ASCENT DOCUMENT

First Ascent Category — TECHNICAL CENTRAL CAUCASUS MAIN CAUCASUS RANGE USHBA PLATEAU

USHBA MALAYA 4309 m VIA NORTH-EAST RIDGE

Proposed difficulty category: 3B Height difference — 200 m (from the plateau) Length of 5A category difficulty sections — 5 m Average steepness — 55° (of key sections)

Travel time on the route — 7.3 hours (from plateau to plateau). No overnight stays on the route.

Leader: ANDREEV Nikolay Foteevich 1st sports category Members:

• AKIMOV Nikolay Aleksandrovich 1st sports category
• VIDYAKIN Vladimir Anatolyevich 1st sports category
• YAZOVSKIKH Gennadiy Stepanovich Candidate Master of Sports

Coach: LEVIN Mikhail Semenovich Master of Sports of the USSR

Date of the first ascent — July 29, 1978

FEDERATION OF ALPINISM CHELYABINSK REGION, 1980

• group's route.
• A. Sidorenko's route 1937 2B category via 3rd control point, NE ridge.
• N. Kiyanitса's route 3A category via 3rd ridge. (descent route)

TABLE OF MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FIRST ASCENT ROUTE: Ushba (M.) via NE ridge

NOTES TO THE "TABLE OF MAIN CHARACTERISTICS"

1. Column "1" indicates: start time of the section by the first person in the first rope team and end time of the section by the last person in the second rope team. Groups of 3rd and 2nd categories should NOT rely on this time.
2. The "Table" does not reflect the ascent to the Ushba Plateau, which can be done either by the steps of the western serac (between Ushba and Eastern Shkhelda) or by the northwestern serac between Eastern Shkhelda and Shurovsky Peak. These sections have been described many times; moreover, every year, and even during the season, the ice terrain changes significantly.
3. During the first ascent, the group from the base camp near the Dolra River (see "Map") climbed to the "Bolshevik" bivouac in 6 hours, and on the next day, July 29, from 5:00 to 8:30, they traversed lightly the western serac and the Ushba Plateau (using the tracks of the reconnaissance duo G. Berdyugin—G. Yazovskikh from July 23, 1980). The descent from the summit of Malaya Ushba via the 2B category route to the Ushba Plateau was made from 14:30 to 16:30. Overall, the route took more than 12 hours ("Bolshevik"—summit—"Bolshevik").
4. The route was proposed to the group by the head of the Chelyabinsk regional higher mountaineering courses, Comrade LEVIN M.S., who deviated in 1958 from the 3rd overhanging "gendarme". At the beginning of the R3–R4 section, a rappel piton left by him was found, which was removed by the group as a souvenir. No signs of other groups were found along the entire length of the northeast ridge until the R11–R12 section.

CLASSIFICATION PROPOSALS

Overall, the route is psychologically very tense and technically more laborious than known 3B category routes, such as:

• Peak Kirova ("Ala-Archa");
• Sarykol (Adyr-Su valley);
• Peak Aristova (Malaya Almatinka valley).

The northeast ridge of Malaya Ushba (R0–R12) itself already exceeds the concentration of difficulties of 3B category routes on:

• Peak Manshuk Mametova (Malaya Almatinka valley);
• Peak Spartakiada ("Ala-Archa").

But it's still not possible to request 4A category for it — North Ushba is nearby with its "cushion"...

Therefore, the group requests to include the route they completed in the Classification Table as:

• Ushba (M.) 4309 m, 3B combined via NE ridge N. Andreev, 1978.

Photo #3. Northeast ridge of Ushba (M.). Facade. Section R0–R9 photos #3; 6; 7.

Photo #9. SECTION R3–R4. Bypassing the 3rd gendarme.

Photo #10. SECTION R6–R7. (for alignment. Passing the Wall.) Photo #11. SECTION R7–R8. Bypassing the 4th overhanging "gendarme" with smooth rocks.

Photo #12. SECTION R7–R9. (for alignment see photo #13.)

Ushba (N.) 4694 m

Photo #17. SECTION R11–R12.