Mists on Mount Kazbek in Georgia

Mount Kazbek is the third highest mountain in Georgia, located in the Khokh Range north of the Greater Caucasus Range. Its double-cone shape is clearly visible west of the town of Stepantsminda in northern Georgia, close to the Russian border with North Ossetia, and 10 kilometres north of Darial Gorge. It rises to an altitude of 5,033 metres (16,512 feet). Only Mt Shkhara (5,200 metres/17,060 feet) and Mt Janga (Jangi-Tau: 5,051 metres/16,572 feet) in the Svaneti region are higher. Mt Kazbek is also the seventh highest mountain in the Caucasus Mountains. Below Mt Kazbek in the region is Mt Shani, which has an elevation of 4,451 meters (14,600 feet) above sea level, and is 9 kilometres to the east of Stepantsminda.

Mt. Kazbek is a dormant stratovolcano and is also referred to as the Molten Mount or the Ice Mountain. The mountain lies along the edge of the Borjomi-Kazbegi Fault, the northern part of the Anatolian Faultline, and therefore subject to numerous small earthquakes. It has the potential to be an active volcano because it is covered with lava. Kazbek is the highest of the volcanic cones in the Kazbegi volcanic group (which also includes Mt Khabarjina at 3,142 metres/10,308 feet).

The Georgian meaning of Kazbegi is “glacier” but the glaciers are not large due to the steep slopes. The best-known glacier is the Dyevdorak (Devdaraki) on the north-eastern slope.

The summit was first climbed by a British group in 1868 – lawyer Douglas Freshfield (1845-1934), civil servant Adolphus Moore (1841-1887), and C. Tucker (unknown). They were followed by the female Russian alpinist Maria Preobrazhenskaya, who made the climb nine times since 1900.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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