The summer was rainy and not very hot in the Caucasusa good time for new routes I had planned some years ago. I arrived in the Baksan Valley in the Elbrus region at the end of July and met my friends, Igor Politiko and Andrey Sidorov. We inspected the region from the nearest point with a good field of view and understood that the northwest face of Bjeduh Peak was ok for climbing.
On August 1 we approached base camp. We started the next day at 6 a.m. and reached the summit of Bjeduh Peak in eight hours. The 800-meter route (Russian Grade 5) was in good condition for climbing, but the belays on some pitches were symbolic: the ice was melted out and not durable.
From the summit of Bjeduh we planned our next objective: Shurovski Peak. Several days later we tried a new line on this peak but were literally flushed by rain at an altitude of 3500 meters.
The ascent on Bjeduh Peak was part of my project, Open Caucasus, in which we climb new routes in the Caucasus to show all climbers how interesting and pretty the climbing is there.
— Yuri Koshelenko, Rostov-on-Don, Russia