Ailama

There is no easy way up Ailama: the easiest classified routes are Russian 4A. The 4A north-east ridge-slope by which Woolley and Jossi made the first ascent in 1889 starts from the Ailama glacier on the Russian (Dykhsu) side, where ascents of Main Ridge summits are now prohibited, so from Georgia the realistic line is the west ridge from the Koruldashi valley in Lower Svaneti. The former Soviet Ailama training camp at the head of the Koruldashi valley closed in the late 1980s and the valley is now almost uninhabited; the 2020 Georgian party needed a few hours' walk from the road to reach the foot of the face. From the camp site follow the left bank of the Koruldashi, cross the river and take the left side of the big green moraine onto the lower plateau of the Koruldashi glacier (1–1.5 hours). The steep icefall to the upper plateau is bypassed on the left: a snow couloir off Vakhushti, a slab onto the shoulder of the Red buttress, ledges and gullies to a narrow snow couloir and easy rock to bivouac platforms below the upper plateau (5–6 hours from the camp). A steep ice-snow slope leads onto the upper plateau. Cross the upper plateau (hidden crevasses, stone and serac fall from Nuam-Kuam and Ailama Minor) to the broad south slope of the saddle between Ailama Minor and the Big gendarme of the west ridge. Climb 400–500 m past a bergschrund, then 600–700 m up and right, and the curving ice-snow couloir 'Zmeyka' (150–200 m) to the saddle; continue over the Big gendarme past bivouac platforms to the notch below the summit rise (2.5–4 hours from the plateau). Along the narrow corniced notch, then 140–150 m of steep ice-snow, five rock islands (the third with steep rock of grade 'above average' difficulty), and finally 800–1,000 m of broad corniced snow ridge to the summit: 5–7 hours from the ridge. Descend the same way with several abseils; in 2020 a Georgian party called the descent complex, with anchors hard to build on glacier-polished slabs and an icefall that has largely melted out.