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Jannu North Face climber dies in a car accident
Jan 27, 2005 03: 29 EST
Previously published Jan 24, 2005
He survived Jannu, but a car crash finally took the life of Russian climber Serguey Borissov.
Serguey, from Yekaterinburg, was part of the Russian team who fought like no other to conquer the North Face of Jannu last year, and became one of 8 teams awarded Best of ExplorersWeb in 2004.
One of the most accomplished climbers in Russia, Serguey was preparing to climb Everest North Face next spring. It would be his second Everest summit from Tibet, after summiting the classic North Col route in 2002.
Excellence in the times of the Perestroika
Four times Champion of the Soviet Union, awarded "best climber of the USSR" in 1990 and 1991, his climbing level remained through political changes and frontier re-adjustment: he would become Champion of Russia twice.
However, his greatest achievement would come last spring, as part of the team who astonished the climbing community by climbing in extreme conditions the almost mythical North Face of Jannu.
The expedition deserved the second place in Explorersweb’s award to the Best Expeditions of 20004 for their “incredible courage, determination and persistence. The climb is a symbol of the highest climbing achievement, a combination of brilliant techniques, hard work and high altitudes.”
The echoes of Jannu
“The North Face of Jannu -a 3000 giant rock and ice face - is the present greatest challenge of the Himalaya”, said Erhard Loretan who tried it in 2002 and 2003.
The 2004 Jannu team was climbing the equivalent of the walls of Empire State building, in hurricane force winds, at an altitude where American Airline jets fly. Pain, cold and despair, but also power of will, climbing skills and perseverance centered the stories we wrote about them. We ran short of words trying to describe the real essence of one of the hardest climbs of the year.
In the last week of their climbing permit, still some pitches away fro the summit, after days of working through the storm and the night over 7000m high, the climbers started to lose hope. "But the idea that we would have to retreat with nothing to show for our pains, to live up to the expectations of those who did not believe in us, after we spent so much energy, forced us to continue the climb even in heavy snowfall, into late darkness," they wrote in their debrief.
The lucky day
The first two climbers reached the summit on May 26. Right afterwards they would report: "The climb has been beyond the humanly possible. The team was 9 experienced and strong climbers. And yet the size of this challenge forced them beyond the limit. Today we have 6 injured climbers: Three with concussions, one with a broken rib, one with pulmonary, and one with bloodshot eyes."
Serguey was one of them; he was hit by a rock fall above the last camp. Well, that didn't stop him. Next morning at 11 am, along with Nickolay Totmjanin and Gennady Kirievsky, Serguey Borissov stood on the summit of Jannu!
Back at home after summiting Jannu, Borissov would recall “Two years ago, exactly on the same date, May 26, I climbed Everest."
This May 26, Everest will miss Serguey.
Serguey Borissov was Master of Sports of International class and former leader of Ural Sport Club Army team.
Images of Jannu North Face and Serguey, courtesy of Russian Climb.
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2004
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