Abano Pass

Abano Pass is the single vehicle gateway to Tusheti — a dirt road that climbs from Pshaveli to 2,850 m and drops down to Omalo on the far side. There is no alternative. When the pass is shut, Tusheti is cut off, and that has shaped everything about how the region lives.

The road was cut into the mountainside in the 1970s. It is narrow, in places the width of one vehicle, without barriers, and it is exposed for long stretches above drops of several hundred metres. Landslides come down every summer and are cleared when someone gets round to it. The road appears regularly on lists of the world's most dangerous, and that is not marketing — there are fatal accidents most years.

The season is short. Snow normally clears in late May or early June and the road works until the first week of October. One cold night at the end of September can end it early.

From the top the view is very wide. South lies the Alazani plain with the Gombori range beyond it; north stands the main Caucasus chain — Diklosmta, Tebulosmta and the ridges of the Dagestan border. There is a cross at the summit and a set of memorial plaques. Wind blows almost constantly and the temperature can sit at 5°C in July.

The climb from Pshaveli takes about three hours for roughly thirty kilometres. This is not a quick hop over a col; it is half a day in one direction, and it should be planned as such.

Traffic is thin but not absent: shared jeeps, supply lorries and shepherds' pickups all use the road, and meeting one on a blind bend means somebody has to reverse. The northern descent towards Omalo is gentler than the climb but longer, and the last hour is usually driven in shadow, which makes the drops look worse than they are.