DESCRIPTION

The route of traversing the Shah-Dag peak massif from east to southwest with ascent via the eastern counterfort, accomplished by a team of climbers from the Azerbaijan Council "DINAMO" during an expedition from October 30 to November 10, 1966. The Shah-Dag peak is located in the Lateral Ridge of the Eastern Caucasus within the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR and has an elevation of 4250 m (other sources indicate 4255 m). The main massif of the peak drops steeply to the south and southwest towards the wide left-bank terrace of the Shahnabad River (towards "Shah-Eylag") with steep walls, the lower part of which is a 400-600 m monolithic cliff. The upper part of the walls has a stepped structure, composed of individual 20-40 m monolithic blocks dissected by narrow couloirs and crevices, and merges into the massive ice-snow dome of the peak, with individual heavily destroyed ridges and rock ridges cutting into it. The slopes of the dome have a considerable steepness of 40-45° in the lower part and, gradually becoming less steep towards the top, form a snow-covered summit plateau of significant extent. The summit point is closer to the southern part of the plateau, at the beginning of the rocky ridge extending in the direction of the southern wall. To the east, the summit dome also drops with monolithic rocky cliffs, gradually becoming less steep in the northern part and transitioning into heavily destroyed, scree-covered eastern slopes of the ridge extending from the peak to the northeast. From the southeastern part of this slope, four parallel ridge-spurs of cuesta-like form extend eastward, with slopes dropping steeply to the south and significantly more gently to the north.

• The highest, southernmost spur, forms the southeastern continuation of the southern wall of the massif with its cliffs.
• The northern spur is the longest and divides into two branches, sharply turning to the north and south.