Mt Ararat (Agri Dagi), Turkey Highpoint

Mt Ararat (Agri Dagi), Turkey Highpoint

July 20 – 25, 2025
South Climb Route
Eric Gilbertson

July 20 – Fly to Igdir, bus to Dogubayazit
July 21 – van ride to 2200m, hike to C1 3300m
July 22 – hike to C2 4100m, return to C1
July 23 – move to C2
July 24 – summit (5100+m) return to C1
July 25 – hike out to 2200m, van back to Dogubayazit

I was in central Asia and had just climbed Alpomish, the Uzbekistan highpoint, with Serge. I was hoping to capitalize on my acclimation and go climb Shkhara, the Georgia Highpoint. I spent a week in Georgia waiting for a weather window but it didn’t come. So I switched objectives and decided to climb Mt Ararat, the Turkey highpoint, instead.

I likely still had some acclimation retained since I’d been hiking up above 3000m most days in Georgia, so in theory a quick climb of Ararat would be possible (elevation 5100+m). Ararat is also relatively close by, and makes sense to climb in the summer time.

However, a guide is legally required to climb Ararat, so I would have to sign up with a guided group going during my available window. Two Ararat was the cheapest company I could find online meeting my criteria, so i signed up for a standard five-day climb. I also requested to rent equipment from them (crampons, sleeping bag, hiking poles) so I could travel with just carry on. I would leave my big bag of mountaineering gear in Georgia to pick up later.

I already had my survey equipment with me from surveying Alpomish in Uzbekistan, so I figured I might as well measure Ararat too. I did a little research, and there is a lot of conflicting information online about the elevation of Ararat. The two main numbers are 5165m and 5137m. I found out that a 1931 Turkish survey first measured 5165m, and this was used up to and included in a 1978 Soviet survey. The earliest source I could find of the 5137m number is a 1988 USGS report. So sometime between 1978 and 1988 it was surveyed to be 5137m. That appears to be the currently accepted number.

I couldn’t find any documentation of surveys since 1988, so i figured it would be great to get an updated number using modern technology.

On July 20 I flew to Igdir, the closest airport to the starting town of Dogubayazit. I’ve been told Agri also works to fly into. I easily found a bus outside the airport heading to Dogubayazit. Unfortunately there were no atms or money exchangers at the small airport, but the bus driver exchanged Lira for my USD.

The bus got a flat tire on the way but we switched vehicles partway and eventually got to Dogubayazit. The ride should in theory be around an hour.

I checked in to my hotel, then that evening met my group at the Ararat Hotel to go over logistics. I would be joining a group of 11 other climbers from Germany, china, Armenia, Russia, and the Netherlands.

July 21 we took a van up dirt roads on the south side of Ararat to a flat area at 2200m. The road continues up to C1 at 3300m, but it’s better for acclimation to hike up from 2200m. I was already pretty well acclimated, but still needed to stick to the group schedule.

We had horses take up our overnight gear while we just went up with light day packs.

We hiked up easy trails over a few hours and reached camp by mid afternoon. The camp is a collection of many large canvas tents big enough to stand in with beds inside that sleep 3 people. I think other groups are all similar. It’s a pretty luxurious camp with a huge dinner tent that can fit 15 people. It also has running water for showers and bathrooms.

After dinner a few military trucks drove up and six guys in camouflage with big guns got out. They were checking for permits and wanted to see everyone’s passports and verify they were on a permit. They were very thorough, staying in camp a few hours. That’s a good reminder you definitely need to be with an official guide to climb Ararat.

That evening a big thunderstorm rolled in, and the wind was very gusty. While I was in the tent taking shelter from the rain, a gust of wind actually ripped the tent off the ground and threw it 50ft up the hill! The tent had an open floor so it could just get ripped away like that.

We quickly gathered our gear and went in another tent while the workers retrieved it. Luckily nobody was injured. After that we made sure to anchor it with many extra rocks.

July 22

The next morning we hiked with small day packs up trails for a few hours to camp 2 at 4100m. The purpose was acclimation, and we hung out at that elevation for an hour before returning back to C1.

I decided to take a few test measurements with the DA2 to make sure it worked ok in a new country. Usually if you turn on a GPS unit very far from the last place it was turned on it takes a while to start working normally.

Interestingly, after half an hour it still couldn’t acquire satellites. That’s never happened to me before with this unit. Back in Uzbekistan when I booted it up for the first time it started working fine within 5 minutes, even after last being turned on halfway around the world in Seattle.

I waited an hour, then tried again, and that time it successfully acquired satellites. But I was a bit nervous about trusting it.

July 23

We again packed up our overnight gear to have the horses bring up, while we proceeded with light day packs. The mountain was very crowded, with six or seven other groups of about our size following our same schedule. I think this is the busiest time of year in mid/late July.

