Climbing Aragats and Kazbek / 9 Days

armeniangeographic

7 years ago

We offer you a short program for climbing Aragats and Kazbek. This program is for those who want to have a real mountaineering experience or for those who are just short in time. With this program we will climb the highest peak in Armenia – Mount Aragats, afterwards we will drive to Georgia to climb one of the most beautiful five-thousander in Caucasus region – Kazbek. This program is designed in the way to provide maximum comfort and best chance to reach the summits. So here we go.

Day 1: Yerevan

Meeting the group in Zvartnots Iinternational Airport and transfer to hotel. Later that evening we will meet to have a short walk in the capital of Armenia Yerevan. During the welcome dinner we will discuss our upcoming plans and take short instruction from our guide.

Yerevan

Details of the day

Location – Yerevan
Driving – 30 km
Difficulty level – excursions
Overnight stay –Yerevan

Day 2: Overnight near Lake Kari

Early in the morning we will drive to the Aragats volcano. On the slopes of the mountain we will visit the Amberd fortress, which had a very important fortification purpose for the protection of the medieval capital of Armenia – Ani. After that we will start our hike to the Lake Kari. This will be our basecamp. After dinner we will go to sleep to wake up early next morning.

Kari Lake

Details of the day

Location – Aragatsotn province
Driving – 52 km
Length of the route – 12 km
Altitude gain – 1000 m
Difficulty level – easy
Overnight stay – Lake Kari

Day 3: Climbing Northern Aragats

Early in the morning after breakfast we will start climbing the Northern peak of Aragats. Yet the distance is not big, the route has a pretty complicated approach. First we need to gain up to 3750 meters, then drop down to the crater – 3500 meters afterwards we start the main climb. That’s why it has around 1400 meters of altitude gain. The round way is about 16 km and 890 meters altitude gain. Which means we shouldn’t underrate it. After reaching the summit we will return to Lake Kari and drive back to Yerevan.

Aragats

Details of the day

Location – Aragatsotn province
Driving – 70 km
Length of the route – 16 km
Relative altitude – 890 m
Altitude gain – 1420 m
Difficulty level – difficult
Overnight stay –Yerevan

Day 4: Moving to Georgia

Today we move to Georgian border. In 4 – 5 hours we will be in Tbilisi – capital of Georgia. Another 3 hours of driving and we are in Stepantsminda village – at the foot of Mount Kazbek. We will get some rest and prepare for the climb.

Details of the day

Location – Mtskheta-Kazbegi
Driving – 160 km
Overnight stay – Stepantsminda

Day 5: Base camp of Kazbek

Today we start climbing Kazbek – the headliner of our program. Early in the morning 4×4 car will drop us near the Gergeti monastery – altitude is 2100 meters. Here begins our trekking. On this day we will pass small ridges and go down the gorge to the bottom of the Gergeti glacier. We must walk up the glacier, so there may be a necessity for wearing crampons. We arrive at the Meteo station – which is the base camp of Kazbek. Overnight in Meteo station which was turned into a mountain shelter currently.

Gergeti Monastery

Details of the day

Length of the route – 8 km
Altitude gain – 1500 m
Difficulty level – moderate
Overnight stay – «Betlemi Hut» – the Meteo station
Overnight altitude – 3700 m

Day 6: Acclimatization in Kazbek

Acclimatization is the most important and a key factor for successful and safe climbing. We must go up the glacier to 4500 meters and spend some time there to get familiar with high altitude conditions. If someone from the group won’t be able to climb, we have an extra day for acclimatization. Also we will learn how to use crampons and ice axe and how to act on the firn.

Climbing Mount Kazbek

Details of the day

Length of the route – 3-4 km
Altitude gain – 800 m
Difficulty level – moderate
Overnight stay – «Betlemi Hut» – the Meteo station
Overnight altitude – 3700 m

Day 7: Reaching the Summit

And here it comes – the summit day! We will wake up at 1:00 am and start climbing no later than 2:30. The way to the summit goes by the glacier, where there are cracks going very deep. Usually they are covered with a thick layer of snow, but we must be very careful with this. All instructions will be given to you before the ascent. After the summit we’ll go down to Stepantsminda. We will check in in the guesthouse, clean our stuff, take a shower and rest after the climb.