"Feathers" — a non-technical description of the route to the top of Ai-Petri

Tourist Encyclopedia

Feathers (Ai-Petri)

The entire Ai-Petri massif is clearly visible from the highway if you stop a little before the point where the cable car cables pass over the road (when driving from Simeiz). It's even more convenient to drive to the middle station of the cable car, which is located above the highway. The cable car itself goes over the right part of the massif.

In the left part of the wall:

a huge cornice;
a depression about a hundred meters high, which we conditionally called the "TV".

The two parts of the wall are separated by a counterfort, which is a series of rock feathers stacked on top of each other. The height of each of them is 30–40 m. The route passes through them.

From the middle station of the cable car, walk up the road, and after about 300 m, turn left onto the road leading to the barrier. From the barrier, go through the forest, veering left, towards the left part of the massif — approach the rocky ridge blocking the path to the wall. Bypass the ridge from the left. After it — up and to the right.

All approaches to the wall are within range of stones falling from the couloir located above the wall. Pass under the wall as quickly as possible. Get dressed and rope up directly under the route.

First rope

The lower station is at the base of the chimney. An old rotten piton with a double eye, the core — a nail. This is the beginning of the route.

After 2–3 m:

A piton on the left wall, hammered near a crack where pitons were previously placed (the hole is worn out, not deep).

Route features:

All pitons were hammered in 2002.
The hardware is PETZL CHEVILLE P12, for an 8 mm bolt.
All pitons without eyes — do not spoil the route and do not make it easier.
The general direction of movement is upwards.

Passage options:

You can climb the left wall, but it has very small holds and is much harder than the chimney (about 1 category harder).
If we're not masochists, we climb the chimney.
The deeper into the crack, the easier, but the harder it is to squeeze upwards.

Further progress:

After another two meters — a piton on the left wall.
After another two meters — a piton on the right wall (landmark: below and above it there are small ledges with grass, a little to the right of the ascent route).

Piton placement feature:

Hammered into places where it's very comfortable to sit in opposition, i.e., on the wall, opposite the ledges with grass.
It's really possible to climb to the pitons in the upper part of the chimney without using pitons, but only if you're climbing the chimney, not the left wall.

Continuation of the route:

Another two meters — a steel box under an overhang on the left wall.
Further — into the crack to its end and transition to the right onto the wall.
Sometimes old pitons are found.

Upper station:

Standing on a huge boulder-stop.
About 25–30 m from the bottom.

Second rope

First, 7–10 m up the crack on the left (there seem to be old pitons). Then a horizontal traverse to the right. Feet on the relief, hands in underclings. Very unpleasant. Small friends fit well under the flakes. I placed two and blocked them.

It's unpleasant to exit upwards — there's sand and grass on the ledges. Further, the general direction of movement is to the left. Along the light scree, approach the stopper. If you grab the stopper from below with your right hand and extend your left hand horizontally to the side, you'll find a piton on the smooth red slab to the left. About half a meter or a meter from the stopper.

It's easier to bypass the stopper itself from the right. Further:

left and up along the grass and scree to a tree,
a few meters after it — a station on a bad ledge.

Be careful, it seems this is the exit for the entire rope (due to large bends). You can also go straight up from the stopper — but it's objectively harder and will take more time.

Third rope

From the station on the ledge — up and to the right, along huge live detached blocks to a niche. There's a piton in the niche. After the niche, turn left into an open chimney "without a bottom", two–three meters. Station on a ledge.

Fourth rope

Here, climbing becomes more interesting — up along old pitons and "carrots" and slightly to the left towards the edge of the bend. Along the heavily destroyed wall to the top of the feather (a big bald spot, pitons on the side facing the main wall of the massif). Between the ledge on top of the feather and the wall — a gap.

Fifth rope

Actually, the crux of the route (the most difficult and unpleasant rope) — to the left into the gap. About two meters up onto a large horizontal flake. Along it to the right, to the end. Old pitons. Ears are nailed to the wall; thread a rope or a nut. From the right edge of the flake upwards through an unpleasant coil. From the coil to the right towards pitons and a small tree. From here, an aid climbing path begins. It's better to belay the second climber here; there are plenty of pitons, it's comfortable to stand, and the ledges above the wall at the beginning of the slope-couloir seem to be within reach, but fifty meters of rope may not be enough.

The length of the aid climbing section is seven meters; however, it's possible to pass this section by free climbing. Up along the scree and pitons. About a dozen pitons; the repp ropes and cords on them are completely rotten.

After this mess — a ledge. Further:

Along несложным скалам up for about half a rope length to the top of the wall and the beginning of the couloir.

That's it.

Descent path

From here, unrope and remove all gear, then head up to the cable car station for about 30–40 minutes. You need to find a scree couloir leading to a gap in the ridge to the right and pass through the gap in it. On the other side, a little down, and after about 100 meters — almost horizontally along a path. Straight up towards a large tree. From here — a simple exit to the yayla. And further along any path to the cable car station and the market.

If you don't make it here before the cable car closes or get delayed until dark, there likely won't be anyone here. And without your own transportation, you won't be able to get down, unless you're ready:

To walk twenty-five kilometers
Along a road with a thousand turns
Down to Yalta...

The route is interesting because it's practically not climbed nowadays, although I might be wrong. Ten to fifteen years ago, it was quite popular. The total length of the route is five ropes. The complexity of the route is approximately 4B — 5A, based on my assumptions. The climbing difficulty hardly exceeds 6A — 6B; the aid climbing sections are not particularly challenging. In reality, the route should be considered an alpine climb. It requires:

Confidence in working with hardware
Ideally, not relying on old, rotten protection points (rotten pitons, torn piton eyes, rotten slings)

In return — the pleasure obtained from completing it. It will be much higher than climbing the same fifth category routes on Foros Kant along beaten paths. In short — I recommend it.

P.S. Despite the apparent simplicity, passing the route takes quite a lot of time. When climbing in a group (a trio or a foursome), it's possible to finish it already in the dark...

March 31, 2004, Moscow

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