“Sergey, I’m falling.” Dmitry Golovchenko’s last words were neither an exclamation of panic nor a cry of desperate warning… it was just a cold realization: he was rushing toward his death and accepting it with the calmness of one who knows that only one stupid detail can destroy him. “Sergey, I’m falling,” it echoes over and over again in the dull thoughts of Sergey Nilov, who survived but thinks about it, stranded at 7,684 meters above sea level, sitting on a rope, barely wearing warm clothes and in the middle of the night, maybe he’s dead and doesn’t want to accept it.
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Anna Piunnova, director of Mountain.ru, the Russian mountaineering news portal, did not hold back her word and yesterday, after an interview with survivor Sergei Nilov, published a summary of the events that ended the life of the legendary Golovchenko, while both opened a new route on the southeast ridge of Gasherbrum IV (7,925 m). And these were so bizarre that it is difficult to process so much unhappiness. For this reason, Piunnova asks that no one judge or speculate about what happened, that the discourse be respected and the irreversible facts be accepted. And the journalist recalls that Golovchenko had a six-month-old daughter, Masha, and another twelve-year-old daughter named Olya.
Golovchenko and Nilov began opening their new itinerary on August 21, despite strong winds and snowfall. Even at night they sat shivering on tiny ledges, close together to share some warmth. They never announced their intention to quit. So they lumbered forward, rationing the gas to melt the snow and their food, and reached 25,000 feet (7,684 meters), already very close to the summit. There, on a tiny hill above a snow corridor, they pitched their tent, attached a safety rope to the rock and tied themselves to it as they drank tea inside and prepared to sleep.
Sergei Nilov during his ascent of the GIV.
But they soon discovered that their hut was not stable enough and was in danger of sliding down the slope. Sergey tried to improve his situation by placing snow and stones under the tarp to create a wider and more stable platform. It was August 31st. Once outside, Sergey tied himself to the safety rope again, tied a knot, and sent him to his friend to anchor himself while he gathered his belongings inside so as not to lose any of his valuable material. He had no time. In an instant, the tent tipped under the weight of its occupant and slid inexorably down the slope. Where there used to be a tent, all that was left was a safety rope. And an emptiness of incomprehension and fear.
Dawn sent Nilov out wearing only his first layer of clothing. He decided to abseil down his friend’s fall protection and found scraps of material that saved his life. He performed 15 rappels and endured an ordeal to create solid anchors (with barely any material) for the rope to pass through. He found a sleeping bag, slept in caves dug in the snow, didn’t eat (the birds ate everything) and couldn’t drink because he found the stove, but it was destroyed. He also found his friend’s remains on the glacier, wrapped them in the tent canvas and continued his way to the base camp, which he reached five days after the accident. It’s a miracle he’s still alive.
The tent at 7,684 meters above sea level and the snow corridor through which he fell with Golovchenko inside. Sergei Nilov (Mountain.ru)
Great climbers like Golovchenko rarely die while climbing. They know not to fall. They know how to be extremely careful. They know how to survive. However, they cannot predict when their share of the assets will end. They don’t know what awaits them, whether it awaits them, a certain stone on their head, a ledge that breaks, a crack, a detail that makes everything change forever when no one expects it. After surviving an epic climb and descent of Jannu (7,710m) in 2019, Golovchenko explained that they gave up on the summit because “it would have been dangerous and we didn’t want to expose ourselves further.” We live a life outside the mountains : Sergei has four children, I have one and I want another. Our families need us alive and well…so we kept our heads level and went above and beyond.”
Nilov and Golovchenko had always climbed together and their toughness was already legendary. They always chose challenges of enormous difficulty and commitment in places where they could not expect outside help: they won their first Golden Piolet in 2012 after making the first ascent of the forming northeast ridge of the Muztagh Tower (7,276 m). Team with Alex Lange. And they repeated the award in 2016 after opening a new route on the north face of Thalay Sagar (6,904 m) together with Dmitry Grigoriev. Neither were mountaineering professionals and always traveled with little money and little support. They were authentic mountaineers and adventurers, without pretense, without Instagram walks or headlights illuminating their path. Simply an endless passion to live a life tailored to your needs.
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