High Camp offered much more rugged terrain, but comfortable in the tents and again all food prepared for us.
Top doesn’t look too far from here
But we would still need to leave camp at 1.30am, so up for breakfast at 1.00am.
Meltwater from summit icefields builds momentum through the day to produce this cascade close to camp
It’s 1.00am and it’s Breakfast time!
Summit just before 6.00am
It was so cold on top that I couldn’t operate my camera and the wind made it very difficult to stand up. Our guide is sheltering to the left of the picture. An amazing experience, well recommended. I did suffer from the altitude for the last 500ft or so, but just feeling sick and difficulty breathing. As soon as that distance was descended felt fine again.
Looking at Little Ararat, towards the border of Iran from the summit, with cloud inversion evident
Looking down at High Camp on the descent – we would arrive for second breakfast at 8.50am
As in many cases, the descent is tougher than going up, and I certainly found this to be the case. There is no path and the boulders and scree you can see in the foreground are all lying on frozen ground – not the best combination for staying upright. Sure enough I ended up on the rocks a fair number of times, but eventually got down to camp where again refreshments were waiting.
Great trip, learnt much about ‘Ultras’ and I’m sure we will meet up with the serious ‘Baggers’ for a leisurely excursion into their world now and again.
As usual, more on FSS's blog
NLN
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