Stepantsminda — Gergeti Trinity Church

Up from Stepantsminda to the church that every photograph of Georgia seems to contain — a fourteenth-century stone chapel standing alone on a spur at 2,170 m with the glaciated cone of Mount Kazbek, 5,047 m, behind it. Steep from the village, then meadow, then the church. [Route details] Start: Stepantsminda (1742 m) Via: Gergeti Trinity Church at 2.79 km (2175 m) 5.36 km · 1742 m to 2175 m · climb 433 m [Good to know] - The church sits 2.79 km along this line, 18 m off it, and the terrain model reads 2,170 m there — the height guidebooks give. The line carries on past it and drops back down, which is why it totals 5.36 km. - That explains the two numbers you see quoted: about 2.5 km if you mean the climb to the church, about 5.6 km for the way up and round. - The Agency of Protected Areas publishes no distance for this path; the comparison above is against hiking guides, which give 400 m of climbing to the church against the 433 m measured here. - Elevation is sampled from a terrain model at 300 m spacing, not recorded on the ground.