Ushba (4,710 m): Routes, Season & GPX

Routes

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Approximate line — not for navigation

An automated check found that parts of this line could not be matched to mapped trails, so it may stray far from the real route. Use it for planning only, with a map and a guidebook.

Why? 8 check notes

danger scan: Guli → Southern Ushba: straight line 5335 m (limit 200 m)
danger scan: Guli → Southern Ushba: straight line: 70° over 25 m (> 60°, high-res DEM)
danger scan: Guli → Southern Ushba: sustained 68° > 45° on a straight line
last routed vertex 5334 m from the summit (closed by straight)
60% straight-line fallback
60% approximate geometry
low confidence 0.48
Guli → Southern Ushba: straight (snap_failed; DEM rejected: no path below 45° between the endpoints, 5.3 km)

AlpineTDUIAAV+MixedNormal route

Sources differ: 5A–5B (Russian/Caucasian) (American Alpine Journal 2022) · V/VI (often icy cracks) (American Alpine Journal 2022) · ED (stonefall danger) (SummitPost)

The standard route to the 4,710 m South summit, the higher of Ushba's two tops: a multi-day rock and mixed climb up the south ridge from the Guli glacier, with a 300 m snow couloir, loose ledges, a crux of icy cracks around UIAA V/VI and a long corniced summit crest. Usually done with two bivouacs; serious rockfall danger.

Elevation Profile

approximate line

Distance: ≈ 8.9 km; one way
Ascent: ≈ +3,268 m; −177 m lost on the way up
High Point: 4,710 m
Time Up: ≈ 12h 22m; DIN 33466
Time Down: ≈ 8h 14m; DIN 33466 · same way back

There is no easy way up South Ushba. The route Gabriel Khergiani's party climbed in September 1937 up the south ridge is regarded as the standard line to the main summit and is graded Caucasian 5A–5B. Approach from Mazeri in the Becho valley (Upper Svaneti) up the marked trail towards the Guli glacier and the old Guli shelters, then by moraine to a bivouac site on the flat ground beside the big moraine (roughly 2,600–2,900 m). Register with the border police in Mestia or Becho before entering the border zone. From the Guli camp, cross the Guli glacier above its icefall to the mouth of a wide snow couloir at the foot of the south ridge and climb it for about 300 m. A system of ledges with short, difficult walls and loose stones (120 m) leads to a 25 m wall (IV+), then to a gap under the bastion of the south-west buttress. Icy rock (50 m, IV) and easier slabs reach a broad ledge where a first bivouac is possible. Above, the first rock band is turned on the left, a stonefall-raked snow couloir is climbed for 200 m and icy slabs lead back to the crest, where the usual high camp sits on a 2–3 m wide platform. Follow the crest about 300 m to a bastion (25 m, IV-) and the second rock band. The crux is a system of cracks, often coated with thin ice, to the foot of a steep 100 m ice gully (V–VI, sometimes aided), followed by icy rock (III–IV) onto the narrow summit crest. That crest runs 500–600 m over snow and easy rock, heavily corniced, to the summit, which may carry a cornice overhanging the Ushba saddle. Descent is usually by the Mazeri Tooth (Mazeri col side) with many abseils from slings left on rock. Plan 3–5 days from Mazeri; the first ascensionists took five.

Start

Mazeri1,620 m

Night train or marshrutka Tbilisi–Zugdidi, marshrutka Zugdidi–Mestia; no public transport to Mazeri (taxi from Mestia, about 80–100 GEL in 2024).

Waypoints

Trailhead:
Mazeri1,620 m
Guesthouses; reached by a rough road from the Mestia highway via Becho
Feature:
Guli1,916 m
Ruins of the old Guli shelters on the path to the Guli glacier
Summit:
Southern Ushba4,710 m

Key Passages

Guli glacier crossing above the icefall
300 m snow couloir at the foot of the south ridge
Loose ledges and walls (IV+, IV) to the south-west buttress
Stonefall-exposed snow couloir through the first rock band
Icy crack system and 100 m steep ice gully below the summit crest (V–VI)
500–600 m corniced summit crest

Equipment

0/12 packed

Downloads

Route confidence 48%

Overview

The double-summited 'Matterhorn of the Caucasus' above Mestia in Svaneti, Georgia. Even its easiest routes are serious, multi-day mixed climbs: Caucasian 4A to the North summit and 5A–5B to the 4,710 m South summit, with an accident record to match.

Ushba stands on the main Caucasus ridge 1.5 km from the closed Russian border, rising above the villages of Mazeri and Becho at the head of the Dolra valley in Upper Svaneti. It has two tops about 640 m apart: the South summit (4,710 m), the main summit, and the North summit (about 4,690 m), joined by a snow saddle. Steep granite and gneiss walls drop 2,000 m on most sides, and the mountain makes its own weather, so clear mornings in the valley often turn into cloud and storms on the summits by midday.

