The Legend of Mikheil Khergiani

He was buried in a closed casket.

When I asked his cousin's son, who was giving me a tour of Mikheil's house in Mestia, Svaneti, how the Italians had managed to retrieve his body, my guide replied honestly, "I don't know. I was five when he died. I don't think anyone knows, and I don't want to think about how badly his body was damaged. He plummeted from 600 meters of Mount Su-Alto in the Italian Alps. I do know it took days for his body to be retrieved. His funeral was almost three weeks after he died, hence the closed casket."

At this point, we were standing near the pictures of the funeral in Khergiani's house. The entire town of Mestia, and a lot of Georgian dignitaries and prominent mountaineers came to pay their respect. What I am struck by in the photo are the images of Mikheil's mother and young wife, clad in black, and stricken with unimaginable grief.

Even though I was born a year after he died, I knew of Khergiani. When I was climbing mountains in my youth, he was always used as an example of endurance and uncanny ability to climb rock sheets. For any mountaineer, it was an honor to be compared to the "Tiger of the Rocks," as Khergiani was nicknamed by Baron John Hunt, the leader of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition.

He was a true legend among mountain climbers. In the USSR, the term for mountain climbers was "alpinist" and I am going to use it here a lot because that's what Mikheil really was - a climber of snow-covered (Alpine) mountains, mountaineer.

Even though in the Soviet Union no one would call him a "professional" climber because all sport in the USSR was officially considered amateur, non-commercial, climbing was all he knew and loved.

Born in 1932, Mikheil was only five when his father, Vissarion Khergiani, one of the first well-known Svan climbers, scaled the difficult two-peaked Georgian mountain Ushba in 1937. In 1964, Mikheil ascended Ushba's mirror in an almost perfect vertical line - a fit no one was able to do before his group. He dedicated the ascend to his father.

From early childhood, Mikheil was exposed to his father's stories about mountain climbing, roamed the surrounding mountains, climbed rocks, and practiced alpine skiing and traditional Svan wrestling.

When he finished secondary school, Mikheil enrolled in All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions' (AUCCTU) mountain climbing instructor courses in 1951. Upon completion, he worked first as an instructor in a mountain climbing camp (1952-56) and later, until his death in 1969, headed the rock-climbing rescue team at the Spartak Alpinist Camp at Mt. Shkhelda.

Khergiani was the most decorated alpinist of his time, not only in terms of his personal achievements but also for saving lives of other climbers stranded in the Great Caucasus Mountains. Here's an incomplete list of his most significant achievements:

1946 — Awarded the “Mountaineer of the USSR” badge.

1952 — Fulfilled the standards for Class II in mountaineering and became AUCCTU champion in rock climbing.

1956 — Awarded the title Master of Sports of the USSR. Champion of the USSR for the first ascent of the north face of Tyutyubashi (together with Yu. Murzaev, L. Zanilov, and A. Sinkovsky).

1957 — Third place at the USSR Championship for the first ascent of the northwest face of Donguz-Orun, climbing as a rope team with Iosif Kakhiani.

1963 — Awarded the title Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.

1964 — USSR Champion, Ushba via the “Mirrors” route (as part of a group including: Misha Khergiani (his cousin), Shaliko Margiani, Jumber Kakhiani, Givi Tserediani, and Jokia Gugava).

1966 — Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor for outstanding athletic achievements.

In total, Khergiani became USSR Champion in rock climbing seven times. Imagine all of that in the 1950-60s, when there was nothing like the modern equipment and gear available for mountaineers nowadays. These pictures of Khergiani's equipment will humble any climber today.

Khergiani was also a very humble man, as the following quote from the display of his badges, medals, and orders at his house museum shows:

My biggest achievement is not my medals. My biggest achievement as a climber is that I have saved many lives. My heart fills with joy and happiness when I save lives of people.

He was one of the few Soviet alpinists who were so good they were allowed to travel outside the USSR to train and compete internationally. The fateful July 1969 trip was his second to the Italian Alps, where a group of Soviet mountaineers intended to complete a series of striking climbs. For that reason, it was a well-documented trip, with pictures taken at different points. They planned to finish their journey with an ascent of Mount Su-Alto from the town of Alleghe.

For this final climb, Khergiani was joined with a Moscow climber, Vyacheslav Onishchenko. Leading the ascent, Khergiani was suddenly struck by a rockfall and thrown from the mountain wall. Onishchenko, who was positioned around a bend and could not see what happened, heard the roar of falling stone and a cry, and instinctively braced himself for a strong pull of the rope as Khergiani did not have a safety rope. The pull came, but only for a moment. Almost immediately, the rope fell slack: it had been cut by rocks from the same collapse.

In 1985, Khergiani's relatives (he'd married only a couple of years before his death and had no children) established a museum in the family house he was born in and lived all his life in Mestia, Svaneti region of Georgia.

It houses a lot of artifacts from his life, as well as things that commemorate his achievements and legacy, including books and songs about him as well as paintings of him.

It is one of the most interesting, welcoming and warm museums in the country. If you are ever in Mestia, you absolutely need to visit it.