|
The
2001 Ararat Peace Climb
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| Ararat
from the North |
Dear Friends,
The
night of the July 26th, before our summit attempt,
when we were at 3680 meters, was very hard, in part
because to the loss of the sleeping bag and the almost
2 hours of search on the mountain side where
Fernando's sleeping bag had fallen. He had to
improvise using extra clothing and a little salvage
blanket which he used to cover. Also we had to
share the little room there was inside the tent with
the two Turkish climbers. It was this way that
the apparent short night turned to be very long and
cold, because we could not sleep and at 3:30 AM we had
to get up to prepare the ascent.
We
warmed up some pasta we had leftover the previous
night, to have a good serving of carbohydrates for the
ascent and around 4:30 we were ready to leave.
Together with the other 5 teammates we begun the trek
of the exposed 1500 meters which separated us from the
summit.
We
followed our route of the NE ridge of the mountain.
Initially we walked over rocky terrain until 4000
meters, where we found the first glacier, which we
traversed over a moderate slope which was incrementing
until it was 45 degrees. As we ascended this
part, it was transformed into a gorge where blocks of
rock rolled from the highest part of the mountain.
After some hours the rocks were more, because of the
heating of the mountain by the sunrays. To avoid
the high risk of falling rocks, it was necessary to
exit from the gorge and take the edge of the rocky
ridge, which meant an ascent in mixed terrain with
some rock steps with sections of hard ice, which
turned fragile, breaking at times, making the risk of slipping
against the rocks imminent, losing the gained meters
and risking our summit.
The
hours passed and although we advanced fast, we felt we
were farther from the summit because it seemed to
distance itself from us as we were getting closer to
it, as we realized its real magnitude. When we
stopped to take our breath, we watched the North Face
which we photographed to get the most number of images
of the site, where
there is an inaccessible gorge which presumably
contains the remains of Noah's Ark.
We wanted to make the biggest discovery of humanity.
It was necessary to put the crampons in and out
because of the constant changes in the terrain, which
changed from glacier ice to rock, and we had to make
strategies to prevent from a possible rock which could
fall at great speed and hit us in the place we were
climbing. Between 4800 meters and 5000 meters we
walked a long zone of glacier to immediately pass to a
part of loose rocks where advancing was horrendous,
because we slipped every third step.
At
last it looked like we were getting closer to the
summit when we crossed the last sector of the glacier
with a 50 degree slope, in which we fixed some 50
meters of rope to prepare it for descent, because we
saw how snow was losing stability as the day advanced.
Very
often the clouds covered the mountain and the
temperature dropped suddenly, and the loss of
visibility increased creating among us an anguish of
not knowing when a rock would fall on us, thus having
a fatal accident. Around 10:40 we could see the
end of the slope and therefore the end of the ascent,
what a joy! However, when we got to that place
we thought was the summit, we were surprised to see a
higher point to the south, which made us walk over a
snowy zone where all the time we had to survey in
order to find crevasses where we could fall.
We
made the long trek on soft snow to that summit, and
when we got there with the wish to celebrate the
achievement, we saw that some 300 meters behind the
clouds there was the real summit, separated by a deep
depression; we continued and advanced what we felt
were eternal last meters. They were three summits
reached in the highest part of this beautiful and
dangerous volcano which finally let us achieve its
highest summit.
At
11:30 am we were finally at 5,137 meters on the summit
of Mount Ararat, for the first time for Colombia and
as part of an international team of climbers that
wanted to show how a common
objective can be achieved with a common interest
without stopping because of differences of language,
race, beliefs and religions
or extreme difficulties that show in the ascent of a
route that, although not clearly defined, is created
as one does the ascent.
Celebrating
this achievement, we wanted to immortalize this moment
not only in our minds and hearts, but also on camera
and video, so that we can share it when we go back to
Colombia.
And
although things seemed to have ended happily, there
was still the return trek, in which we knew we would
find greater risks, specially because of the falling
rocks which were more as the day advanced. At
12:30 pm we began to descent, trying to do it faster
than the ascent, but we knew we should be calm while
one by one we crossed the falling
rocks zone while our teammates watched and the warning
of "rock!" when one was falling, threatening
the climber below. While entering the top of the
glacier gorge at 4500 meters, Tunc, our Turkish mate
was almost hit by a big block that fell a few meters
from where we were; when
he heard the voices of alert he managed to react
jumping over the block while it was rolling over the
place he was standing and he managed to stay safe.
This situation made us be very alert and descent with
great caution, which took us almost the same time it
took us to ascent. Around 5 pm, under the rain,
we got to our camp where, with the shelter of our
tents, we could enjoy the sensation of being safe and
with the achievement of having reached the
summit.
The
next day, July 28, we began the descent to base camp,
where we got in the afternoon, finding there the joy
of the AKUT (Turkish Search and Rescue Association)
members that were alert because of our ascent. There
were also members
of the military base from nearby who had also been in
a permanent alert.
This
way we were concluding our Ararat 2001 expedition,
"The
Climb for Peace"
that made us feel the real importance of establishing
common agreements with people of different ways of
thinking and therefore contribute to the achievement
of the objective, by giving the best effort by every
member of the team. This
is the real contribution that a human being can give,
much better being Colombians, in the search and
achievement of a Great Colombia in PEACE.
Marcelo Arbelaez & Fernando
Gonzales Rubio
This
climb has genuinely touched ALL of these climbers.
Don't we wish Everest was climbed this way !!! We hope
it has touched You. More to come. To
support this vision of peace, please make a donation, via
SHIVA charity. You can make a credit card donation by
clicking HERE.
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