11th – Return home

Still being full from the dinner last night I only had a very light breakfast before we checked out at 1000 and got picked up to the airport an hour later.

Arriving at the airport the part that ended up taking the longest was waiting for the check-in booths to open up for service. Luckily they opened up 3 hours before departure instead of 2 hours so half an hour after arrival at the airport we got into the queue for passport control. The queues were slow, very slow, but getting checked was painless and we found ourselves wandering a small boring airport trying to kill a few hours. Several of us ended up in a café before going through security to the gate and boarding.

Flight home was uneventful. The layover in Istanbul was just two hours this time and the second flight had issues with their cooling so even if you had your personal cooler blowing air at you, you were still very hot. Arrived home on time, got our luggage and left. And that was it.

Iran is a very underrated tourist destination and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to see a different culture or climb a not-so-popular (for westerners) mountain. It's a beautiful country and the locals are very friendly. But due to the low traffic of international tourism you can risk ending up at a hotel - even a nice one - with staff that might not be very good at speaking English. It's all part of the charm. And don't believe the news; we did not get terrorized and people were not building nukes on every street corner. But, if you go, I'd highly recommend getting a full visa before arriving and not just a visa grant. You can avoid a lot of frustration having it all sorted out in advance. 

Big thanks to the guides Hamid, Zohre and Parisa, the extra two guides on summit day Hasan and Fatima and our cook on Damavand Rahim who all were part of making this trip memorable and who took care of us all the way. You guys are awesome! And thanks to the group; Søren, Niels, Søren, Mette, Dino, Johannes, Ole, Lars, Anders, Anders, Frank, Hilde, Ellen, Steen, Jens Ejner and Martin for being such nice people and making the trip as successful as it ended up being.

Full album can be found here.

10th – The Scandinavian reunion

This night was much colder than we have been getting used to and while we didn’t have storm-like conditions like the previous nights it was windy when exiting the tent and it showed no signs of slowing down. The wind has also changed direction which means that people going to the summit today will have to pass straight through the sulphur fumes. And with a few clouds gathering it seems timing for our summit attempt was perfect.

After 3 nights in the camp we were to go down and return to Tehran. We had breakfast at around 0800 and at that point most of us were already done packing. Having packed everything, we left around 0915 and we arrived at the bottom around 3 hours later. It was then a simple matter of relaxing and doing nothing until the rest of the guides, kitchen staff and equipment and mules with our bags arrived.

During the descent we must have met at least 3-400 people going up and only a fraction of this number going down. Combining with the many arriving yesterday the already existing chaos will potentially only get worse. Another sign of we having perfect timing. On the other hand, part of me would have loved to stay behind to see how things developed with all the extra people arriving.

On the way down we met an Iranian who, when realizing we were a group of Danes and Norwegians, presented himself with “Hej! Jag är Hassan från Sverige!” (“Hi! I am Hassan from Sweden!”). He had come to Sweden long ago, gotten a citizenship and 12 years ago returned to Iran. He couldn’t resist getting a group photo with him and us and we had a few fun minutes of talking where he clearly disproved himself when saying he didn’t speak Swedish well anymore which he clearly still did (that being said; I’m just a Dane, it all sounds like hurr-di-hurr-di-hurr to me, anyway).

Arriving at our pick-up point we ended up waiting close to 2 hours for the rest of the guides (who had stayed behind packing the kitchen supplies and equipment) and the mules with our big bags. From there we drove to Polour where we changed to our busses that returned us to our hotel in Tehran where we arrived around 1630.

We got to drive in a... Peusan? Nisgeot?

I am pretty sure those tires are barely legal no matter where you are.

1½ hours later later, after having a much needed shower, we left for the largest rotating restaurant in the world, located in Tehran. It was an absolutely delicious buffet and to my surprise Iranian food does not involve spiciness. While I hadn’t expected blurry photos when photographing the view I had expected it would have been faster than it taking 2½ hours to do one rotation. We were back at the hotel around 2330 which finished a wonderful day, but also a sad one as we had said goodbye to our guides.

Milad tower with the restaurant near the top.

I was quite a nice restaurant.

Tomorrow we will be picked up to go to the airport around 1100. We don’t depart until 1525 but it is generally recommended showing up 4 hours before departure. Remembering the immigration process it feels unsafe to not adhere to that recommendation.

9th – Summit day

Like any other summit day arriving at the summit was amazing, coming back down was amazing and everything in between was "Oh my god who's idea was this???".

But I am getting ahead of myself.

