We hiked just one hundred meters by the flat path not even passed the first ridge but felt like fishes washed up on the beach Once in the youth I took part in the running competition for 1000 meters. I ran well and even had 1st category on the run but each time after finishing I almost voided my stomach because of tension. Feelings were same when we had started climbing but you had to go further more and more. My throat was dry, my chest was tight with breath’s shortness, my heart was pounding like a motor, and my eyes were watering. I opened the mouth trying to breath but the body didn’t study how to do it here yet.
We followed the guides, who knew the small group of sheep males pastured not far from there. At first Zhaisan tried to walk with the same tempo like Mansur and Ruslan but understood soon that couldn’t breathe. I had to repeat him once again: “We won't be able to move so fast as they go but can spoil hunting because we won't have strength when it’d be necessary”. It’s very important to go in your own tempo to give the uniform load to your body! Or the lack of oxygen will affect not only lungs but the muscles too.
I took a bottle with the nutrition liquid which helped me many times when I was in such situations.
Thus, Zhaisan and I followed our leaders. Thanks to the guides who looked back from time to time checking where we were. Sometimes they even asked us to go faster though it didn't have any sense.
I couldn’t even say that the ascend was steep or difficult. Those mountains were more gentle in the comparison with the mountains in the Northern Ossetia where Zhaisan and I hunted a month and a half ago, but...
We were moving in the middle of the slope. We almost reached the shooting distance. Then the wind changed our plans. It often blows to the one side when you are on the plain but changes the direction in the ravine. And so, it happened when we entered the ravine where the sheep were. It began to blow to our backs.
Yuri, who stayed near the car and corrected our climbing, said the sheep stood up and went up to the mountains.
We didn’t have time to go 450 meters to shoot. But I knew that we couldn’t move faster than we went.
I felt same feelings and not once. When you’ve overcame dozens of km (no matter where, in the mountains or in the forest or on the plain) and has almost reached the trophy but suddenly something prevents you to get the desired prize and it becomes unattainable. It happens once again. Our trophies went away. We did our best trying to get the trophy. We almost ran but lost.
So, we sat to have rest and even wanted to go back when Yuri told us that the small group of sheep stopped in 500 m from us on one of the ledges. They didn't discover us yet but we needed to be in a hurry and to go up as soon as possible. But it was very difficult to ask Zhaisan and me to do so. Unfortunately, we had to refuse to chase them. The animals were not going to wait us and moved to the sky- high heights, as Yuri told us.
We were on the altitude 4500 masl at that time. Our condition was far from good. I felt as if was beaten and kicked. My arms and legs were just wadded up. It was a very strange feeling. It seemed to me (I can't say for Zhaisan) that they were filled by air and there were no muscles at all. Such sensation is a usual thing because of the lack of oxygen in the muscles.
We had short rest then stood up from the stones and went back. But it took not less than 5 minutes while I could move in a normal way. It was a mistake to think that the way back was lighter. Everything was hard for us in the first day in the mountains. At last we came to the car where another guide waited for us. Alik was a Kirghiz and I hunted with him already but in another camp.
Empty-handed!
I preferred to think that hunting luck would come to us later. None of us had appetite. I drank tea and went to bed. The only goal was to have rest till the evening.
I’ve noticed one thing which happens with me in the mountains. Being on the highlands I get the awful congestion in my chest but it’s not a cold. I felt dryness not only in the throat though drink a lot, but in the bronchi and in the nose. It is the effect of hyperventilation of the respiratory tract. It's not dangerous but not a pleasant thing. You can’t sleep well because of cough. It also bothered me when I was climbing. That time I decided to outsmart nature and took with me the nose drops based on apricot oil, and an inhaler with eucalyptus oil for the throat, as Yuri advised. It helped a lot and I could sleep well. Rest is the main component of recuperation. Zhaisan also used the inhaler from time to time.
Then in the evening we discussed the day. And Yuri said that there were a few more groups of sheep at that are. But we should need to rise the highest plateau at that area- Urtabuz. Telling the truth, we arrived there to hike the mountains. The unusual thing was that they carefully informed us that the plateau was on the altitude 5000 masl and asked the hunter if he was ready to risk and to go on such expedition. Zhaisan agreed without hesitation not realizing what it meant 5000 masl on the Pamir. He didn’t think about the price which he could pay for such climbing on the second day in the mountains. I immediately remembered how the guides didn’t allow me to climb the same height last time for a far-fetched reason, as I thought at that moment. I had already had an experience of being on such altitude on the pass AK-Baytal (White horse). Its height was 4 655 masl. I found myself wondering that couldn't not only talk but think there. Hypoxia influenced not only my speech system but my mind too. Yuri explained me later that I wouldn't be able to hunt for two days or more after being on 5000 masl. Nobody knew the consequences after such fast climbing without adaptation and better not to allow them. He said that we could successfully climb till 4600 masl but it was better to avoid to rise upper. Zhaisan and I had to experience for ourselves.
The second hunting day.
Next morning we got up early. It was interesting that nobody woke us up but we all got up and goatherd in the canteen to drink tea in time. It reminded me the preparation for a serious special operation. When everybody knew what to do and what to be ready for.
Zhaisan and I were fully prepared. I had a very rich experience in the mountain hunting but none of us did such climbing before and didn't know what would be there.
