Merdven-Kayasa — 18. “May 9”

Massif: Merdven-Kayasa (Khergiani) 856 m Complexity: 5A VI A2 Author: Lav­ri­n­en­ko A., Kuz'menko A. Year of creation: 2009 Number of pitches: 6 Length: 220 m Duration: 4–6 hours Route description: The route starts on the left part of the S wall, transitions to the right part of the wall at the top, and leads to the very summit, to the triangulator. There are destroyed sections. Approach to the route — from a small abandoned quarry:

• up to the right, bypassing the lower rocky bastion,
• further along the talus couloir (about 200 m),

Merdven-Kayas — 5. "False Start"

Massif: Merdven-Kayas (Khergiani) 856 m. Difficulty: 5B, VI, A2. Authors: Tsushko T., Khomenko A. Year of route creation: 2008. Number of pitches: 7. Length: 320 m. Route description: From "Chertova lestnitsa" (Devil's Staircase) follow the upper road approximately 1 km east, then take a dirt road to reach the campsites, and then follow a trail to the wall. The start of the route is a long cleft with a tree in its lower part.

• R0–R1 45 m. Up the cleft cutting through the entire lower bastion. The cleft is partially destroyed. There's an intermediate bolt at the 15-meter mark.
• Belay station on a bolt (spit) and own protection points.
• 10 m IV–V; 35 m VIA2 R1–R2 55 m. First, follow the cleft for 35 m, then exit through a chimney onto an inclined ledge. Traverse left and up along the ledge to a tree; belay station at the tree using spit anchors + cams. List:
• 35 m VIA2
• 10 m V

Merdven-Kaya­sy — 6B «Ek­spromt»

Massif: Merdven-Kaya­sy (Khergiani) 856 m Complexity: 5B Author: A. Geni­ush, Kudryav­tsev Year of creation: 2008 Number of pitches: 7 Length: 300 m Time to complete: 4–6 hours Route description: Long, logical, classic route. From the "Chertova lest­nitsa" (Devil's Staircase) along the upper road approximately 1 km east, then along the dirt road to the parking area, then along the trail to the wall. The start of the route is from a large pine tree. R0-1 60 m. Start from the tree to the right 3 m, then up the slab to a weakly expressed depression and further to the left up the corner overgrown with grass, exit to a tree. Then slightly left and up — approach to the internal corner. Further along the internal corner, exit to the top of a spall. Belay station. There is a bolt. Characteristics:

• 45 m III
• 10 m V+
• 5 m IV

Merdven-Kayasы — 7. "Relax"

Difficulty: 5B VI A2 Author: Lav­ri­nen­ko A., Kuz­men­ko A. Year of creation: 2008 Number of pitches: 8 Length: 375 m Time to complete: 5–8 hours Route description:

• From "Chertova lest­nitsa" ("Devil's Stair­case") along the up­per road ap­prox­i­mately 1 km to the east
• Fur­ther along the dirt road to the campsites
• Fur­ther along the trail to the wall. Start­ing point is near a large pine tree. The route goes along the bastion to the right of the Geni­ush route, in the up­per part it con­verges with the T͡Sush­ko and Geni­ush routes. R0–R1 60 m. Start from the tree to the right for 3 m, then up along the plane to a weak­ly ex­pressed mul­da and fur­ther to the left up­ward along the cor­ner over­grown with grass, reach the tree. Fur­ther slight­ly to the left and up­ward — ap­proach to the in­ter­nal cor­ner. Fur­ther along the in­ter­nal cor­ner, reach the top of the spall. Sta­tion. There is a bolt.

Merdven-Kaya­sy — 8. "Odessa Express"

Massif: Merdven-Kaya­sy (Khergiani) 856 m Complexity: 6A VI A2 Author: Lavri­nen­ko A., Tsush­ko T. Year of route creation: 2008 Length: 365 m Route description: From the "Chertova lest­nitsa" (Devil's Staircase) along the upper road approximately 1 km east, then along the dirt road to the parking areas, then along the trail, and then along easy rocks and talus to approach the wall. The route passes through the center of the bastion, then crosses a belt of simple rocks, moves left under a clearly visible gap cutting through the summit tower. And through it, it leads to the yayla. R0–R1 40 m

• Through simple rocks
• Left upwards
• Reach a sloping grassy ledge Station on juniper. 2B R1–R2, 40 m. From the station upwards — left, along a slab into a reclining angle with grass (there is a bolt). Along the angle, left upwards, to a small tree, then through an internal angle to reach a small ledge. From the ledge upwards and slightly right, through a system of cracks to a narrow ledge — here is the station.

