Mount Aratat & the Wonders of Turkey Expedition Dispatch
July 24, 2013 – To Earn, To Learn and To Return
It’s July 24th and I am calling you from 3,900 meters on Mt. Ararat at a place we call Armenian Camp. Just above me I’m watching our climbing team ascend to the team's high point from yesterday at 4,050 meters. It’s a short distance from there to our high camp so this is in fact our summit attempt.
Laurens did just as he planned before the trip when we discussed the strategy for this adventure. He is following his cardiologists’ advice and not going above 5,000 meters so he will be staying down in Camp 1 with one of our guides. He is going to be doing some side hikes, relaxing and learning more about the Kurdish culture and this part of Turkey. He will be supporting us from Camp 1 where he has a radio and will be keeping in touch.
The rest of the team will be moving up to high camp. We will be putting our crampons and our boots on for this afternoon to make sure they work well. If we all feel like starting in the morning there will be nine climbers and four Berg Adventures guides; Wally Berg and Leila, Duygu, Mehmet, and Jamal will all start up with the climbers to attempt Mt. Ararat.
Our theme as we begin this climb goes back to Fons seshing with us when we shared a bit about each of ourselves to one another at the beginning of our trip. He presented a wonderful theme; “To Earn, To Learn and To Return”. We’ve discussed this concept on many levels and many different ways. We’ve been learning on most of this trip and now we are hoping to earn and ascent to the top of Mt. Ararat and of course to return safely. Here we go and we will keep you posted on our summit attempt tomorrow.
Listen to Wally's call
Laurens and his guide Agnieszeka will be staying at Camp 1 while the Ararat summit attempt is underway.
Horses carry our heavy loads to High Camp so we only have to carry our small rucksacks.
The team climbing to High Camp
The team making the last steps into high camp with our goal, Mount Ararat above us (the actual summit is behind the high point on the right).
Looking up towards the summit today. The very top is out of our view at 5,137 meters above sea level. We will have a 1,000 meter ascent tomorrow morning.
Charles with his correctly adjusted crampon. For Charles we had a difficult decision - which boots to wear to the summit - his larger double boots or single leather- the crampons fit both boots perfectly. Charles decided to follow Wally’s advice and go with the double boots for the climb.
At High camp we adjust our crampons for tomorrow’s climb. Here Bart is receiving some assistance with his adjustments from Jamal.
Mehmet prepares a delicious meal while we are adjusting our crampons. We will eat an early dinner so that we can go to bed early to rest. Tomorrow morning we will wake up at 12:30am and we will try to be climbing by 2:00am.