On August 15, a team of Lithuanian mountaineers returned home from the Ak Shyyrak mountain range in Kyrgyzstan where they were the first to climb several peaks. They gave Lithuanian names to five peaks, calling one of them the Baltic Way.
The team led by Laurynas Marcinkus consisted of Vaidas Jazdauskas, Girvydas Kulakauskas, Simonas Krencius, and Dominykas Mazur. They represented the Vilnius Tech Tourist Club, Vilnius University Hiking Club, and KTU Hiking Club “Ąžuolas”.
In three weeks, they climbed 9 passes and 6 peaks. Some of them were reached for the first time, so they could be named by the mountaineers themselves, according to the established tradition.
From now on, the Kyrgyz mountains will bear Lithuanian names of Hiperbolė, Vilnius Tech, Baltasis Tiltas (White Bridge), Žemyna, and Aušra passes, as well as Ąžuolas, Gabija, Perkūnas, Vilnius 700, and Baltijos Kelias (Baltic Way) peaks. They also called one pass Snake Island after an island where the Ukrainian border guard told the Russian warship to go “go fuck yourself”.
In an exclusive interview with LRT.lt, on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the Baltic Way, two members of the team – Laurynas and Vaidas – share their impressions of their trip.
How did you come up with the idea to name a peak after the Baltic Way?
Laurynas: [In the centre of the Ak Shyyrak range] there is this peak that looks like a pyramid with three beautiful ridges. There are three very clear routes, so we could climb one ridge and then we could talk to Estonians and Latvians and say: would you like to climb your route too?
So, I came up with this name, and Vaidas liked it very much. His eyes lit up, even though it was very difficult to walk at that moment.
Vaidas: I was sick at the time. I was already thinking about home and a warm bed, but when Laurynas told me about this plan, I said I wanted to go home, but first I wanted to climb this peak.
How does it feel to be the first to reach a new peak?
Vaidas: You are the first and then you are naming the mountain. You are making history. You are contributing to the name of the mountain and to its history.
Laurynas: Nowadays, in the mountaineering vocabulary, people often refer to climbing a mountain as an expedition. It’s becoming a cliché and has nothing to do with a real expedition, as the word used to be understood. For me, an expedition is when you discover something new, go somewhere new. It could be in the jungle, it could be a small stream somewhere, but it’s something new.
At that moment you are a discoverer. Nobody [has been there], and you’re transported back to the 18th or 19th century when people used to do this, and it was normal. There’s the fact of reaching a peak, but the more interesting thing is the thinking process, the discoverer’s game on the map.
You mentioned the 18th and 19th centuries, and I thought of the colonial period. Isn’t it only considered a discovery when a white European climbs a mountain?
Laurynas: Of course, people walk on the mountains. For example, local people and shepherds live in the mountains, but they don’t climb the peaks.
In the Western Alps, every little peak has its own name. And so, when we climbed, we wrote reports about how to climb the mountain, how difficult it was, etc. You can look at those descriptions and then climb according to that information.
Do people see these names? Do the locals know them or is it only known to mountaineering enthusiasts?
Vaidas: It’s more known to the mountaineers. It’s mostly people who read the reports and look at the maps. It’s not so official that if you open Google Maps, you’ll find the Baltic Way peak.
Laurynas: In 1959, a peak was named after Gediminas Akstinas, who was one of the first Lithuanian mountaineers. When he died, his friends reached a new peak and named it after him. For Lithuanians, it became the most visited peak.
It is not officially documented in any way on the maps. It is a very long process, as it has to be approved by the local government, then by the state, and then, the World Association of Geographers can register the name after a certain fee is paid. There have been initiatives to do this, but all of them have so far been unsuccessful. So, no peak or pass [named by Lithuanians] has been officially registered.
Interestingly, one of the names you gave to a peak was Snake Island. How do you think people will react to this name?
Laurynas: Mostly Russian tourists and mountaineers walk on that mountain in Kyrgyzstan. So, I think there will be different reactions.
What do you pack in your rucksack when going on an expedition? How do you get used to the weight?
Laurynas: Basically, we spent four months training and preparing physically for the trip.
The rest is psychological. You can be physically well prepared, but you struggle if you think it’s hard and you’re not ready for it. Everyone has to make some preparation in their head, and there has to be motivation for it.
Vaidas: Because you are carrying every gram, you pack only the essentials – a sleeping bag, sleeping clothes, walking clothes for different weather, and general equipment, including pots for cooking and special technical climbing equipment.
And, of course, there is food. It is decided before the trip how many grams of food we’ll get per day. In our case, approximately 600 grams of food were spread out over the day – about 200 grams for each meal. Breakfast and dinner are shared and cooked for the whole group, and are usually a variety of porridge, pasta, rice, and lentils.
Laurynas: Buckwheat.
Vaidas: Of course, how could you do without buckwheat? Usually, you also carry cheese, canned meat, and dried vegetables for the food to be more nutritious.
Laurynas: Almost the whole group lost 6-8 kilos, and we weren’t very fat people before the trip either. You just burn 5,000-6,000 calories every day, and you get up to 3,000 calories from food.
This trip was rated 5 out of 6 in the difficulty category. What does that mean?
Laurynas: It’s a difficulty category, which consists of how many passes you cross, how far you walk, how many days, and how technically difficult that period is because a mountain pass is a walk from one valley to the other through a mountain range.
What altitude were you at?
Laurynas: Between 4 and 5 kilometres.
How many hours did you have to walk every day? How much time did you spend resting?
Laurynas: In the mountains, we live according to the sun's rhythm – we get up when the sun rises and stop before the sun sets. We do everything during daylight hours, except maybe a few days when you have to get up very early because there is a risk of falling rocks and so on.
Breakfast is shared, and then you walk until lunch. We take more time for lunch, about an hour, to digest, and then we move on. We stop for an hour before the sun goes down so that we have time to eat and then get at least 8 hours of sleep in the dark.
The standard is that you walk for 45 minutes and rest for about 10 minutes, just because when you are carrying a heavy rucksack you need to take it off and rest.
How much do these trips cost financially and emotionally?
Vaidas: As one of our group mates said, this trip pays off emotionally. It’s difficult, sometimes you almost want to cry, but when you get home, the difficulty is all gone in your mind. It’s really exciting to look at the pictures of what you’ve done and remember everything.
Laurynas: Financially, the biggest cost is getting there and insurance. For example, the tickets cost 700 euros, which is more than half of the total cost of the trip. We spent around 1,300 euros on this trip.
Why were you attracted to go to Kyrgyzstan?
Laurynas: There are wild mountains in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan. There are no tracks, no huts, no people. There is no infrastructure, and you know that there is not much around you. We walk completely autonomously.
The Alps are easy to get to, there are a lot of people there. And these mountains – in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan – are completely wild and that’s what’s attractive about it.
We talk about everything from the adventure side. But recently, a Lithuanian mountaineer died in Kyrgyzstan. Does that make you look at things from a slightly different perspective?
Laurynas: Mountains are an inherently dangerous place, there are risks that you cannot control, and you have to take some risks just by being there. It’s a personal decision because you know that you can die in the mountains.
There are those who say: you are going up there, do you need that risk? But we try to manage that risk as much as possible.
In the same way, you face risks when you go out on the street, you can be hit by a car, you can get into a car accident, even though you’ve done everything you can [to protect yourself].
These are uncontrollable risks, and there are always risks in life. But you want to live life to the maximum and not sit at home and be afraid that you might die in the mountains.
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