501114

Benkin 2–3

Description of the First Ascent Route

To the summit of Peak Айлама (Ailama) via the Western spur of the South wall, climbed on July 20-25, 1966, by a team from the Kuibyshev Regional Council of the "Trud" Sports Society. Ailama is located in the Main Caucasus Range. To the west of the summit, beyond the Unamusso pass ("Бессовестный" or "Shameless"), lies Peak Нуам-Куам (Nuam-Kuam), with a ridge connecting it to the summit of Восточная Шхара (Eastern Shkhara) via peaks 4250 m and 4100 m. Beyond the so-called "saw" of Ailama, the ridge turns south towards the summit of Цурунгал (Tsurungal), and then eastwards through peaks Черная Незнакомка (Black Stranger, пик Алеши Джапаридзе or Aliocha Djaparidze Peak) and Белая Незнакомка (White Stranger) to the Шерри–Вцек (Sherri-Vtsek) pass. The Ailama ridge stretches for a considerable distance. The western ridge has a steepness of up to 55° in its lower half and is characterized by a system of snow and ice undulations with steepness ranging from 25° to 75° in its upper part. The eastern ridge of the summit is primarily rocky and is known as the "Pила Айламы" (Ailama Saw), indicating its highly serrated nature. Along the entire length of the massif's ridge, steep walls with significant relative heights drop to the north and south; those to the north are mostly snow and ice, while those to the south are more rocky. Due to the remoteness of this mountain region from permanent alpine camps, until 1965, only a few sports groups, always consisting of high-class climbers, ascended Ailama. Most of these groups followed the ridge of the massif, undertaking extensive traverses of the crest.