On August 29, Temo Qurdiani and I drove in a 4WD vehicle from Mestia to the remote village of Adishi. (This road still does not appear on Google Maps.) Our idea was to climb the iconic Tetnuldi (4,858m) by an impressive and “forgotten” face.

Adishi, home to around 50 people, is the only remaining village in thisvalley. Apart from being located in wild nature, it’s home to pristine ancient architecture: medieval towers, streets, and churches, several dating to 900–1100 CE. The Adysh (Adishi) Gospels, the first Georgian language translation of the Gospels, written in 897 CE at the Shatberdi Monastery, were famously stored in one of Adishi’s medieval towers for centuries. They are now on display in the Mestia Ethnographic Museum. Today, Adishi is sometimes visited by hikers, as the village lies on a popular trek along the central ridge of the Caucasus.

The Adishi valley provides access to Tetnuldi’s regular route, the southwest ridge, but also to the unclimbed south face, which rises about 2,000m above the lower Adishi Glacier. This face is split by a prominent rocky buttress, with the glacier’s jumbled icefall on its right and a smaller glacier on the left. From the lower main glacier, we found passage through the left (west) moraine by a stream gully and then followed bear tracks up the steep grass above. By early afternoon, we were at 3,100m, right under the face, where we set up camp.

As we studied the face, a few potential lines were revealed, but clouds hid essential details. Despite years of research and conversations with other generations of mountaineers and the respected locals, I could find no climbing history on this face. The idea of climbing the face had been in my mind for a long time. As a 10-year-old, I remember hiking with my family here, with the south face rising above us. I painted a “logical” way up in my head. In fact, this is the first memory I have of imagining a significant route. I can’t brag that we found the same line I projected in my childhood, but we felt optimistic about trying. Our arsenal was vast, as we were prepared for mixed and rock climbing and had brought supplies for up to three days.

We set off the next morning at 6:30 a.m. First we checked out steeper climbing options on the south pillar but found only loose granite. Instead, we climbed left of the pillar, quickly simul-climbing a couple of rope lengths of easy to moderate mixed and ice. Above, snow and ice on the west side of the pillar brought us to its top at 4,000m. A snow and ice crest led directly to the summit, passing some short but loose bands of rock. It was only noon, but we still had 800m remaining, so we wasted no time, simul-climbing most of the way. We found traces of mountain goats, indicating that the most curious among them may have reached the summit by this line. Thus, our goal became to make a first human ascent.

A beautiful sunset and a breeze welcomed us to the summit at 6:15 p.m. We descended the southwest ridge to that route’s base camp on the edge of a plateau. We slept there and took a direct descent to our car the following morning.

Our 1,700m ascent, graded 4A/4B with 55° ice and snow, is the first known route on the south face of Tetnuldi. It is an exciting line, with ever-changing character and with a few exposed sections that are safer to climb early and fast.

—Archil Badriashvili, Georgia