There is no walking route. The standard way to the main summit, Gabriel Khergiani's 1937 line up the south ridge from the Guli glacier, is a 3–5 day rock and mixed climb with icy cracks around UIAA V/VI, rated Caucasian 5A–5B. The far more frequented North summit is reached by a long glacier approach from Mazeri to a camp on the Ushba Plateau and a 4A (about D-) ice slope and corniced ridge. Both need camping on the mountain; there are no huts.

Objective danger is high. Climbers who know the mountain describe rockfall on the south, east and south-west aspects as very dangerous in August, avalanches on several routes, and an unstable microclimate with a high rate of accidents; a memorial stone at the end of the Ushba glacier path carries plaques for those killed. Access is through a Georgian border zone that requires registration with the border police; climbing from the Russian side is not possible.

Climbing Notes

Only for experienced alpinists. For the North summit you need confident movement on 45–60° ice, crevasse rescue skills and the ability to camp for four to six days above 3,000 m; for the South summit add sustained rock and mixed climbing to about UIAA V/VI with icy cracks, a multi-pitch abseil descent and two or more bivouacs on the route. Guides and local climbers recommend having climbed Kazbek or Elbrus first, and an acclimatisation day on Mount Mazeri (about 4,010 m) or around Mestia and the Koruldi lakes.

A typical North summit programme runs Mazeri to the Ushba glacier camp, a second camp at the Cliff Shelf, a camp on the Ushba Plateau, a 3:00 summit start and a two-day descent: plan 8–10 days from Tbilisi with reserve days. For the South summit, start from the Guli glacier camp and allow 3–5 days on the route. Most foreign climbers go with a qualified guide through an organised programme.

Before entering the upper Dolra or Guli valleys, register with the border police in Mestia or Ushkhvanari/Becho with your passport (free, about 20 minutes to 2 hours). Leave your plans with the Mestia rescue service and carry a means of calling 112. Aim for cold, settled periods; in hot spells rockfall on the southern aspects and seracs in the Ushba icefall are the main threats, and petty theft from camps below the mountain has been reported.

History

John Garforth Cockin and the Swiss guide Ulrich Almer made the first ascent of the North summit in 1888. The higher South summit was first climbed on 26 July 1903 by a German-Swiss-Austrian party from Willi Rickmer Rickmers' expedition, with Adolf Schulze leading the crux over the overhanging Red Corner on the south-west face; the team was caught by a thunderstorm on the descent. Later that summer Hans Pfann, Ludwig Distel and Georg Leuchs made the first traverse of both summits from north to south, taking three days. Soviet climbers made Ushba a test piece: the 1937 Khergiani south ridge became the standard route to the South summit, and in 1964 Mikhail Khergiani climbed the 'Mirror', the smooth north-east wall of the North summit. Ushba remained one of the most prestigious and difficult peaks in the former Soviet Union.

Season

Best Jul

January: Not advisable
February: Not advisable
March: Not advisable
April: Not advisable
May: Not advisable
June: Possible
July: Best (best window)
August: Good
September: Best
October: Possible
November: Not advisable
December: Not advisable

Jan: Winter; very rare expedition-style ascents only
Feb: Winter conditions
Mar: Winter conditions
Apr: Winter conditions; high avalanche risk
May: Deep snow on the approaches
Jun: Possible with lots of snow; avalanche and cornice risk
Jul: Main season
Aug: Main season, but rockfall on the south, east and south-west aspects is very dangerous in heat
Sep: Often stable and colder; good for the south ridge
Oct: A dry, cold autumn can still give chances; short days and early snow
Nov: Winter conditions
Dec: Winter conditions

Access & Permits

Permits

Border zone permit (Georgian Border Police)Required
Ushba lies in the border zone with Russia. Register in person with your passport at the border police office in Mestia (behind the airport) or Ushkhvanari/Becho before entering the upper Dolra or Guli valleys; the permit is free and is checked at the border post on the Mazeri–Ushba trail. A Tbilisi option at Border Police headquarters is reported but untested.
caucasus-trekking.com

Fees

Border zone permit: free
Taxi Mestia–Mazeri: about 80–100 GEL (2024)

Rules

Climbing or approaching from the Russian side (Shkhelda valley, Kabardino-Balkaria) is not possible: it is a closed Russian border zone and the Georgia–Russia border here is shut
Do not cross the main ridge or the Becho pass into Russia
No huts on the mountain: all routes require camping or bivouacking

Getting There

Mestia (Upper Svaneti, Georgia); Mazeri village is the trailhead

Kutaisi (KUT) or Tbilisi (TBS); small flights also serve Mestia's Queen Tamar Airport

Night train or marshrutka Tbilisi–Zugdidi, then marshrutka Zugdidi–Mestia (about 3 hours)
Marshrutkas on the Mestia road stop at the mouth of the Becho valley, about 7 km from Mazeri; otherwise take a taxi from Mestia
By car: Zugdidi–Mestia road, turn off about 18 km before Mestia towards Becho and Mazeri; the last kilometres are rough

Hazards

Rockfall
Avalanche
Crevasses
Glacier
Cornices
Exposure
Weather
Altitude
Remoteness