Chaukhi's granite towers rise to 3,842 metres above the village of Juta, sheer and saw-toothed, filling the head of the valley. The massif stands as a wall between two very different parts of Georgia's eastern Caucasus: the Kazbegi valleys to the north and the remote, road-poor region of Khevsureti to the south. Every summit in it carries the name of a Georgian writer, poet or painter. The clean granite faces have made it the best alpine climbing ground in the eastern range. Juta itself is a Khevsur settlement of stone and timber houses at 2,200 metres, among the highest permanently inhabited villages in Europe. From its last houses a footpath climbs through summer meadows, past grazing flocks and icy streams, toward the foot of the rock. The towers grow steadily larger ahead of you long before you reach them.
The classic walk from Juta crosses the Chaukhi Pass at 3,338 metres, one of the highest and steepest trekking passes in the country. It drops on the far side into Khevsureti, past the three Abudelauri lakes — glacial pools set just beneath the granite wall, each one a different colour. The colours read most vividly in the afternoon, against the grey rock. In summer the slopes fill with shepherds and their herds, and as the light softens the towers flush copper and pink above the quiet valley. This is high country with a short season: snow clears the pass only from about late June to September, and everyone comes on foot up the rough valley track from the Kazbegi side. The rest of the year the village all but empties and the passes seal shut. There is a gentler option too — a half-day walk up the meadow path to the base of the wall and back, without crossing anything.