KUPOL

In July 2005 Roxanna Brock and I went into the Sayan Mountains in
Siberia to an area called Kupol. The local Irkutsk climbers attacked
this area in 1999, rapping down the mountains with drills and an
ass-stack of bolts. Fortunately for us they left one formation
unclimbed. We put a nine-pitch line up this formation, the first
all-trad climb in the area. Our route was approximately 1,100 feet tall
and went at probably 5.11 with one point of aid to swing over to another
crack. The climb, though short, was fairly sustained and interesting. We
found a straight-up variation–a 200-foot, 5.12 finger crack–that we
toproped (superawesome thin crack) but unfortunately did not have time
to lead. The weather crapped out for the rest of the trip, so the route
did not go free. But it still offered the best climbing in the area, we
feel. Not biased at all. We named it Pofigo, which means “whatever” or
“it does not matter,” because it most likely will go unrepeated unless
someone rap bolts it. We placed no bolts or pins.