We got up at 0400 after a night with winds similar to last night that fortunately quieted down before we came out of our sleeping bags. The campsite has increased in size so the constant noisy chaos has increased. This also means that more people are sleeping in random places in the building. When arriving for breakfast people were packed away in their bags on every available spot on the floor in the common room. We heard from those sleeping in the dorm that the floor there is also getting crowded.

We departed at 0510 at a comfortably calm pace. I felt much better than yesterday morning so I was feeling optimistic about the progress. Already half an hour into the ascent we could get rid of our headlamps and get rid of our warmest layers. The temperature was nice with a cool early-morning breeze.

The view an hour or so into climbing.

You can just see Damavand's shadow to the right.

Damavand's shadow clearly against the background.

Unfortunately I soon realized that the headache I thought I had gotten rid of started coming back in intervals; sometimes a gentle pressure, sometimes throbbing pain. It was not until the tour leader “suggesting” to take a couple of pain killers I finally got it under control (and it probably didn’t hurt I forced myself drinking extra during our hourly breaks) and I could continue without having to worry too much about that. But at one point it was very, very tempting to turn around.

Crossing the 5100m mark we passed by a frozen waterfall and the path steepened and turned into scrambling on rocks. Getting past this the environment opened up and you could see the path curving up towards the summit. Not having any known points of reference, it didn’t look nearly as far as it ended up being.

Nearing the summit.

Due to the wear and tear of the headache, constant rumbling stomach and not eating much from the snack bag that was handed out I was getting completely exhausted at this point. I was walking in the back of the group and the guide keeping up the rear started assisting with gently pushing/lifting my bag. I’ll admit it was very appreciated but I am a grown independent man, woman!

Damavand is a volcano, the tallest in Asia (and tallest point in Iran), and it’s releasing sulphur non-stop. Looking towards the summit with no clouds in the sky you will see what you think is clouds but actually is fumes being vented from the volcano. We had been informed the smell was horrible and made it near impossible to breathe but the truth was, though, that as long as you stayed out of the fumes you’d be fine. You obviously couldn’t avoid the smell but it was never as bad as it had been described. You should just keep in mind that small vents were hard to see and you could inadvertently walk straight through the fumes from these. Considering how bad the smell was from fumes that were barely visible I don’t want to know how it is walking through them when they are full white as they are from the main outlet.

Getting much easier to see how close you get when passing by the outlet.

Near the summit we passed the main volcano’s main outlet and due to the wind direction you could get almost as close as you wanted to the edge without feeling particularly uncomfortable (at least not as much as one would expect) and get a clear view.

Beautiful bright colors that were hard to see due to the fumes.

10 minutes later, at 1130, we arrived at the summit, very satisfied and personally I felt the best I had since departure, almost 6½ hours earlier. The summit itself was a small spot where you could get together and take group photos, but just behind a rock formation there was a large area where it was possible to walk around and get an unobstructed view in all directions of the surroundings. The weather was amazing; barely a breeze and only wearing two thin layers made it all even better. Therefore it was extra weird that our tour leader ordered us to leave after only 15 minutes. There were plenty confused opinions on this but unfortunately he did not budge. We started our descent and taking a different path down it was possible to walk/slide most of the way, making it a bit easier and faster than if we had had to take the same path as we had sued to get to the summit – especially taking the scrambling parts in consideration.

Summit photo of the group members currently present.

View from the summit.

View of the plateau behind from where we came up.

Descending was fairly uneventful; 2 people wanted to go down faster and went ahead, coming back in camp at 1345 and 1400 with the rest of the group arriving an hour later at 1500. The slow group, the last 3 people who had been behind us the entire day, returned around 1715, all having summited.

The rest of the day was spent on resting and kicking back. Having spent 10 hours getting up and down it was a relatively short summit day compared to some of the other I have experienced. Add to that that it was by far the warmest one I have done and we started late it was a very nice walk (especially in hindsight).

On return it was obvious that the camp had increased in size and still doing so. Usable space is so limited on the rocky surface that people have even started setting their tents on the helipad. The camp with the main building has 6 toilets available which has been fine until now, but now, because tomorrow is a holiday and the following day weekend locals travel up here to spend their two days off. One in the was told by a local that app 500 people has arrived to camp (and only a few went down) which means that the line to the toilets have increased from non-existent to 10-15 minutes long. It also means the tent situation has gotten more chaotic – if you came back to an area after just a few minutes of being away you’d see changes, the frequency of tents getting removed and set up is frantic. At sunset it did seem as if the tents on the helipad had been removed, but the pathway to the helipad, being flat and established, is now completely filled up with tents. 

