Mount Tepli

Tepli is the highest point of a large, isolated mountain massif in North Ossetia, bounded by the Ardon river to the west and the Fiagdon to the east. It lies on the Side Range (Severny Bokovoy khrebet), north of the lower Main Caucasus Range, at the junction with the Fiagdon arc. Ridges and buttresses radiate from the summit: a jagged east ridge to Tepli Central (4,390 m) and Tepli East (4,350 m), a north ridge falling in walls to the Northern Tepli pass, and a west ridge towards the small peak of Stal. The northern slopes carry the Western and Northern Tepli glaciers, and its huge, dark north face is one of the most impressive walls of the area.

There is no easy route. The classified ascents are combined snow, ice and rock climbs of grades 3B to 4A, all needing a glacier bivouac and a long summit day. The usual approach is from the south-west, up the Lyadon valley from the village of Nar on the Transcaucasian road, to the South-west Tepli glacier. The massif's many passes, mostly 1B with a few 2A–2B near the summit, are popular with Russian mountain-tourism groups.

Its glaciation and route difficulty are more modest than in the neighbouring Karaugom–Tsey and Djimarai–Kazbek groups, but the main summit itself is seldom climbed, and information is almost entirely in Russian guidebooks and reports.