The team of Turkmen alpinists coached by Begench Mammadov climbed the extinct volcano Damavand - the highest point of Iran (5,671 metres). The main season for climbing the mountain is summer, but our athletes decided to complicate the task and make the ascent in May.
The ascent started in the Reyneh village on the north side of the Damavand Mountain, where the overnight accommodation and transport to transfer alpinists to the camp located on a hillside at a height of around 3,100 metres were arranged. The next day, on May 20, the group headed to the second camp located at the height of 4,200 metres. Then, our alpinists climbed four hundred metres more to get acclimatized and returned back to the camp for the overnight stop.
In May, the snow line there starts at approximately 4,000 metres. The weather on those days turned out to be capricious, having met the climbers with rainfalls at the foothills and snow and hail - at altitude. A few days earlier, poor weather conditions prevented the teams from Slovakia and Russia to climb the mountain, having met the mountain conquerors with heavy fog, snowstorm and lightning.
On May 22, the weather favored the ascent. The group started storming the mountain at four o’clock in the morning, the route was long – the height difference from the last camp to the mountain top exceeded one and a half kilometres. The ascent was relatively smooth, approximately 30 degrees and run mostly on rocky ridges and snow couloirs.
Gusts of wind tore snow grains off the rocks. Taking advantage of the weather, the Iranian group of climbers popped up towards the top of the mountain on the same day.
About two o'clock in the afternoon Dmitriy Vinokurov and Roman Anoshkin, representatives of Ashgabat mountaineering club "Agama", and Begench Mamedov and Vitaliy Sagdeev from Balkanabat - "Mert" hoisted the national flag of Turkmenistan on the highest peak of the Damavand Mountain.
It was the fifth expedition taken by Turkmen alpinists to the Damavand Mountain since 2000. The ascents to Ararat, Seventhousanders of the Tien Shan - Khan Tengri and Lenin Peak, Aconcagua in South America as well as expeditions to Himalayas and Tibet are on the account of the rock climbers from Turkmenistan.
The ascent started in the Reyneh village on the north side of the Damavand Mountain, where the overnight accommodation and transport to transfer alpinists to the camp located on a hillside at a height of around 3,100 metres were arranged. The next day, on May 20, the group headed to the second camp located at the height of 4,200 metres. Then, our alpinists climbed four hundred metres more to get acclimatized and returned back to the camp for the overnight stop.
In May, the snow line there starts at approximately 4,000 metres. The weather on those days turned out to be capricious, having met the climbers with rainfalls at the foothills and snow and hail - at altitude. A few days earlier, poor weather conditions prevented the teams from Slovakia and Russia to climb the mountain, having met the mountain conquerors with heavy fog, snowstorm and lightning.
On May 22, the weather favored the ascent. The group started storming the mountain at four o’clock in the morning, the route was long – the height difference from the last camp to the mountain top exceeded one and a half kilometres. The ascent was relatively smooth, approximately 30 degrees and run mostly on rocky ridges and snow couloirs.
Gusts of wind tore snow grains off the rocks. Taking advantage of the weather, the Iranian group of climbers popped up towards the top of the mountain on the same day.
About two o'clock in the afternoon Dmitriy Vinokurov and Roman Anoshkin, representatives of Ashgabat mountaineering club "Agama", and Begench Mamedov and Vitaliy Sagdeev from Balkanabat - "Mert" hoisted the national flag of Turkmenistan on the highest peak of the Damavand Mountain.
It was the fifth expedition taken by Turkmen alpinists to the Damavand Mountain since 2000. The ascents to Ararat, Seventhousanders of the Tien Shan - Khan Tengri and Lenin Peak, Aconcagua in South America as well as expeditions to Himalayas and Tibet are on the account of the rock climbers from Turkmenistan.
