Paragelmen

Overview

Mt. Paragelmen is situated on the south coast of Crimean peninsula near Alushta City, Maliy Mayak Village.
Paragelmen consist of 3 different massifs. West (Left) realize blasted massif with trees on the slopes. But only right side is relatively monolithic. Central Wall is two side banded by two couloirs. East (Right) massif is various. It has vertical walls, ivy entwined walls, local monolithic overhangs. Length of the routes is about 250 m (850 feet). Paragelmen is ideal place for training and rest. The rocky massif located along the coast, gives an opportunity to combine trekking, climbing of mountains with relaxing on a beach, with scuba diving and sea fishing. And it is so close to the highway (bus stop) and civilization.

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 Yalta. Your stop is Maliy Mayak. From the Bus Stop to the base of the mountain is approximately 30 minutes walking by the road to the north.

There could be a problem if you don't speak Russian but it depends on your sociability. The people are quite benevolent and friendly, but keep your eye on your things - if you don't want to be a sponsor of the local lazybones.

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. But climbing is possible.

Camping

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

No web cams or web sites which can inform of current mountain conditions - but the weather in the Paragelmen region is almost the same as in Alushta or Yalta - this info can be easily found on the official weather forecast web-sites

http://trekking.iatp.org.ua/weather_eng.htm

Average temperature of the south coast and mountains (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 Paragelmen Image Gallery - 19 Images