Fig. 8

29. Dop­pakh Wes­tern from the south via the couloir and the Eas­tern ridge (A. Uva­rov’s com­bined rou­te, dif­fi­cul­ty ca­te­go­ry 3B, fig. 8).

From the “Na­khash­bi­ta” meadow (group of 4–8 peo­ple) up­wards to the left (to the north-west) along the gra­ssy slopes and mo­re­nes to the tongue of the South Dop­pakh gla­cier. From the mo­re­na (se­cu­ri­ty) up a steep icy slope to the South Dop­pakh gla­cier and along it up­wards.

A small gla­cier fall in the mid­dle part of the gla­cier — pass through the cen­ter. Be­hind the gla­cier fall, as­cend along the gen­tly slo­ping gla­cier (co­vered cre­vas­ses), then, over­co­ming two berg­schrunds, along a steep icy-snow slope (pit­on se­cu­ri­ty) move to the right side of the low­est rock tri­an­gu­lar is­land on the left side of the cou­loir lea­ding to the mas­sif’s sad­dle.

Cir­cum­vent the rock is­land to the right and along a steep nar­ro­wing icy-snow cou­loir (rock­fall pos­si­ble, pit­on se­cu­ri­ty) as­cend to the sharp snow (big cor­nice) sad­dle of the mas­sif be­tween the Wes­tern and Cen­tral Dop­pakh sum­mits. On the sad­dle, turn left and reach a snow plat­form be­low the Eas­tern ridge of the Wes­tern Dop­pakh. On the plat­form, set up a bi­vouac. From the “Na­khash­bi­ta” meadow, 6–8 hours.

From the plat­form:

• a steep as­cent along a 60–80-me­ter icy-snow slope on the right side of the Eas­tern ridge (pit­on se­cu­ri­ty);
• then, along the right side of a 180–200-me­ter sim­ple snow ridge, as­cend to a small snow plat­eau;
• from it, over­co­ming a snow cre­vas­se along a gen­tly slo­ping 120–150-me­ter snow ridge — to the sum­mit of Wes­tern Dop­pakh.

From the sad­dle, 2–3 hours. The path from the sad­dle to the sum­mit is ava­lanc­he-haz­ar­do­us.

Des­cent along the as­cent path. From the sad­dle, due to a pos­si­ble rock­fall in the cou­loir, de­par­ture ear­ly in the mor­ning.

Du­ra­tion of the rou­te:

• 2–3 days.

Nau­mov A. F. Ka­raugom, Di­go­ri­a, Tsey (Cen­tral Cau­ca­sus), M., “Fi­skul­tu­ra i sport”, 1976.