The second part of our summer vacation was climbing the Ararat mountain. Having climbed Kilimanjaro two years ago I thought that Ararat with about 700 m less height would be easy. What I forgot to take into account is that Kilimanjaro is close to the Equator while Ararat is not therefore it is much colder on Ararat even at a lower altitude.
Climbing Ararat requires a permit and a hired licensed guide. We used a local Turkish trekking agency which took care of all the arrangements. Marko and I joined a group consisting of two French girls, a Norwegian guy and us. We were accompanied by two guides, one of whom also performed the role of cook. Our stuff was carried by horses while we had to drag ourselves up there. Once again, comparing this to my Kilimanjaro experience, this time there were no porters to serve us, put up our tents, bring us coffee in the morning, we had to take care of all of this ourselves.
The expedition started with getting us, our guides and our stuff on a truck that drove us to the start of the trail at an altitude of about 2400 m. There our stuff was placed on horses and we continued on foot to the first camp at about 3300 m. Along the way we stopped for tea at nomadic villages that are scattered on the slopes of the mountain. The locals offered souvenirs to buy and I bought a scarf because I felt I should give them a chance to earn some money as their living must probably be hard. After reaching our camp we spent the rest of the day putting up our tents, resting, taking a short hike up the mountain for acclimatization, eating dinner and getting to sleep early. The lack of oxygen at that altitude was noticeable, at least for me, but I was glad I didn’t feel any other effects - such as a headache - of the altitude.
The next day we continued our trek to the second camp at an altitude of about 4200 m. The distance was not too long but it was considerably colder than the day before and dealing with the lack of oxygen was again a struggle for me. While it was sunny in the second camp, there was a fierce wind blowing which soon forced me to find some warmth inside my tent. The rest of the day was spent resting and getting ready for the summit at night. There are no toilets anywhere along the trails on Ararat and finding a private place to go at that altitude where everything is exposed was quite an adventure. The best thing to do was to either wait until it got dark or to just duck behind a large stone (where everyone else had done the same thing before so it was quite messy).
The final push to the summit started at 2 AM. Only one of our guides was ready to go, the other one decided to sleep in. The guide made tea for us to warm us up and we had a little food although by now the altitude was getting to me and I started feeling a little nauseous. The wind was still blowing and it was literally freezing cold.
We made our way up the mountain where for the first two hours it was still more or less rocky with only occasional patches of snow. It was slow going again for me because of the lack of oxygen and I had to take deep breaths of air between each step. But I made it to the top of the ridge where there was now much more snow on the ground. Before starting the Ararat expedition we were told that we must bring crampons as part of our equipment. It turned out that the crampons were not really necessary, as the slope with snow is not too steep, the snow is frozen and therefore is not wet and slippery and we all had good hiking shoes which made the going safe even without crampons.
It was cold and getting colder. The sun started to come up at around 5 AM giving us magnificent views. The most amazing sight was seeing the shadow of the whole mountain in the morning sun. Although I was very cold and I could hardly feel my fingers and my toes, I managed to fish out my camera from my backpack. And sadly discovered that it wouldn't work, presumably because of the cold. I placed it inside my jacket pocket but obviously because it was so cold I could not sit there and wait for it to warm up. Marko and I continued struggling up the mountain to an altitude of about 4900 m where I decided that I had enough of the cold and of the lack of oxygen and it seemed pointless to continue because it was getting colder and windier by the minute. So we turned around and descended back to the warmth of our down sleeping bags in our tent. The rest of our group made it to the summit and they told us later that it was indeed incredibly windy so they also quickly turned around when they reached the summit.
Returning back to the valley after such an ordeal is always wonderful, as the going is so much easier, the sun was up, it was warm and we all anticipated the return to civilization with a hotel, clean bed and a hot shower.
We spent a few days after the trek sightseeing around the village. The agency that arranged our trip also took us to a place with hot springs where we could bathe in water that looked blue and smelled of sulphur. It felt good to soak in warm water after the expedition.
