Climbing
How do you even get to a place that’s not on Google Maps? Here we go…
Kilian Fischhuber journeys deep into the Siberian wilderness, led by a Russian guide without a GPS, to find the mysterious Rock Cities of Ulakhan-Sis. Here's how the crew made it in – and out.
1 min
Kilian Fischhuber in Siberia: The Sundrun Pillars
Kilian Fischhuber and friends journey deep into the Siberian wilderness to find and climb the mysterious rock formations that are the Sundrun Pillars.
Situated deep in the north of Siberia in the Sakha Republic, this town of 2,000 people is where Kilian Fischhuber and his climbing crew – Robert Leistner of Germany and Russian Galya Terenteva, who would serve as the translator for their Russian guide – flew into to start their journey.
Their destination? A group of granite towers first spotted from the air by a Russian photographer in 2016. Were they even climbable? They’d find out when they got there, after a three-day hike through the swamp. Read on to find out more about this expedition to the mysterious towers in the middle of nowhere.
The destination for the climbers
© Corey Rich/Red Bull Content Pool
You can’t find it on satellite maps
At least without knowing exactly where to start and what you’re looking for. Using measurements and directions, Fischhuber was able to do a little bit of research, but without a few serious clues, most people would have no luck determining the precise GPS coordinates of the towers. And while Fischhuber’s excited to share the story, he’s not so sure about sharing the location. “It’s a mystery, and maybe we can keep it this way!” says the Austrian climber.
Fischhuber was worried the whole thing might be a hoax
The world first heard of the unique natural rock formations when photos surfaced in the Siberian Times back in 2016. The photos were from Sergey Karpukhin, a Russian adventurer, photographer and hopefully, their guide. Fischhuber managed to get in touch, then spent approximately a year figuring out the details, having the entire conversation with the help of Google Translate.
Fischhuber is one of the planet's best climbers
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
“At one point, I got worried it might all be a hoax,” explains Fischhuber. “There was almost no way to know who this guy was, or if what he was talking about was the truth.” Thankfully it was – minus a bit about bears and mosquitos – but more on that later. “I did as much of a background check on him as I could, because we had to trust him completely.”
Sergey Karpukhin had already made a couple of visits
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
They were counting on food buried in the tundra
Hauling enough food through 30km of swamp to support professional climbers for ten days isn’t really realistic. Sergey had stashed food at the towers on his last winter expedition. The climbers had to trust it was there – or else they’d be turning around almost as soon as they arrived. Would it still be there? Sergey opined: “most likely!” Good news: it was.
The hike begins for our intrepid travellers
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
The most important thing they brought with them was rubber boots
30km isn’t far – unless you’re walking on melting permafrost. The terrain was covered in snow the entire winter, when temps reach minus 70 degrees Celsius regularly – then hit 30 degrees Celsius in the summer. Sitting just below the surface of the swamp was rock-solid ice – meaning the water had nowhere to escape to. That means there’s water or mud simply everywhere. Sergey told them under no circumstances to forget bring rubber boots with them.
Fischhuber, Terenteva and Leistner got the memo about those rubber boots
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
“They were my best friends,” said Fischhuber. “You couldn’t take a single step without your rubber boots – not even to pee.”
They hauled in over 200kg of gear – and no water
Climbing is a gear-intensive sport – so in addition to tents, mats and other camping supplies, they had two 60m climbing ropes, a full rack of trad climbing gear and a hammer, drill and pitons for placing protection. It was over 200kg of gear split between the crew of seven people – and that didn’t even include water. Why? Read on.
All sun, all day
“We were so far north, the sun never set,” says Fischhuber. “It just got dim for a few hours at night – and that was actually the best time for hiking, when it got a bit cooler.”
This was no easy hike
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
It took three days of hiking before they reached their destination
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
The big reward! Seeing them close up in all their magnificence
© Corey Rich/Red Bull Content Pool
Two times savoury, one time sweet
With the constant sun, normal meal times weren’t really practical. So the team settled on a routine: two savoury meals, followed by a sweet meal, every six hours – enough to keep them energised for climbing.
They just drank water from the tundra
“We asked Sergey about bringing water,” Fischhuber explains. “He said don’t worry about it – there’s water everywhere – and he was right.” Since it was early in the season, they found plenty of melting snow. Rather than using water purifiers or filters, they just boiled it all – although by the end of the trip, when water was scarce, they were just drinking it straight from the puddles. “Nobody got sick, and on that, we got really lucky,” Fischhuber adds.
The group ate and drank as often as they could
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
It took us just one hour of hiking to see our first footprint from a bear – and it was big
There were bugs – and bears
One of the first questions Kilian asked Sergey was if there would be bears. “He said ‘probably not’,” says Fischhuber. “It took us just one hour of hiking to see our first footprint from a bear – and it was big.” There were also the mosquitoes. “We got mostly lucky – there were a few bugs on the way out and at the campsite, but on the walk back – there were simply millions. You couldn’t escape them – it was absolutely biblical.”
The bugs were a constant menace
© Elias Holzknecht/Red Bull Content Pool
12 towers, 12 new routes...
Over ten days on the tundra, they tackled 12 new routes on 12 different towers. “Keep in mind, we spent a ton of time just looking from the right line among an endless number of towers,” says Fischhuber. And of course, they had to spend a lot of time placing protection and cleaning routes – many of which were covered with lichen, or had loose rock.
The towers were sculpted by relentless freezing and thawing of the granite
© Corey Rich/Red Bull Content Pool
… with the potential for hundreds more
"There are hundreds or thousands of these towers,” Fischhuber says – and that’s just what they saw with their own eyes – "and we know from aerial photography there are areas with even more towers.” The potential is huge – but for the near future, it’s certainly going to be difficult to get there.
23 min
Terra Incognita
In 2018 Austrian climber Kilian Fischhuber led an expedition to one of the most remote parts of Siberia.
A film has been made about the expedition
A new documentary about Kilian Fischhuber's special Ulakhan-Sis expedition has just been released, so watch it and be mesmerised by his awesome climbing skills in the player above right now!