We made it to camp 2 in a few hours, then rested there the rest of the afternoon. It was tempting to go up and tag the summit that afternoon, but I knew it wouldn’t be allowed. So I was fine just resting.

I decided to take a few more test measurements with the DA2 to increase my confidence. The first 30 minute measurement it worked fine. Then I waited a few hours and tried again and it couldn’t acquire satellites. That was really odd behavior. My phone was able to acquire plenty of satellites.

Also interesting was the fact that my inreach satellite texting device would sometimes work but sometimes not. I had cell service on my phone, so tried to dig into the issue. It turns out Turkey is known to jam GNSS signals in the area near Ararat since it’s very close to the Iran and Armenia borders. I guess it’s beneficial from a military perspective.

My theory is that Turkey is jamming the L2 frequency of GNSS signals at random times over the day, but not jamming the L1 frequency. This is why the phone GPS works fine, but the more accurate unit (that requires both L1 and L2 frequencies) sometimes doesn’t work.

There was nothing i could do about this except just hope that the signal wasn’t jammed when I happened to be on the summit taking measurements.

The signal jamming wouldn’t be the only problem to contend with to survey Ararat. The crowds might be even more problematic. Based on the hikers I’d seen the previous days I estimated at least 100 people would be summitting the same day we would. I wanted to have a 30 minute survey session with the DA2 mounted on the summit to get 0.1m vertical accuracy. That would be challenging if 100 people each wanted to pose on the summit for pictures.

I considered going up early to be on the top before sunrise when nobody else would be there in the dark. But that was not allowed. I needed to stay with my guide, and the plan was going up at the same time as everyone else.

I told my guide what I wanted to do and he said we could stay up there 30 minutes, but it was unclear how I would mount the unit. I decided I’d just have to figure it out when I got there.

We went to bed early that night in preparation for an alpine start. The summit is only about 1000m above C2, so should be reachable in a few hours at my normal pace. But I knew the guided group would go much slower. I had to stick with them, though.

July 24

We were up and moving by 1am, the exact same time as the 100 other climbers. It turned out we were the last team to start, which I thought was good news. If we were last to the summit we’d have the summit to ourselves.

I had previously hiked each day in trail runners, but for summit Day I wore three-season hiking boots (asolo GTX).

Within the first hour other teams took breaks, and we passed them, so we ended up in the middle of the pack. Our pace was not super fast, and we were climbing about 200m per hour. The route was loose stones up switchbacks directly up from camp.

Alpenglow hit around 430am, and we hit the edge of the glacier around 4900m soon after. There we switched to crampons, though they weren’t completely necessary. The slope angle was very gentle and a few people were going up in bare boots. The company provided us each with six point crampons, with no front points. That was sufficient given the gentle slope.

The wind picked up a bit as we ascended, and we reached the top at 6am. There were many other people up there, and my survey was going to be tricky. I walked over the summit past a few climbers standing up there, and it was a narrow ice fin.

Luckily the far end dropped down a bit and was too narrow to stand on. That was perfect to mount the DA2 on though! I mounted it so the antenna was level with the summit, but it was far enough away and narrow enough nobody would try to stand there.

I quickly turned on the unit to log data, and kept monitoring it. Dozens and dozens of climbers took turns taking summit pictures, and it was in fact the craziest circus I can ever remember witnessing on a summit. There was even a guy doing a handstand on the narrow summit in crampons in the middle of the crowd!

I kept safely away, guarding the survey equipment. Unfortunately, Turkey must have been jamming the signals still, since I wasn’t able to log any data even after 30 minutes.

My phone was able to acquire satellites, though, as before. Unfortunately a phone GPS isn’t accurate enough to give a value worth reporting though.

While guarding the unit I noticed the eastern peak of Ararat looked like a similar elevation to the main peak. I wished I’d brought my Abney level to measure it, but I’d left that in Georgia. But I used my water bottle as a poor-mans sight level and this showed it was definitely shorter, which was a relief.

After 30 minutes I gave up on the measurements and packed up. I then descended with the rest of the team. It was kind of a relief to leave the circus of the summit.

We made steady progress down off the glacier, and back down the trail. There traffic jams slowed us down, and we didn’t get back to camp 2 until 10am, for a 9 hour round trip. I’m sure that time could be cut in half or better if going unconstrained.

We took a break for an hour, then loaded up the horses with our overnight gear and hiked back to camp 1 with day packs by early afternoon.

If we wanted to, we could have easily hiked the rest of the way out and ridden back to town, but the base price only included transportation the fifth day. So we all stayed in camp. This extra buffer is built in just in case there is a weather delay. Then there is an extra possible summit day.

July 25

We made the short hike back to the road, the drive back to Dogubayazit by late morning.

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