Merdven-Kayas — 10. “Made­ra Krymskaya” (380 m, 5B, F6b+, E3, A2) — No bolts.

May 19, 2009 Yura Kruglov is climbing the second rope of the route. The second rope is a song. On Sunday, May 17, we ascended a new line on Merdven-Kayas (10 minutes walk along the upper road to the east from Chertova Lestnitsa). The route is “Made­ra Krymskaya”. It was because of this drink that, finding myself among stitched abstainers on Saturday evening and unnoticedly drinking it alone, I had to deviate from the previously planned line of the intended route in its upper part the next day. But even as it turned out, the “Madera” route more than justified my expectations.

Approach to the route, history of the place, descent, and our recommendations

The lower part of Merdven-Kayas wall was a popular training spot for climbers back when the upper road wasn't yet called the upper road. Buses between Sevastopol and Yalta would speed by on it. It's hard to imagine now... Among climbers, the lower part of the wall was known as “Khergiani rock.” The approach from the upper road to the foot of the wall takes a few minutes. These minutes can be shortened by car via a dirt road branching off the asphalt towards the wall. The road leads to a clearing with a great campsite. From the campsite to the start of the routes, it's less than a minute of slow walking.

Morcheka — 12

"Classica" Route (5Б)

First ascent: Jorge Kornyś Author of the report: Maxim Kostrov A long, 10 cm wide groove goes up. To avoid dirtying my shoes, I place a flat stone on the wet moss at the bottom of the groove and climb up to a small ledge using counter-pressure. Previously, a large slab lay on this ledge. Now it lies at the bottom under the route. The groove turns into a crack, which narrows and gradually turns left. Then the crack widens again and leads to a pair of bolts under an overhang.

• 1st rope — 45 m, 85°, V (R0–R1) Sergey Tretyakov approaches from below, and I continue further. I traverse the overhang from the right using a mirror-like surface and climb up to an inclined ledge via an internal corner.
• 2nd rope — 45 m, 80°, IV (R1–R2) From here, a large pine tree in the middle of the wall is clearly visible. It's about one rope length away via inclined ledges upwards to the right. The R3 stations of the "Center" (6А) and "Skayway" (6Б) routes are located near this pine tree.

Morcheka — 23

Author: Ivan Ershov, Moscow. "Variant" route, 6+ cat. (Mt. Morcheka, November 1986, I. Ershov) From the parking spot under the wall (in the cirque), follow the path under the right part of Mt. Morcheka's wall. The route starts to the right of two characteristic pine trees, the right one of which touches the wall with its top — about 10 meters to the right of the second pine. From the sloping shelf (slab), go straight up to a bolt (aid climbing), then up and slightly left along a blind crack. Characteristic features:

• pilasters;
• only with aid climbing;
• extremely careful;
• block placements;
• constructions like stopper + piton;
• small-sized stoppers.

The "Victoria" route (2B) was laid on Mshatka Kaya mountain on May 10, 2011 by a team from Luhansk: Alexander Khoroshevsky and Nikita Popov. The overall impression of the route is a beautiful and logical double pitch, with pleasant and varied technical climbing, after which you want to express gratitude to the authors of the route for 2 reasons:

• the line turned out to be really beautiful,
• to spot the route on the wall, which is already oversaturated with other lines, you need to have talent. "Victoria" passes between the "PK" and "Vilka" routes along a system of cracks. Insurance is predominantly natural, with one bolt hammered at each station. There are also a few intermediate bolts. You need to approach the route along a clearly visible path leading to "PK". 20 meters before the base of the PK route, you need to traverse to the right with a height gain and climb onto a ledge under the base of the wall - there is a bolt hammered there, this is the start of the route. Mshatka Kaya mountain. Route lines. High-resolution photo: "Victoria" route (2B), general scheme. High-resolution photo: alpinist.biz "Victoria" route (2B). Detailed scheme. High-resolution photo. R4 station - our version of the passage, R4* - the first ascenders' version.

Mshatka — Kaya-3

Along the left inner corner of the western part of the massif («Fork»), 2B (200 m, III) (by K. Rybal­ko and V. Khi­tri­ko­va, 1973) The approaches to the route start from the upper highway 50 m below the alpinist parking located under the central part of the Foros Cant. Upwards and slightly left at first along the trail, and then along simple rocks to a wide vague inner corner, which "cut through" the entire wall of the massif (R0: 300 m, 45°, no cat.). At the R1–R4 section — upwards first on the left along a 20-meter inner corner to a large trapezoidal ledge of the wall, and then along a sheer wall to a tree (R1–R4: 40 m, 65°, III+). At the R2–R4 sections — first upwards along the smooth slabs of a wide inner corner to the