Juta & Chaukhi

PeaksMtskheta-Mtianeti,Georgia

Saw-toothed granite towers rising to 3,842 metres above one of Georgia's highest villages, with three glacial lakes beneath the wall, each a different colour.

September·Edge of season

Sep

The closing shoulder: the pass still crosses and thin autumn air brings the clearest views of the towers, the August crowds gone and the same open trail emptier. Nights turn cold and the first high snows can dust the peaks.

Year-round Chaukhi's granite towers, the Chaukhi Pass and the three Abudelauri lakes are here year-round, but the pass clears only from about late June to September; snow seals the valley otherwise.

Juta stands at 2,200 metres at the end of a rough track in the Georgian Caucasus, one of the highest inhabited villages in Europe. The head of its valley is shut off by a wall of granite towers. That wall is the Chaukhi massif, saw-toothed and topping out at 3,842 metres. Climbers call it the Dolomites of the Caucasus, though the rock is nothing of the kind: hard granite and diabase, split by frost into the same spires and needles. Some fifty routes have been opened across those faces, and for a few weeks each summer they hold the best alpine climbing in the eastern Caucasus. The village underneath is timber and stone, with family guesthouses where you eat in the courtyard over mountain tea. From the last house a meadow path follows the valley up beside cold streams and grazing horses to the foot of the wall and back in half a day. The towers grow ahead of you the whole way. The classic walk goes over the top. From Juta the trail climbs to the Chaukhi Pass at 3,338 metres, one of the steepest in the country, threading beneath the spires until you are standing level with them. From the top it drops into Khevsureti, a province of tower villages and almost no roads. It takes two days with a night in a tent, and it works only from about late June to September; snow seals the pass and empties the village for the rest of the year. Below it on the Khevsur side lie the three Abudelauri lakes, close enough together that you take in all three, fed by the same ice and each a different colour: green, blue and milky white. The green and the blue come from glacial rock flour, each basin holding a slightly different mix of it. The white lake, right at the foot of the massif, is carbonate — minerals dissolved in the water that turn opaque as it warms. Walkers reach them in the afternoon, when the light is hardest and the white lake has finished turning.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The Chaukhi Pass is one of the last to open — it stays snowbound into mid-June and can hold ice into July, so target July to September for a clear crossing.
Juta's last stretch needs a 4x4 — the track up from Kazbegi clears in late May or June and drifts shut the rest of the year; past the village, everything is on foot.
The pass is steep and exposed near the top — the final scree switchbacks hold snow late and cloud rolls in fast, so start early and turn back if weather closes in.
Juta and the lakes fill up in August — the trailhead village is busiest at peak summer, so come in early July or September for emptier meadows and the same open trail.

Things to do

1
Cross the Chaukhi Pass to Khevsureti
Follow the classic route from Juta up to the 3,338-metre Chaukhi Pass, threading beneath the granite spires, then drop down the far side into the remote valleys of Khevsureti. It is one of the highest and steepest trekking passes in Georgia, and the payoff is standing level with the towers themselves.
2
See the three coloured Abudelauri lakes
Three glacial pools sit almost side by side beneath the granite wall, fed by the same ice, yet each settles into a different colour — green, blue and milky white. Reach them in the afternoon, when the light is strongest and the three read most vividly against the grey rock. They lie on the Khevsureti side of the pass, so most walkers see them on the second half of the crossing.
3
Sleep in a Khevsur guesthouse at Juta
Spend a night in one of Juta's family guesthouses, timber and stone homes among the highest in Europe at 2,200 metres. Over home cooking and mountain tea in the courtyard you feel the rhythm of a village that empties out when the snows return.
4
Walk the Juta valley to the foot of the wall
For a gentler day, follow the meadow path up the Juta valley to the base of the Chaukhi massif and back, without crossing the pass. The trail runs beside cold streams and grazing horses, and the towers grow steadily larger ahead — an easy half-day that reaches the heart of the scene. Time it for the ends of the day: at last light the granite glows warm above quiet meadows, and dawn brings the same low sun and calm air before haze gathers over the ridge.
5
Climb the granite of the Georgian Dolomites
Rope up on the Chaukhi massif, the best-known alpine climbing ground in the eastern Caucasus, on clean granite faces that draw climbers through the short summer season. Whether you take an easier line or a serious multi-pitch wall, you climb with the whole Kazbegi range opening behind you.

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Nearby

19 km