Kyngyr-Chad

Kyngyr-Chad (also spelled Kyngyrchat) is the highest point of the Gidam ridge, part of the Bokovoy range between the Teberda and Aksaut valleys in Karachay-Cherkessia. The Soviet-era guidebook to Teberda, Dombay and Arkhyz describes the Kyngyrchat ridge as a high wall of marble covered with scree and snowfields; below its north side lies the rarely visited Kyngyr-Chad lake (2,924 m), which drains to the Aksaut. A 2011 trip report lists three ways into the Gidam valley, a left tributary of the Teberda, from which the peak is climbed: up the valley from Verkhnyaya Teberda, from the main road north of Teberda over the Achkhishtarabashi (Achkhishtara) Pass (n/k), or from Teberda up the Mukhu valley and over the Dvukhtsvetny Pass (1A). OpenStreetMap maps a path from the Teberda road over the Achkhishtara Pass and west through the upper Gidam to the ridge just north-east of the summit. At the valley head, a rocky saddle on the right gives a view of the lake but has no safe descent; the actual Kyngyrchat Pass lies further right, beyond a 3,394 m junction point. The summit is graded 1B. From the area of the pass follow the ridge south-west; the report notes that the true summit is the more distant bump, not the one that looks higher. Expect scree, broken marble and snowfields. Descend the same way. Total ascent is about 2,450 m with the counter-descent into the Gidam, so most parties camp by the Gidam lakes.