After few minutes we decided to descend to the Camp 3.

We did not want to go further as it would be against the acclimatization rules (go high sleep low).

And of course we were not ready for the peak that day.

 

 

After this short climbing we were SO TIRED! We immediately went to sleep and we slept for about 2 hours.

In the evening we had to go to the "special" place where even the king is going alone - the toilet was outside the camp - believe me it was THE challenge. Wow!

 

 

We stayed in the Camp 3 for 4 days and 3 nights - sometimes reading:

 

 

sometimes walking around the shelter:

 

 

and sometimes visiting the W.C. again:

 

 

The fourth day (Friday, 10th May 2013) was our initial plan for the summit attack. So we woke up at 5:00 AM and we heard the noise of the wind.

Actually I had a nightmare and this nightmare has come true - the weather did not give us any chance.

The snow was falling horizontally (very strong wind) and the amount of clouds and their type was rather scaring.

The guide only confirmed: "nothing could be achieved today and the weather forecast for tomorrow (Saturday) was even worse".

The picture below shows the situation: Reyneh village covered by the fog and above us the black clouds:

 

 

The wind was from the west and the west side of the Damavand was also full of clouds.

But - accidentally - we have seen the wonder which we wanted to see from the peak: the triangle of the shade of Mount Damavand on the other mountains - the morning sun was really working for us.

 

 

Our target - Mount Damavand peak - was unconditional. We did not decide to fight for it and we have decided to descend. So we have taken the last pictures:

 

 

 

 

and we said nicely "Good bye Mister Damavand" and we started the descend. The peak was not visible at all. Not even the path to the peak:

 

 

The way down was very windy and full of snow:

 

 

but also very phenomenal - we were between the upper clouds and the lower clouds. In the sunshine.

Mister Masoud was always on call - actually he was organizing our trip back to the motel:

 

 

Macka decided to play with the snow - sometimes the snow was the winner - here we can see that she almost broke her leg:

 

 

From time to time we were looking back but we saw nothing - everything covered by the clouds:

 

 

Macka was running down as fast as Masoud and they had lots of fun together:

 

 

 

Eventually we have reached the Base Camp where the 4x4 car was waiting for us.

 

 

We did not reach the target (Mt. Damavand peak) but we were not alone.

For last 2 weeks nobody reached the peak: Ukrainians, Germans, Swiss, Austrians, Poles, Dutch, Iranians...

It does not change anything of course but only shows that it was really challenging.

So did we succeed? We know the answer but feel free to have your own opinion.

What happened then? Why we did not reach the peak?

We concluded that we "forgot" to pay for the... the weather.

OK. Next time we will pay for this part as well.