Shaan-Kaya

Overview

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Mt. Shaan-Kaya is situated on the south coast of Crimean peninsula near Alupka City. Shaan-Kaya is not belong to Southern Chine, and moved aside the sea in front of Alupka’s Wall. Altitude drop of the rock Shaan-Kaya is 250 m. Type of rock is limestone. Little number of cracks on this rock make Shaan-Kaya stable for slide-rocks and rock falls, and in the same time very difficult for ascending. Mountain has 8 super class routes. Easiest rout is 5B (Russian Grade). Shaan-Kaya is the mountain for professionals.

Getting There

Fly to Simferopol – capital of Crimea. It can be domestic flights from Kiev and Moscow, 2 hours. Take a taxi or regular bus to Alupka. If there no direct busses available, take one to Yalta, from this city there are more local buses to Alupka. Your stop is Alupka Pitomnik. From the Bus Stop go up by the road. Then across the vineyard come to the dirt road which goes almost direct to the wall.

Red Tape

Formally, the mountains are in the region which is under protection of government and the situation with climbing is not clear there. It is not forbidden but as well not allowed. Normally people don't worry about such nuisance and climb for their pleasure, many of them live in the tents everywhere. The most unpleasant thing which can happen is necessity of bribing some dolt who comes by with wish to earn some money.

The only rules you must estimate here is to keep the area as clean as possible and try not to leave anything on the route which is not stationary equipment. That's all.

When To Climb

The most popular time to climb in Crimean mountains is from mid-April to the end of May, first decade of May is the most popular among Russian climbers because of the holidays - there are always crowds on the routes. But the best time is from mid September to November. Summer months are too hot for climbing, in winter day time is short - it is not good for climbing long routes, weather changes are quite sudden and can became a problem - rocks are wet and often icy.

Camping

There is a good place to stay is somewhere near the wall of Shaan-Kaya. Water you can find in the spring – 15 minutes walking from the wall. There is enough firewood, but be careful - forest fires are very often in Crimea.

Officially camping is not allowed, but it is not a problem - there are many camping places in the forest below the mountain, and in the high season they are mostly busy by climbers and tourists.

To bribe the local dolt 10$ is more then enough. The more serious problem are thieves - if you are camping in Crimea, there must be at least one person in the camp all the time.

Mountain Conditions

There are no web cams or web sites which can inform of current mountain conditions - but the weather in the Alupka region is almost the same as in Yalta. This info can be easily found on the official weather forecast web-sites. Just type in a search field: Yalta Ukraine.
Average temperature of the south coast (mountains at 1000 m) of Crimea, °C

Month Coast (Mount)
--------------------------------
Jan +4 (-3)
Feb +4 (-2)
Mar +6 (0)
Apr +10 (+5)
May +16 (+10)
Jun +20 (+13)
Jul +24 (+15)
Aug +23 (+15)
Sep +19 (+11)
Oct +14 (+7)
Nov +9 (+3)
Dec +6 (-1)

Images

View Shaan-Kaya Image Gallery - 31 Images