But we tried to look cheerful. We sat in the car looking military fit and ready for great things and drove. Alik was a driver, Zhaisan sat near him while Mansur, Ruslan and I sat on the back seat. We were slowly driving up in a frosty sunrise silence.
The flocks of migratory ducks were flying up from small lakes, where they stood for a short rest in the way to the south. We crossed several rivers covered by fresh ice.
Then the road went steeply up. The car’s engine was loudly snorting but drove us up but soon it gained its limit. That's it! We had to hike.
I just came out the car and wore the backpack when felt dyspnea. What would be there?? The lifeless, Martian landscape of Urtabuz didn’t promise anything good. Quite the contrary.
The sun had risen already and began to burn everything by the its radioactive rays. The wind there was even stronger than near the camp. It threw spike flakes of snow to our faces from time to time. But we had no choice. That’s why we went on to move.
It was hardly to believe that such physical trained people, as we were, who hunted and hiked a lot in the Caucasian mountains, could go just fifty meters and then asked to stop for the rest. Then we moved a few meters more and stopped once again. We both tried to get as much oxygen from the thin air, as it was possible.
The higher we went, more difficult for us was to breath. It seemed as there was no oxygen in air at all. We fully realized where we were and what was the main problem in such situation. Hypoxia. The longer you went, the stronger it became. We couldn’t breathe at all. Fortunately, all muscles, the heart and the brain still worked more or less well. Probably they still had oxygen. But I felt dryness in the lungs, larynx and bronchi. As the result I was always coughing and had constricted chest. The air pressure on the altitude 5000 masl was 400 mm Hg. Just 400 mmHg instead of 760 mm on the plain! You can decide, that it’s good. But it didn’t make us lighter we felt ourselves very heavy and clumsy.
The ascent became steeper. We had to jump by the huge stones and waste the last strengths.
Our group was divided. Alik had reached the top already and tried to spot the sheep. We heard the radio and knew that he couldn’t find any.
We were only a short distance away from the 5000 mark. I didn't feel the euphoria, provoked by hypoxia and the realization that I had reached such height. I had mixed feelings. From the one hand I was a pleasure to be on the top and to enjoy those beautiful views. But from the other, the height reminded me about my physical condition.
We could only use the language of gestures and looks. It was hard even to talk. My head was buzzing, and there were circles in front of my eyes.
When we stopped for a rest, I took out video camera and began to movie. And then something happened, what I had never felt before. I tried to comment the video and realized that could hardly say a word. I felt the familiar feeling when thoughts began to muddle. I experienced the same on the AK-Baital pass when wanted to comment the video but couldn’t find words.
Zhaisan and I exchanged glances and tried to smile. He felt the same symptoms, I guessed. He was blinking but very slowly. It looked unnatural.
In thirty minutes, we were on the top. 5000 meters above the sea level! Why? To get the trophy! Most people will twist the finger at the temple. Who needs the sheep at this price?
The landscape around us looked as if we were on the Mars not on the Earth. All we could see was the clay-sandy soil with a mass of stones scattered everywhere.
There was a very strong wind on the top which penetrated easily inside the clothes. We closed everything. But it was still cold. Probably the poor blood supply was the reason why we felt cold. Our blood clotted and flowed very slow that's why it was harder to warm up.
Ruslan, Mansur, Zhaisan and I hidden behind the rocks while Alik coordinated our actions with Yuri, who stayed down. We didn’t have to wait long. Soon we heard Yuri’s voice. He noticed the group of sheep. We stood up though it was hard to do for Zhaisan and me and moved to the Urtabuz plateau.
Walking on the plateau was a difficult task for us though it was flat. It sounded strange but it was even harder to start hiking after the rest on such heights than if we moved without stops. I felt weakness and all muscles seemed to be made from cotton. I made myself to move, to make them active. But we had reached the top already and found the sheep, the only thing we needed to do was to go.
At first, we went to the wrong side because of misunderstanding but then chose the right direction. The landscape looks different when you stand at the bottom because you can’t see all gorges. The sheep left the place while we were looking for the right way.
You could hardly imagine how upset we were. We rose the top and lost such opportunity to get the trophy!
It was painful to look at Zhaisan. I was afraid that we couldn’t hunt next days if failed now. I was sure that we should hear from 5000 masl next day. Nobody could predict how we’d feel ourselves after that climbing. But still we missed the herd.
And .. Decided to make the picture of all of us on such height. We prepared the cameras. I was sliding the camera making the panoramic picture.
The Karakul lake casted blue-sky color far beneath us. It was surrounded by the mountains peaks which I knew well from my previous hunting trips. The landscape was really amazing! The mountain peaks, covered by snow, inflected the full color spectrum. It happened because of the sunny rays which touched them by different angles. We did several shots and were ready to go back.
Mansur offered to give him my backpack but I refused. Nobody carried my backpack yet, It was me who always helped the clients with the heavy bags. I said that the problem was not it in the weight but in the lack of oxygen in atmosphere but we could nothing do with it.
We went back to the car. Ruslan and Mansur moved to the right. Suddenly Alik turned to us and pointed somewhere down and to the left. We saw the red and grey side of the sheep which stood between two huge stones. It was definitely a sheep male.
To be continued.
