Shaan-Kaya — 8. Hyperborea route (Yarechevsky Marunich)

In the mountains — climbing routes of Crimea

The route passes through the right part of the South wall of Shaan-Kaya, in the upper part it goes left, to the center. A landmark can be a huge overhanging inner corner, visible even from the lower road. If you draw a line from the base of the corner, perpendicular to the foot, it will come to the start of the route.

The route was started in the 1980s by Chaplyngsky and Samoded, but, having passed 150 m, they stopped (from this point it is possible to swing to the Grishchenko route). The route was completed by Vitaly Yarechevsky (Odessa) and Vladimir Marunich (Nikolaev). In 2000, they made a reconnaissance, passing the already passed section of the wall and strengthening the stations, and in November 2001 they completed the route, passing a 100-meter overhanging section, which, in my opinion, is the key one. The route was climbed with processing of the lower part and 2 overnight stays on the wall on a platform. The length of the route is 300 meters, of which overhanging sections are more than 200 meters, sometimes more than 100°. The complexity of climbing is VI+, ITO A3 (or more?). Some sections of ITO-climbing were passed by Vitaly Yarechevsky in free climbing, his assessment is F 6c–7a.

The second ascent was made by Alexander Lav­ri­nen­ko (Odessa), Alexander Mak­si­me­nya (Minsk) in February 2002.

On a sunny February day, Sasha Maksimenya and I approached Shaan-Kaya. My time in Crimea was coming to an end, and I wanted to climb something unusual. There are two such routes on Shaan-Kaya:

• Shel­kha­kov — Po­po­v, 2001
• Hyperborea

We knew little about the first one, so we chose the second. The winter was quite warm, but the day was still short, which determined our tactics. We decided to hang as much as we could, and then make a push. The fact that it is almost impossible to retreat from the key section adds to the thrill, as for every meter of ascent you shift left by almost half a meter, and it's also overhanging...

We started on February 9 at 9:00 (we waited for it to get warmer). Immediately from the start, there is difficult climbing, about 15 meters, there is 1 bolt, small friends are used.

Further, it goes on ITO, but theoretically it can be climbed free:

• 5 meters of crack, slightly overhanging, there are 2 bolts.
• Further — a difficult traverse to the right, into a small corner 5 m (skyhook, pitons).
• Along the corner for about 5 meters to the station (bolt + nuts).