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Published: September 24th 2005
A Good Meal
In the evening I made a fire to cook a can of tomato-aubergine mash someone gave to me and to roast some bread.When I arrived in the lower shelter (3050m) I was very tiered. The altitude sickness had disappeared at about 3500m and I was disappointed to be able to stay at 4100m even. How can I go to Karakorum and Himalaya like this? But I just had been to impatient...
I sleept a god night in the lower shelter and the next morning I woke up next to Hussein, Machmud, and Jamshit. These three mountainers from south Iran convinced me to share tea and bread with them and to try again by joining their group. On the way up we met a very exhausted Nick and we agreed to meet back at the guesthouse in Tehran.
This time I was a lot better at 4100m. The heart rate was lower, I could breath more freely, and most important I could sleep without getting the altitude sickness and the headache again. Offcourse there were some iranian tricks involved: chew garlic, don't eat to much, don't eat anything before climbing, have lemon juice and nuts all the time, eat lots of honey!
So I did. The next morning I got up at 4:45 together with them to try for the final attempt. It was
Mount Damavand
After the day Nick had climbed to the sumit it was snow covered. dark, only the moon shining, freezing cold, I was wearing everthing I had, five, later six layers at the body and three at the legs. No breakfast and then we walked, step by step, very slowly, higher and higher. At about 4900m I got really cold, the sun was up by this time, but was often covered by clouds. I felt very hungry and ate some cookie and bread. At 5000m the altitude sickness started to return. And the peak was still two hours away, covered in dense fog and clouds. The iranian men kept shouting religous patterns into the fierce wind.
At 5100m I decided to go back. I felt empty, I felt that my energy would not last for the remaining 500m and all the way back. Still I was happy to have tried again. I saw that my body was able to aclimatise after some time, and I had seen by far enough of this unfriendly world near the sumit of Damavand.
Later I met my group again, they were very nice and friendly people. They invited me for an hour in the nearby hotsprings and a good meal afterwards to regain all the energy given
My Three Friend
Hussein, Jamshit, and Machmud from south Iran to the moutain.
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