Mount Damavand - the highest mountain of Iran. According to international sources it is 5,610 m (18,406 ft) high.

According to Iranian sources it is 5671m. Who is right? Who cares?

I've started preparation to climb this peak around 6 months ago (autumn 2012). Without really knowing when I would have time to climb.

Eventually the time has been chosen for me: beginning of May 2013. In the meantime my wife kindly agreed to do it with me.

What a heck!

I've organized the trip, the guide and all needed accessories to climb. What did I forget? Let me tell you this by the end of the story.

As a preparation for Damavand we have climbed Mt. Tochal (3962m) and we spent a night in Shirpala Hut (2700m). Just for acclimatization.

Then we had 2 days off and we went to Reyneh - the village at the bottom of Mt. Damavand.

On the way there we had to stop and take the "obligatory" picture of Macka with Damavand on the background - in Polur village.

As you can see the peak was already covered by clouds (actually beginning of May is the most unpredictable time to climb Damavand due to weather changes).

 

 

We have decided to spend one night in the Damavand Motel - a place owned by our guide Mr. Masoud.

This very nice guy also invited us to have a dinner with his family - a typical Iranian style and taste (very delicious by the way):

 

 

The next morning we went by 4x4 car to the Base Camp (Gosfansara) at 3000m. Here we have packed our big backpacks to the mules and we have taken only the most necessary stuff with us.

The weather at BC was very OK for climbing - we did not care at all what was happening at the peak - we knew we had time to think about it later.

 

 

The trekking was very light, sun shining like crazy and nice Austrians with the skis who decided to climb to the peak and then to ski down.

 

 

Along the path the weather started misbehaving - the clouds started gathering around the peak and even lower.

 

 

We did not care too much - we had nice time, we stopped as many times as we wanted. Really the beginning was easy.

 

 

But it is mountains and in the mountains the weather changes very quickly. Soon we had to put on the jackets - it started snowing a bit.

 

 

Then "a bit' changed to real winter - Macka was completely surprised but she was ready for this event by means of all necessary clothes.

 

 

After 3 hours and 50 minutes we have reached the Camp 3 - Bargah Sevom - at around 4240m. This time the weather was horrible - we hardly saw the building.

 

 

As the hut was not warmed up so we had to warm ourselves. How? Of course by preparing the hot tea.

We got the private room for 4 people but we had it exclusively for us. So we felt really nice there.

Macka even showed that she still remembered how to use the camp stove.

 

 

Did I like it? Yes of course! But only when it was together with being hidden in the sleeping bag.

 

 

We have spent long time in the camp so from time to time Macka misbehaved, i.e. she thought she was a monkey ;-)

 

 

My time there was also quite stretched and in the evening I was going out for some necessary actions such as... taking a photo ;-)

Here you can see the Camp 3 by night with some lights of Tehran behind.

 

 

Here you can really see the impact of huge Tehran on the Iranian landscape - the glow of the city is visible as far as 70km from Tehran.

On this photo you can see in the foreground the old shelter of Camp 3, then Polur village and in the background the light of the capital.

 

 

Next day we woke up and saw beautiful weather - Macka even wanted to get a bit of sun tan:

 

 

The view to the peak was very nice - a bit of clouds but not too much. We were ready for the first day of acclimatization:

 

 

Our guide told us: "today either the peak or the acclimatization but no more than 100m". Did we listen to him? Try to guess ;-)

 

 

We decided to climb for around 1-2 hours:

 

 

In 1,5h we reached 4600m. There we had a tea.