Part 2

Precipitation on the Ay-Petri plateau falls out as rain (40% from all the precipitation) and snow (60%). Rains are frequent during the period from November till March. The stable snow cover is from the middle of December till April. This period is good for skiing. But sometimes snow can melt even in winter.

Relative humidity in the mountains is higher than on the seacoast. Fogs are more frequent on the plateau. The wind in the mountains is much stronger sometimes it reaches 50 m per second, and windy days are more frequent. The sunshine duration on Ay-Petri is also high – 2325 hours per year (in Yalta-2250 hours).

Near the peak of Ay-Petri there is the largest old beech and hornbeam forest on the Crimean plateau (its area is 614 hectares).

Near the border of the plateau there is a pine-tree “aircraft”. Its age (about 300 years) and interesting form of crown made it a separate monument of nature.

We come back by the ropeway “Miskhor- Ay-Petri” which is a unique construction and one of the brightest places of interest in Crimea . Its length is about 3 km, and during 15 minutes we will descend from the altitude 1153 m to the seacoast.

The ropeway was constructed in 1987 year. Its upper section which is 1670 m long has no support it is the longest section without support in Europe . The angle of the cable is 45 є. Between the two sections of the ropeway there is a station called “Pine-tree forest” on the altitude 395 m.

The ropeway has 4 cabins, 2 on each section. It works as pendulum: two cabins move at the same time to each other, meet in the middle of the section and pass in the opposite directions. The cabin is about 1.5 t and contains up to 35 people.

From the lower station we can return to Yalta by minibus.