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The
2001 Ararat Peace Climb
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| Ararat
from the North |
Update
from 7/27/2001: Note
is Part One of the Summit Report
from
Marcelo Arbelaez & Fernando
Gonzales Rubio
Well,
we could say that we are now in the "far
east" of Turkey, after a long trip that has
brought us to Mount Ararat. We have found here
five climbers from different countries, with whom we
have formed the team of "Everest climbers"
as they call us; this is because we have all
reached the highest summit of the world, which has
been an
indispensable requisite to be part of Ararat 2001
Expedition,
"for peace around the world". They are
David Keaton from USA, Swee Chiow from Singapore,
Ricardo Torres from Mexico, Nasuh Mahruki and Tunc
Findik.
With
our five teammates we have made the approach and
ascent to 3600 masl (meters above sea level) on the
mountain, from where we will make the final climb to
the summit following the NE ridge, a path that has no
records of being ascended before.
We
begin our trip to the mountain from Igdir, a city
located at 850 masl, where we gathered our supply of
food and some other things. We took the road to
the East to Azerbaijan and after 40 km we took a
detour south heading the mountain. After a trip
of 2:30 hours we got to a radio and TV repeater
station where a military base is located. We
were received there with a lot of hospitality and
attention by the members of the Turkish army, who
wanted to take pictures with us, specially with Nasuh,
who has a great prestige in this country for being the
first Turkish to have reached the summits of Everest
and K2.
We
were transported in army trucks on a path that had
been specially fixed for our access, because common
traffic is rare in this place, except for the military
vehicles. At an altitude of 1,990 masl we found
an excellent valley to install base camp, although
with no water in sight; it was then when members of
the army took the job of bringing water in barrels
from the military base for our supply and for the AKUT
group who was also with us.
We
left the next day with the will to install an altitude
camp at 4,000 meters; on the ascent Swee had
dehydration problems because of the high temperature
and the lack of water; Fercho was in the front and
he
advanced to 3,200 masl without the possibility of
obtaining any water, thus we took the decision of
installing a camp at 2,680 m next to a small water
spring, which we fixed to collect the water more
easily.
In
the afternoon we had the surprise of the arrival to
that place of the Turkey Minister of Sports, Mr.
Fikret Unlu, who was with people of the Mountain
Turkish Federation and some journalists, who went back
after
interviewing every member of the team. For us
this was unusual, however we were told that the
Minister wanted to be in the event, because he
considered it of high importance to the sports in this
country, besides being him also an excellent
mountaineer.
On
the 26th we left early and climbed to 3650 meters,
where we installed our second camp on the NE ridge,
because we found there a creek coming down from the
glacier, our first water source in the ascent.
That afternoon it rained and our tent was flooded
because we did not have a top cover on it, so Fercho
and me went to an small cave on the mountain side,
which we fixed to make room for both of us. At
dusk, Nasuh and Tunc made room in their tents, asking
us to spend the night with them; it was then when
while organizing our stuff to go to their tent, in a
slip, Fercho's sleeping bag rolled down the mountain
beyond our lamps reach, and although we went down to
look for it for about of two hours in the dark, it was
not possible to find it. We went back to camp
and we spent a difficult night because of the
uncomfort and the cold, but it was quick, because at
3:30 AM we woke up to organize the day for the ascent
to the summit.
Marcelo Arbelaez
& Fernando
Gonzales Rubio
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SHIVA charity. You can make a credit card donation by
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