Ushba
Interesting facts
- Climbers first tried Ushba in 1868, when an English party led by Douglas Freshfield made several attempts and failed.
- The north summit fell on the fourth attempt in 1888, climbed by way of the Gul glacier.
- According to Georgian sources, the south summit was reached only on the sixteenth attempt, and in the following 60 years just four attempts succeeded.
- In 1934 the first Georgian team stood on Ushba, and Alexandra Japaridze became the first woman to reach its summit.
- In 1937 a team of Svan climbers, including three members of the Kherghiani family, made the first ascent of the formidable south wall.
- The twin peaks are built of Palaeozoic granite and crystalline schist, and the Gul and Ushba glaciers flow down from their flanks.
- The mountaineer R. L. G. Irving counted Ushba among the ten peaks chosen for his 1940 book Ten Great Mountains.
- The Soviet Union put Ushba's twin peaks on a 1964 postage stamp celebrating the development of mountaineering.
Why it is worth it
Ushba is the mountain climbers draw when they imagine the Caucasus: two great rock towers side by side, linked by a high saddle, rising above the green valleys of Svaneti in north-western Georgia. It is not among the ten highest peaks of the range, but its double-spired silhouette has earned it the name "Matterhorn of the Caucasus", and many mountaineers regard it as the hardest ascent in the whole chain. The south summit, at about 4,710 metres, is slightly higher than the north summit at 4,690 metres; the two are about 640 metres apart in a straight line, though the traverse between them runs for well over a kilometre of complicated ridge.
The north summit was first reached in 1888 by an English party with the Swiss guide Ulrich Almer. The south summit held out until 26 July 1903, when it was climbed by a German, Swiss and Austrian expedition led by Willi Rickmer Rickmers. The standard route to the north summit, graded AD+, climbs the northeast ridge from the Russian side of the range, since the border runs just north of the mountain; on the Georgian side, the south summit is guarded by walls with routes at the extreme ED grade. In Soviet times Ushba ranked among the most prestigious and difficult objectives in the Union, alongside peaks such as Free Korea Peak in Kyrgyzstan.
In Georgian mythology, Ushba was the home of Dali, the goddess of the hunt and protector of wild animals. The mountain belongs to Svaneti, a high, long-isolated region of the Greater Caucasus known for its medieval stone defensive towers, many of which still rise over the town of Mestia, at about 1,500 metres. The tower village of Ushguli in Upper Svaneti was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1996.
Getting there
Ushba stands on the main ridge of the Greater Caucasus, just south of the Russian border, about 11 km north-west of Mestia in a straight line. Mestia lies about 128 km by road north-east of Zugdidi. The nearest international airport is David the Builder Kutaisi International (KUT), about 106 km away in a straight line; Mestia's own Queen Tamar Airport has domestic flights to Kutaisi and Tbilisi's Natakhtari airfield. The town of Tyrnyauz, about 36 km away in Russia, is on the other side of the main ridge.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Ushba is one of the most notable peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. It is located in the Svaneti region of Georgia, just south of the border with the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. Although it does not rank in the 10 highest peaks of the range, Ushba is known as the "Matterhorn of the Caucasus" for its picturesque, spire-shaped double summit. Ushba is considered by many climbers as the most difficult ascent in the Caucasus.
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