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Shkhara Map
Dykhtau
Trekking
Mountaineering |  Shkhara from Ushguli (south)
Diagram: Normal Route
 Shkhara (on right) from the Zanner Pass | Shkhara, 5201m.
The second highest summit in the Caucasus lies on the Main Caucasian Ridge
overlooking the Bezingi Glacier to the north and the remote Ushguli village in
Georgia to the south. It's ascent in 1888 by Almer, Cockin and Roth, was a
great mountaineering achievement at the time. Their ascent route by the NE
Ridge, graded 4b, is the most commonly used ascent and descent route. It finds
one of the easier ways up the extensive and awe-inspiring Bezingi Wall starting
from the Austrian Bivouac Hut in the Bezingi Glacier Basin. The ridge is gained
from the right by crevassed snow-slopes to a level area just right of and below
the point where the ridge becomes more defined (bivouac site). Now the ridge is
followed on snow and ice up to the main NE Ridge of Shkhara which is followed
over the East Top, 5050m, to the main summit. There is a good bivouac site
below the East Top some 10 to 14 hours from the Austrian Hut, from this bivouac
allow 3-4 hours to the main summit. The ascent of Shkhara is actually easiest from the south, starting from Ushguli
Village in Svanetia, however this has, till recently, been a rather
inaccessible location so the mountain has been seldom climbed from this side in
recent years. 
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