David Kocsis and Marton Nagy of Hungary have opened a new line on the South Wall of 5,193m Shkhara, Georgia’s highest mountain. Due to the difficult terrain, bad weather, and lack of time, they didn’t continue along the upper ridge to the summit. Still, their climb marks only the second complete winter ascent of that wall.
Kocsis and Nagy started on February 28. At 3,800m, they encountered harsh conditions with intense snowfall. The more difficult technical sections began at 3,900m, and the Hungarians had to overcome 100m of waist-deep snow up a 65˚ slope.
At 4,058m, they camped in a small space they hollowed out for their tent in the deep snow. The temperature dropped to -26˚C that night. In the morning, an avalanche buried their tent, but they managed to dig themselves out. They moved the tent closer to the rocks to avoid more avalanches.
Kocsis and Nagy considered that the safest place was on top of the wall, so they hurried to finish it, despite the weather. After a difficult section, they completed the new line, according to Mozgasvilag.
The planned topo.
Actual topo of route. Kocsis and Nagy reached approx. 4,600m after climbing the South Wall by a new route. Photo: David Kocsis and Marton Nagy
Seracs ready to fall
From there, the climbers saw that the glacier on the upper section was in bad condition, and they would have to climb just below falling seracs. Here, at around 4,600m, they turned around. After a difficult descent, they reached base camp.
Kocsis attempted Shkhara’s South Face in the winter of 2024 as a member of the Hungarian National Climbing Team, which first attempted this face in 2020. In 2024, the late Archil Badriashvili advised the team about their planned line. Badriashvili and Georgi Tepnadze made the first ascent of the South Wall of Shkhara in February 2018. They also successfully summited the mountain.
Back in base camp, Badriashvili’s friends arrived to celebrate the new line with them. It’s a pity that Badriashvili could not be with them; he perished in a climbing accident in Georgia last year.
Below, the 2018 climb of Badriashvili and Tepnadze.
