The team:
1. Vladislav Terzyul, the leader
2. Vladimir Pestrikov

The 2002 expedition was the second attempt by V. Terzyul to summit the Himalayan giant Dhaulagiri. His first attempt was made in autumn of 1997 with a team of 3 other Ukrainians - Sergey Bershov, Igor Svergun, and Viktor Bokov. Due to bad weather, accumulation of snow and avalanche danger they reached 7100 meters and turned back. Despite those conditions, on his second attempt Terzyul was familiar with the route and remembered every cliff and snow mound. Even so the climbing proved hard. From the very beginning they faced difficulties. The trek to BC took them 10 days instead of 7 as planned because of financial problems with porters and with sickness. But after reaching BC, they managed to set up intermediate camps in about two weeks, climbed to 6800m, made an acclimatization ascent to 7500m and returned to BC. As during his previous attempt, there was a lot of snow and the mountain’s condition did not make one optimistic about success. The weather was bad. Continuous snowfall filled the tracks on the trail, buried the fixed ropes and the tents. Moreover, the snow increased the danger for avalanche and caused additional problems climbing. In that situation, Vladimir and Vladislav made the best choices they could. At C1 and C2 they built snow caves instead of using tents. The caves could not be destroyed under pressure, and for moving in deep snow they used ‘big foots’ or snow shoes. It’s worth mentioning that the team worked independently according to their own plan without the support of Sherpas or members of other expeditions. When they returned from the first ascent, they learned that all the expeditions were leaving BC and as a result, they would be alone in camp and on the route. The main reason for the others’ decision to leave was that a huge avalanche had covered part of the route. Terzyul didn’t intend to surrender twice to Dhaulagiri and decided on a way to avoid the overloaded snowy slope on the traditional route by crossing onto the east ridge. Actually, the second ascent was impressive. The mass of snow had increased considerably and buried fixed ropes and traces. Therefore the team spent more effort and time than they expected. Above C2 they picked up ropes left by other expeditions for use later on the route. Moreover the pass onto the east ridge after C3 was technically difficult - icy slopes and couloirs. C3 was established at 7500m - it became the intermediate and summit camp. In total the second ascent took them 7 days and the descent 3 days.

Schedule of Mt. Dhaulagiri climb (by V.Pestrikov):
"10.01.02 -The first part: passed from BC (4740m) to C1 (5900m), snow cave construction, overnight;
10.02.02 - Development of C1.
10.03.02 - Ascent to C2 (6800m), snow cave construction and overnight.
10.04.02 - Ascent to C3 (7500m) for acclimatization, then return to C2 for overnight
10.05.02 - Return to BC.That day all the expeditions based in BC decided go down from BC and abandon the attempt to climb Mt. Dhaulagiri for the reason of "avalanche danger and bad snow conditions on the route” (actually they had different reasons).
10.07-08.02 - Very heavy snow fall for two days, at BC about 1m of new snow. All other expeditions left BC.
10.09.02 - Team made the decision to continue climbing and start the next day.
10.10.02 - From BC ? C1 took about 14 hours (instead of 5 hours normally) in “big foots,” no tracks on the trail, no ropes.
10.11.02 - C1 - C2 took 10 hours in “big foots” (usually 3-4 hours), no tracks, no ropes.
10.12.02 - C2 - C3 full day ascending from morning until deep darkness, tents set up about 21.00. On the way we picked up ropes left by other expeditions (about 300m) in order to use them for further ascent. After C3 the route got steeper and a wind had blown off the snow.
10.13.02 - C3 (7500m) - climbed to the rock ridge to overlook the route, then equipped it and reached 7600m.
10.14.02 - C3 worked on the route up to 7700 - 7800m.
10.15.02 - C3 ascent to 7900m.
10.16.02 - C3, hung the last ropes and looked for way to summit.
10.17.02 - Summit day, started from C3 at 5.00 a.m., reached summit at 15.00, return to C3 at about 18.00. In the morning the weather was clear but very windy and extremely cold; cloudiness was coming toward the mountain from the south. Around 12.00-12.30 visibility was getting worse; from 13.00 there was very bad visibility and a stormy wind.
10.18.02 - C3 - C2 the descent took us almost a full day, very deep snow, avalanche danger.
10.19.02 - C2 - C1, descent to 5700m and overnight in tent on the icefall.
10.20.02 - 5700 - BC, arrived in BC around 16.00."


Snowy slopes of Mt.Dhaulagiri

Practically all the way from the summit to BC they moved very cautiously, tied with rope. No permanent safety rope had been fixed below due to avalanches. On the slopes prone to avalanche, they broke off the snow deliberately to cause small avalanches to slip down to make a passable way. When they were in BC the team packed up all the bivouac stuff, gear and clothes to be ready for evacuation. While they were walking to meet the porters the stuff was stolen. They arrived back in Kathmandu with only chocolate, but they had summited!