Shaumyan Pass is a short way to the sea

The Shaumyan Pass is a relatively small segment on the shortest route to the Black Sea coast from central Russia. It is located on the route leading from Maikop in the direction of Tuapse. But in order to embark on this journey, it is not enough just to look at the map and estimate the distance between the initial and final points of the path. To do this, one should have an idea of what the Shaumyan Pass is. The road, to put it mildly, is not the simplest. And before you choose it, you should think well that a shortcut is not always optimal. Moreover, along the entire Black Sea coast is a more convenient route. It is not so short, but you can get to Tuapse without any problems. But if you want adventure and the soul craves adrenaline, then you are not mistaken with the choice of direction.

What you should know about the Shaumyan Pass

The length of this site is about eight kilometers. The mountain pass is covered with dense vegetation, so the road here is narrow, winding, with a greatly obstructed lateral view. Completely missing asphalt, and the very condition of the road leaves much to be desired. The road surface here is of a gravel type, which creates a lot of problems from the stones that fly out from under the wheels. If they can be avoided from passing trucks, while maintaining a distance, then it is impossible to do anything with counter machines. A negative feature of the gravel road is a constant cloud of dust hanging over it. This makes the review even more difficult. But overcoming the Shaumyan Pass, we should not forget that this is a pretty beautiful place. Therefore, you should not hurry. In several places of the route there are quite acceptable side pockets for a short stop. Here you can go out, take a walk and take a picture against the background of the picturesque spurs of the Caucasian ridge, and after that calmly continue the path towards the Black Sea. It will be useful to know that this road on Tuapse is unstable. Often, travel on it in the administrative order is blocked due to the development of landslide trends on mountain slopes. And in winter, snow drifts occur here . For more than ten years, construction of a tunnel has been underway on the Maikop-Tuapse highway. But this is a very expensive project, and the prospects for the successful completion of this construction at the moment seem rather vague.

How to pass complex areas correctly

Precautions are elementary here - this is a high-speed mode and compliance with the distance. This generally applies to any mountain roads, especially such difficult areas as Shaumyan Pass. Hurry here should not under any circumstances! Especially great is the temptation to add speed, when the top point of the route is left behind. This is a big mistake, since descent from mountain serpentine is always more dangerous than climbing. Moreover, there is absolutely no hurry: when the road has gone under the slope, no more than two dozen kilometers separate you from Tuapse. The Shaumyan Pass was the most difficult part of the road, and it was successfully overpassed.