In June 2010, Sergey Dashkevich and Mikhail Borich climbed the northwest wall of Mount Erydag’s northwest summit (3887m) in the East Caucasus mountains. This climb was the first free ascent of the Voronin Route, a thirty-pitch route established in 2001 that was previously graded around A3. Dashkevich says that usually he, like many Russian climbers, practices a combination of aid and free climbing because it is often the fastest way up a route, and speed is what pays in Russia’s alpine climbing competitions. But this time Dashkevich and Borich wanted “to put style above speed on a complicated route.”
The pair spent thirty-two hours on the wall. Their free climb was rated 6b; in the Russian rating system (about 7a in French grades) and according to the American Alpine Journal, “set a benchmark in Russian alpine rock climbing.” (The climbing starts at about 1:50.)
Eridag, Voronin route 1200m, 7a, First free ascent from Sergey Dashkevich on Vimeo.