Mount Kazbek Climb

Welcome to Georgia. Our driver meets you at Tbilisi airport and takes you to a 3* hotel in the heart of the city, close to the Old Town. In the evening you meet your IFMGA/GMGA mountain guide, who checks your boots, clothing and climbing gear, explains the acclimatisation plan and the summit strategy and answers every question. It is also the moment to rent anything still missing — crampons, ice axe, harness or helmet — before we leave for the mountains.

A three-hour drive along the Georgian Military Road brings us to Stepantsminda. An SUV takes us up to the Gergeti Trinity Church, where the trek begins. About three hours of walking and 840 m of ascent lead to the Deka hut at 3,020 m, our first night in the mountains.

After breakfast at the hut we gain another 730 m in three to four hours, crossing the moraine towards the Gergeti glacier and climbing to the Betlemi hut, our base camp at about 3,700 m. The hut stands on a rocky shoulder with Kazbek’s summit right above it and the glaciers of the Caucasus all around. The afternoon is for rest: drinking plenty of water, eating well and letting the body adapt to the thin air, while the guides watch the weather forecast for the days ahead.

An acclimatisation walk to about 4,000 m helps the body prepare for the summit. Back near the hut, the guides run a full training session: walking in crampons, using the ice axe, moving on a rope team and self-arrest. Early dinner and early bed — the summit day starts in the middle of the night.

We leave at about 02:00. Roped together above 3,900 m, we cross the glacier to the plateau at 4,500 m, climb to the saddle at 4,900 m (slopes of about 30°) and make the final ascent of 40–45° to the summit of Kazbek, 5,054 m, with views across the whole Caucasus. Then a long descent to the Deka hut — in total 12–14 hours.

If the weather stopped us earlier, this is our reserve day for the summit. If not, we descend to the Gergeti Trinity Church (about 2 hours, 5 km) and drive 150 km back to Tbilisi, stopping at Ananuri Fortress above the Zhinvali reservoir and at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, the spiritual heart of Georgia.

A second reserve day protects your summit chance if the weather has closed in for longer. If the climb went to plan, you spend this day in Tbilisi (the extra hotel night is charged separately): relax in the domed sulphur baths of Abanotubani, walk the lanes of the Old Town with their carved wooden balconies, ride the cable car up to Narikala Fortress for the sunset view, and celebrate the summit with khinkali, khachapuri and a glass of Georgian wine.

After breakfast our driver takes you to Tbilisi airport for your flight home — with a summit certificate in your bag, the memory of sunrise above the clouds at over 5,000 m and, we hope, a wish to come back to Georgia. If you would like to extend your stay with a few days of wine in Kakheti or the Black Sea coast in Batumi, we will be happy to arrange it.