Day 28 Damavand

4805 metres; cold bivouac last night - it was 3 degrees C when we got up at 5:45 am. Beautiful stars last night, but icy wind - sleeping bag just warm enough - could wear a fleece / socks etc I guess. Climbed up from about 4400 metres where we bivouaced; it's now about 8:30 am. Now in some sunshine at last - and the wind has dropped a bit too. After a real fight with the damn Primus - paraffin all over the place, got some soup, tea and cake. Plan to ascend to about 5000 metres and probably make a push for the top today - sort of in my mind at least - not saying this out loud as yet! Can make out some other Hot Rock people below on the saddle region of the mountain. Last night they said they'd climb to 4900 metres - then descend all the way back to the top most hut, only to re-climb all the way back to the summit. Way too hard for me. 1:10 pm 5365 metres and we can now see the upper (final?) reaches of the mountain. Dumped our rucksacks 200 metres below here. Smell of sulphur - lots of little chunks of yellow sulphur lying around too. A bit more nasty scree (is there any other kind?). I have a slight headache - feels like my hat is a bit tight. Windy, but okay in the sun. Writing this sat beneath a really noisy fluttering marker flag.

3:45 pm and we've made it. Summit of Damavand - I think 5640 metres(?). [Actual height is 5610 metres]. We set off from the flag mentioned above, pretty knackered (meaning very tired, as in ready for the knacker’s yard, a place where old horses were slaughtered and made into dog food). Classic thing whereby I'd walk ten feet and then rest and so on. Lots of tedius scree, paths difficult to find, not that it really mattered - just head uphill. Marker flags. Then poles every hundred feet or so. This part is called Doud Kouh (Smoke Mountain). Final fifty metres of height more gentle, but strong sulphur smell; looks like something spewing from an industrial cooling tower. A few more dozen yards brought us to the summit proper. Sadly no awesome views - just some dead dogs(?). Looks like the poor beasts had been vitrified in sulphur dioxide or something - goodness knows! Bizarre indeed. A variety of plaques - but writing is Persian or Arabic. View of the tarn atop the volcano. Lots of silent sulphur mist blowing about.


Quick descent down the tedius scree, back to that noisy flag at 5200 metres. Sleeping bags, sunshine, tea, chocolate muffins. Dozing off - tomorrow morning may rendevous with group coming up - 6 am or so.