Mount Aratat & the Wonders of Turkey Expedition Dispatch

July 23, 2013 – A Great First Climb on Mt. Ararat

A message from Wally

It’s in the afternoon of July 23rd and our team of Dutch heroes is having a fantastic mountaineering and cultural experience on the slopes of Mt. Ararat. We’ve had great weather since we started out yesterday. Our walk yesterday took us about six hours through the lower pastures and dry lands of Mt. Ararat, past Sheppard’s villages where we were welcomed with tea and we arrived at our green camp/ camp 1 in the mid to late afternoon. Mehmet, our cook, had a nice array of snacks and tea when we arrived but our barbeque dinner was really a feast; we are going to live well here on Ararat!

Today we climbed 4,000 meters just below camp 1 and Jamal our guide, Laurens and Jan Kees continued a bit further to the actual high camp where we will be moving up to occupy tomorrow.

Our acclimatization is going well. Our days have been beautiful and we are having a great time here on Mt. Ararat. We will keep you posted as we move to high camp tomorrow and as at least part of our team makes a summit attempts the day after tomorrow.

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Later on today

It’s now 4:30 in the afternoon and the entire team is at the green camp/ camp 1. Laurens, Jan Kees and Jamal caught up with us at a Sheppard’s camp on the descent where a young fellow has taken some Coca Cola and gotten ice from the nearby snow fields and made it cool for the descending Mt. Ararat climbers and people acclimatizing like us. We enjoyed stopping to have a nice cold drink and now we are arriving back to camp where we will see what Mehmet has prepared for dinner tonight.

I am proud of this team today, they did great and our acclimatization is going well and I am excited about the next couple of days on this great mountain.

Listen to Wally's call