Osten, Western Caucasus

Oshten is one of the mountains of the western part of the Caucasus Range. Oshten, Pshekha-Su and Fisht form one mountain range, with a wide, broken into several parts by the top and separated from each other by a saddle that runs in a southeasterly direction. Oshten together with Fisht - the first from the western end of the Caucasus range of peaks, rising to the height of the snow line and covered not only with snow, but also small glaciers, the number of about 10. The snow line on Oshten and Fisht, located only 40 miles from the Black Sea and is under its strong influence, goes down very low - to a height of 2 737 meters above sea level. At these tops are protruding rocks and clearly expressed zone of alpine meadows, while to the west of them the Caucasus Mountains almost never rise above the upper limit of forests and almost everywhere covered by them to the very tops. Oshten consists of only limestones. Several quite large rivers flow out of Oshten, Fisht and their spurs: Tsitse and Pshekha head north from them, and Belaya to the south.

The summit is not a category, but there are routes of difficulty categories to 1B and 2B.

The name comes from Adyg. Osh'uten and has several translations: "eternal snow," "eternal winter," "where hail gets stuck. According to Koveshnikov's version, the Abadzekh might have been called "the mountain on which the axe is dropped."