the USSR. She was the third woman to summit Ismuil Samoni Peak, I hope I said that right, which was the highest peak in the Soviet Union and also led multiple female expeditions, including peaks over 7,000 feet. People had described her as having a warmth about her and a very inspiring and empowering energy about her. She was definitely a very strong-headed woman who believed wholeheartedly that women are just as strong as men and can do anything they can do. She believed in herself, her group, and other women who were going to partake on the climb and just in the sport. Other women and men who met her were just taken back by her courage and confidence and was a very oh sorry, I skipped a line for a second. Um taken back by her courage and her confidence. The rest of women in the group had a lot there was a lot less information that I could find about them. Um but they were all great and powerful women with anywhere from 5 to 18 years of climbing experience. There's Nina Vasileva from Moscow, who was a part of the Core Trio from the capital and had a substantial amount of experience. Valentina Fateiva from Moscow was part of the urban mountaineering clubs. Umsinar Makimdova from Dushanbi, who represented the Central Asian climbing community, Tatiana Sardashova Sardashova, who was also from Dushanbi and part of the regional group. Galina Perikudiek from um Chelyap Chelyabinks. This one's hard. Sorry, this is we'll get through this part and then it won't be as difficult for me to pronounce these. Um, who was part of the Earl Clubs known for producing tough climbers, and then Ludomila uh Manzarova Manzarova from Fruins, and the last member of the group was Irina Uh Libyansteva from Svortolovsk. I'm so sorry, which was one of the USSR's major mountaineering centers. Okay. They finished their training climbs and finalized their plan in late July and were ready to start their climb at the beginning of August. So far, all of the groups that had already set out on their climb made the summit and descended successfully. Their group was set to make the summit at the same time as an all-men's group. So on August 3rd, Elvira called uh for a rest day so there was more room on the summit for her team. She had also earlier heard on the radio from Base Camp called to the men's team ahead of them to help the Shateiva group on their descent. So there is also kind of like a chance that Elvira made the call for the rest day because she didn't want to make or she wanted to make sure that there were no men around to help in quotations them because their goal was to be the first group of women to do this without any help from a man at all. And the fact that women weren't really seen as equal to the men by a lot of people in their sport, it was very important for these ladies that there were no men around, so no one could even suggest that they had any help from a man. The decision uh, though, would play out to be a very bad one. And not because they did need the help, but because the weather was about to come in and just cause the worst time for them. Uh, on August 3rd, a team of American climbers that were behind the Chateauva group uh reported cloudy weather today, and we have route finding problems getting over to Camp 3 in whiteout conditions. Camp 3 is located at 6,500 meters or 21,325 feet. So just below the summit, not too far below the summit. On August 4th, Base Camp had radioed for all climbers to descend because there was a big storm about to hit the mountain. The men's team ahead had already um summited and then made started making their descent back to safety, or they did make their descent back to safety, but the women were determined. And it's impossible to say whether they may not um have whether they didn't hear the call on the radio to make the descent back down to safety, or if they did hear the call and then they just decided that they had already gotten this far and they were so determined that they weren't gonna stop and they were gonna sum summit that peak that day. And see, there's just a one of those things that it's like you'll never know the answer. Because none of them made it back down, so there's nobody to say. There was some mention of people having shittier radio sets, especially amongst some of the American climbers. Um, an American climber, Arlene Blum, was actually set to summit on August 5th, but her radio set was shit. So another climber had actually gone to her tent to let her know of the storm. She ended up heading out for the summit because the weather looked fine, but did turn back as soon as it went to shit and made it back to safety. Um, she was also somebody that I saw had a lot of like encouraging things, like good things to say about Elvira. Uh, regardless, the woman pushed on and were last seen walking in a line about 400 meters below the summit on the ridge, where they were very exposed to the elements. They had passed by a Scottish climber, Richard Allen North, on his descent when he jokingly said to them, You get a bit short of breath up there, and they replied, We are strong, we are woman. On August 5th, the Shateva group radioed down to base camp that the visibility was next to zero and they were not able to find the route to descend. The commander at base camp had radioed back to the woman to descend if possible. If not, then to stay where they were and wait out the storm to make the descent in the morning when conditions were better. They set up their tents that were not made for these kind of conditions at all. Their tents were made from cotton, and instead of zippers, they were held straight with toggles and they used wooden poles. The winds, from 70 to 80 miles per hour, 110 to 130 kilometers per hour, had taken out a couple of their tents on the first night. On August 6th, the woman attempted to descend, but only made it a few hundred