During our 3 week tour of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia we spent 3 days hiking up and down the tallest peak in Armenia, Mount Aragats. It was personally the highlight of the trip and an amazing experience. We ran from vicious sheep dogs, scrambled along icy ridges, narrowly missed being struck by lightning and ran from security at an abandoned Soviet observatory. AND also a huge shout out to my Grandma and Grandpa for the backing music on the Ukelele!

Day 1: After missing our stop on the bus we hitchhiked to the town of Aragats to begin the hike. We were given free biscuits by a friendly Armenian and passed the cutest sheep dogs on the way up. We pitched just after sunset at about 2900m right below Gegharot Waterfall.

Day 2: We were up early to summit before midday when the clouds rolled in. The false summit is easily reachable but the true summit, 20m higher, required a scary scramble along an icy ridge. We then made our way to a new camp at a 3200m lake where we experienced the scariest thunder storm and lightning striking about 100m from our tent during the night.

Day 3: After doing a major detour to dodge some scary sheep dogs we made our way off the Mountain via Amberd fortress and down to the Aragats Soviet Radio Observatory. After dodging security for 2 hours we slept in the control room and recovered from a very very intense 3 days.

Day 4: We hiked and caught a bus back to Yerevan to find riots and protests everywhere. It turned out that there had been a 3 day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan during our hike. So we dipped from Armenia that evening.

свернуть