8th – Rest day

To underline the mayhem in the dormitory around midnight someone was getting ready to leave and decided to start blaring music on their tin can quality speakers. One of the group had woken up and yelled at them to turn it off (but in much less polite terms) which luckily had resulted in them quieting down. But the locals are apparently not used to others commenting on what they are doing – a hush had gone through the entire dorm everyone had quieted down, at least just for a short while.

During last night and early morning, we were hit by what sounded like a storm. But as suddenly it had started just as suddenly it ended again a few hours later. Apparently a group that had left early for the summit had gotten hit by it and had had to turn back.

When waking up around 0800 I hadn’t gotten the best start of the day; horrible sleep, nausea, lack of appetite and when starting moving around a headache started forming. And a rumbling tummy didn’t help.

This meant that breakfast at 0900 didn’t result in much being eaten. At 1000 we met up for a short acclimatization trek to 300m above the camp (because rest day in the mountains is acclimatization day). The climb was gentle and slow and only a bit more than an hour after departure we arrived at our destination. We had a 30-45 minutes break before returning to camp at 1300 and having lunch half an hour later. Luckily my appetite seemed to have (partially) returned at that point, and both headache and nausea seem to have disappeared.

The view from the 4500m point. You can just see the camp in the center.

There is nothing going on for the rest of the day where we gather our strength and ready ourselves for the summit day tomorrow. The wind has been picking up compared to yesterday’s afternoon but I don’t expect that it will be an issue for us later.

7th – Going back up

We had a much needed late morning with breakfast at 0900 before packing our bags (no one seemed to be having issues with the weight limit) and taking off towards Damavand after a short briefing.

Damavand seen in the distance when coming outside in the morning.

The clouds at the summit are not clouds but sulfuric fumes being vented

We were put into some run-down jeeps that brought us up to 3400m mostly on twisty dusty roads. On arrival we had our bags and all the kitchen equipment put on mules for the ascent. The walk up to the camp at 4200m where we will be staying the next 3 nights was technically easy but it was a long slog. On the way up we could see clouds gathering around the summit and fairly quickly after arriving they got dark and started sinking.

After departing around 1200-1230 we arrived at the main building at the camp at 1730 without any incident from the clouds. Arriving I had been struggling a bit with the altitude but after a while with relaxing and watching the chaos roaming the camp it improved significantly.

As many other places logistics depend on our four-legged friends.

We had been told we would have access to 16 beds (i.e. for everyone in the group) and an 8-man tent if you preferred that. I decided on a bed in the dorm but I quickly realized that the dorm had near 50 beds with a another 20 on a half second floor, and there was a complete mayhem of people arriving, leaving, cooking and generally being themselves without acknowledging that there were others around. I quickly returned outside and grabbed the last free spot in the tent, and while the sleeping conditions are more cramped and you still get the noise from the rest of the camp you still feel you have more privacy than in the dorm.

Due to the unpacking of the kitchen and getting things in order it took some time dinner wasn’t ready until around 2000. At this point the sun had set behind the mountains and the temperature had dropped significantly to chilling 5-10 degrees.

Tomorrow we will be heaving breakfast at 0900 before leaving an hour later for an acclimatization walk; one that likely will be relatively short to save energy for the summit attempt the following day.

The clouds slowly drifted away without giving us any rain which was nice, but this is the first period of the trip we are having clouds drifting around so I don’t know if this will change anything from what we are used to. It also looks, when looking at the view from the camp, as if some of the clouds have spread out below us. 

6th – 1st summit, 2nd ascent

We woke at 0500 after a night where I had barely managed to get any sleep despite my physical exhaustion (it is generally estimated 4 hours to reach the summit from the hut). I am assuming it was the experience of the impulsive ascent and adrenaline from it that kept me from relaxing.

We had breakfast at 0530 and left at 0600 (except for my summit partner yesterday – he gave himself a few more hours in bed before leaving and catching up with us). Having the guides with us we were going at a much gentler pace than yesterday and we reached the small hut at the half-way point app. 2-2½ hours after starting in the morning. Shortly after arriving yesterday’s summit partner arrived, having done that part of the climb in almost an hour.

Having had lying awake most of the night I had had plenty of time to think and realize that what we had done yesterday had been borderline reckless – especially on my behalf as I had not had the appropriate equipment with me to do it. I grabbed hold of one the guides, apologized and at the same time mentioned that as opposed to yesterday I knew when to stop and I’d therefore stay here at the mid-way point and wait for the rest of the group to return and then go down with them. Having already been at the summit I wouldn't be missing out on anything, and I would also be saving my energy for the coming days on Damavand.