feet when they had to stop because the conditions were still too bad. One of their radios at base camp, uh, one of the somebody radio from base camp or their radios to base camp stated that one of the ladies had become ill and another one was seeming unwell. They were instructed to find deep snow so that they could dig caves and have some shelter. It was also implied to the woman that if someone was too ill to carry on and make the descent, then they were to leave her there so that as to not slow down the rest of the group. Um, Irina had died on the descent, apparently freezing together to death. Unfortunately, the women were unable to dig caves in the snow, but did end up setting up two tents on the ridge just several hundred feet from the summit. The two women that were ill, Nina and uh Velenina, were the next to die. Shortly after midnight on the next day, hurricane force winds struck their camp, blowing apart their tents and scattering supplies like rucksacks, stove, and mittens. The five remaining women were huddled in the last tent with no tent poles and only three sleeping bags. There were some Japanese climbers at about 6,500 meters, so around camp three, who had heard them on the radio, and a couple tried to make their way to the woman and help, but the wind was too strong and they were not able to get there. Everyone else on the mountain was far too low to get anywhere in time. August 7th, at around 8 o'clock, another message from Base Camp asking the woman if they were trying to descend and the shed and Shatieva replied back, Three more are sick now. There are only two of us who are functioning, and we are all getting weaker. We cannot, we would not leave our comrades after all they have done for us. At ten o'clock, Shatayva called the raid called the radio. It is very sad here where it was once beautiful. At noon, another one had died. fifteen thirty. Shateva, we are so sorry we have failed you. We tried so hard, now we are so cold. Seventeen o'clock. The words through the transmission were unclear, but another was assumed to be dead and only three remained. At this point up on the mountain, the winds were estimated to be 130 to 160 kilometers per hour or 80 to 100 miles per hour with a temperature of negative 30 to 40 Celsius in Fahrenheit. Off topic, but I did not know that negative 40 Fahrenheit is the same as negative 40 Celsius. I don't know, maybe that's common knowledge, but it's news to me. I was a little bit I was confused. I was googling, I was like, what? Anyways, back to the story. 1830. Another message from Shatagiva. Another has died. We cannot go through another night. I do not have the strength to hold down the transmitten b transmitter button. 2030, the last message from the group played over the transmitter. Now we are two, and now we will all die. We are very sorry. We tried but we could not. Please forgive us. We love you. Goodbye. On August 8th, the trio of Americans in the Japanese group unknowingly came upon the tragedy. Some of the women were visible whilst others were half buried in the snow. Tents had strewn and shredded about. That night at camp, the American trio said they could hear Russian women's voices, but when they opened the tent, there was no one there. It seemed like the with the state of the world, you know, being at war and all, the amount of people there, there was almost an amount of pressure on the women to resp represent their own nation and represent all other females in the sport to prove that women can do it just like the men and they don't need any help. Jed Williamson, who was at Camp 3 during this time, said of the situation, they weren't weak or stupid. I place no blame on them. Those conditions converged. It was the perfect storm. I have nothing but admiration. I'm just sad those conditions came together. The storm came in pretty fast and went fast. Two days later, it was bluebird skies, and we were in shirt sleeves. So yeah, it kind of feels like there was an extra layer of pressure on them, right? Like they weren't just climbing for themselves, they were climbing for their country, for women in the sport, for this unspoken expectation that they had to prove something. And they were proving it. They were doing everything right. And then you hear someone like Jed Williamson talk about it. He was literally right there at camp three, and he's like, they weren't weak, they weren't stupid, I don't blame them at all. He basically says it was just this free combination of everything going wrong at the same time. A perfect storm. Like two days later it was sunny and warm, and they were hanging on short sleeves. Like, that's how fast it changed. It's crazy. And I think that um that's the thing that sticks with me. They weren't outmatched, they weren't in over their heads, they just got hit with something no one could have fought through. It wasn't about gender ability or anything like that. They what they did do though was show the world exactly what women were capable of in mountaineering. They were strong, they were skilled, and even in their in the way their story is remembered, you can feel how much respect people have and still have for them. So yeah, it's a heavy story, but it also feels like a huge reminder that they really were out there pushing boundaries, setting an example, and representing something way bigger than themselves. And even though the ending is tragic, the impact they had didn't just disappear with that storm. Alright, guys, so that's the story for today. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And um come back next week for another episode. And there will be another one next week because I already have it done, and I'm gonna record it right after this. So, getting ahead of the game, and I'm gonna get organized, I'm gonna get on this shit. So, anyways, thanks for listening. Goodbye.