The mid-way point and shelter at 3300m.

One of the guides taking a break before continuing.

After app. 3 hours of relaxing and enjoying the view the first people started trickling down from the summit. After maybe half the group had arrived and/or continued further down I grabbed my stuff and started my own walk down. Having boots and two poles as opposed to yesterday’s shoes and a single borrowed pole helped immensely. What a surprise.

No matter where you are you are always being watched.

Returning to the hut.

At around 1400 I arrived back at the hut where half the group already was and an hour later everyone had returned and had had a small bite to eat before we continued down over the steep rocks we scrambled up yesterday. Going down the rocks, half the distance to the busses, we were asked to stay close together but after that we would be free to go at our own pace. At around 1800 the first half of us entered a restaurant close to where the busses were parked and we would greet latecomers as they arrived. Dinner was had and when the last people arrived at app. 1930 the first bus was filled to continue with today’s plan.

Coming back down through Darmand.

Dinner in Darmand. With large portions of rice for each.

We went by our original hotel to grab our big bags and from there continued to a hut in the village of Polour where we’d spend the first night near Damavand. We arrived at 2230, concluding a very long day. AT least I was lucky to have a 3-hour rest in the middle of the day when the rest ascended and descended the summit of Tochal but I could definitely still feel the day’s (and yesterday’s) trekking in my feet and legs. But they have showers with hot water here!

Tomorrow we will walk to high camp at around 4200m – our big bags will be taken by mules but we have just been told those bags may not weigh more than 12kgs so it’s time to pack conservatively (or hope you didn’t bring more than that from the hotel). A late start with wakeup at 0800, breakfast at 090 and departure at 1000. They expect the walk up won’t take more than a couple of hour so after this long and gruelling day a short day will be welcoming, which I think everyone will appreciate.

5th – Summit fever

As breakfast was served from 0630 it was decided we would be packed and ready to leave at 0700. A small bag for the one night to climb Tochal, a sleeping bag which mules would carry to the hut near Tochal, a large bag we would pick up when coming back for the Damavand climb and a bag with stuff we wouldn’t need until returning home.

At 0730 we were off and only half an hour later we arrived in Darband (at around 1700m) where we met with our guides and started the day’s walk.

A statue at the start of the walk.

The first couple of hours we walked through the small village with lots of cafes and the like with a small stream going through the area and several places had put out tables/seating arrangements in the water so you could cool off. Unfortunately, the large amounts of trash lying around (and occasionally smelling) ruined the experience a bit. The cafes also made it convenient for us and resulted in two hourly breaks on the way up before leaving the area.

Up to this point it had been gentle walking and we had been in the shade for the majority of the time but the following two hours were very different; we were asked to put away any poles as we now would be scrambling most of the rest of the way to the hut and as an added bonus there was very little shade. It was quite hard work and some very tall steps were necessary at times, but we all made it to the hut at around 2700m. This would be our starting point when climbing Tochal tomorrow for acclimatization. Our accommodation was a 16-bed room that just fit us all except for guides and tour leader. Lunch was had at 1330.

The view of Tehran from the hut.

After this we had the rest of the day off. A few people went up to a small plateau app. 70 meters above the hut to kill time and get a view. My roommate from Tehran and I decided to do the same. I, expecting a short walk, just wore my relaxing shoes, camera and a bit of water. We left at 1445 and 10 minutes later we had arrived. We looked at each other and asked “was that it?” and decided to continue a bit further. We easily crossed the 3000m mark and feeling great we decided to continue a bit further. This brought us to 3300m, the halfway point to tomorrow’s summit, and we took a half an hour’s break. Still feeling great we decided to push on (“we are already half way, why stop now?!) and sometime later, at 1800, we found ourselves on the summit.

The view - with the shelter - at 3300m.

Summit!

View from the summit.

  

View of Tehran from the summit.

That had not quite been my plan for the afternoon.

We tried getting hold of our tour leader to let him and our two local guides that we were OK and we would be late for dinner, but due to connection issues we could only reach his Danish number and not the Iranian he was using when here.

At 1830 we started our descent. The first half felt a bit steep and combined with a loose surface meant that my lackluster footwear had barely any grip at all. This resulted in us getting down quite slowly and though the steepness eased off later the surface made it hard for me to comfortably navigate the paths.

The sunset on the way down.

We were back at the hut at around 2045 and as our message had never reached its final destination our two guides weren’t too happy with us. There were a few people who hadn’t yet gone to bed who we talked a bit with about what to expect from tomorrow’s climb. We had some leftovers from dinner, enjoyed the night view of Tehran and went to bed around 2200.

Tehran by night.

4th – Touring Tehran

The hotel serves breakfast at 0630-0930 but we (me and my roommate) agreed that sleep was more important. The alarm was set to 1100 giving us a bit more than 5 hours of much needed sleep.

At 1200 we met with the rest of the group with our tour leader and two local guides. We are 16 people; 3 women – 2 of them Norwegian – and me being the youngest (one is 38 the rest are in their 40s/50s/60s) which is a bit of a surprise to me. There are usually a few people younger than me on these climbs and the average age is usually much lower. But everybody seems to have quite a bit of experience climbing and trekking so I doubt there will be any issues.

We left the hotel around 1330 in the heat but had access to busses with AC. We started with having lunch near a closed bazaar (Friday is weekend and it was also being renovated) and afterwards we went to see Golestan Palace. Some of the rooms were very peculiar as there were mirrors all over the place, mostly as small pieces, making it very bright and diamond like (and not like actual mirrors where you kept seeing yourself). Unfortunately you were not allowed to photograph these.

It was a bit weird walking through a completely empty bazaar.

The building we had lunch was old and a former bank.

Golestan Palace.

From there we continued to an open bazaar with all the fascinating booths and chaos you’d expect. We rounded it off by visiting a nearby mosque before going for dinner at a Persian restaurant.

Spices at the bazaar.

Saffron. Lots of it.

This is how I'd imagined a bazaar.

The mosque, just as beautifully decorated as the palace.

And plenty of bling indoors, too!

We returned to the hotel at around 2100 and started packing for the coming days. Tomorrow we will leave around 0700-0715 to go on a 2-day trip to climb Tochal, a small warm-up summit of 3933m. Coming back down we will pass by the hotel, pick up our pre-packed large bags and continue towards Damavand for our “main” climb. Weather-wise I suspect we don’t have to worry too much about freezing or heavy rainfalls.

The day was obviously hot but it never felt as bad as I had expected. Due to the weekend there were barely anyone out so the first half of the day out felt like we had most of the place to ourselves. Getting closer to late afternoon and evening traffic started picking up and the number of people out on the streets increased significantly.

3rd of August – The welcoming nature of immigration

The flight to Iran went as planned and there were no real issues to speak of. We left Copenhagen around 1110 and to my surprise there were many more at the airport than I had expected for a Thursday morning. I met some of my fellow travellers in the check-in queue and at the gate and check-in was probably the slowest I have ever seen in CPH; almost 45 minutes’ wait with only 20-ish ahead of me and several booths open – damn IT systems not working as intended. The layover was spent grabbing samples of Turkish delights and relaxing in a café. The flight to Tehran was on time and we arrived as scheduled at 0120 local time.

The travel agency had sorted out visas for us and had in return sent us visa grants and as we had been told nothing else we entered the immigration queue like everyone else. After spending too long moving almost nowhere the first of us reached the single desk and was promptly referred to a different desk that apparently was supposed to convert our visa grants to “real” visas. From here we entered an absurd circus. First they wanted us to buy visas because they didn’t want to acknowledge the official visa grants we presented to them and couldn’t show the necessary documentation that we had paid for them already (though they never explained WHAT the necessary documentation was), then they wanted us to buy travel insurance as we couldn’t show satisfactory documentation that we had insurance (again; they couldn’t (wouldn’t?) explain what kind of proof they wanted), then they wanted to see travel documents but yes, you guessed it; they couldn’t explain what kind of documents they were referring to. Nothing we showed them was apparently correct. All this time it was a single man walking between the different visa/insurance booths running us around in circles.

We then stepped aside, called our tour guide (who had arrived a bit before us) who we couldn’t get hold of him so we called the travel agency’s emergency number and got hold of someone who promised he would figure things out. And then we waited with occasional updates from the emergency contact. He had finally gotten hold of our guide and local contact on the other side and the latter had been talking with the immigration office. After a while this resulted in Mr. Bureaucracy suddenly showing up with a list with all our names, taking our passports and grants and returning them a few minutes later with proper visas. Success!

We went through immigration without a single issue, grabbed out bags and finally left the airport. The entire ordeal lasted near 3 hours and most of it was just annoying waiting.

Arrived at the hotel around 0500, checked in, had a very short briefing and planned to meet for a more expansive one at 1200. Sleep time!