Where's John Wayne when you need him!

Dogubayzit, which I pronounce Dogbisket, sits at the base of the massive Mt Ararat. Situated on the Iranian border in eastern Turkey, Mt Ararat is a impressive mountain that shoots up into the sky some 5,190 meters ( 16,500 ft ).

Famous for the supposedly resting place for Noahs Ark, and all the things of legend. It sounded adventurous and I decided to make an accent of the mountain. I asked around the town and discovered all the guides wanted anywhere from $150 to $500 dollars to make the climb, a ridicolus amount of money for 3 days of climbing. After some searching around, I found a young couple from the Czeh Republic and a young Israelie who also wanted to climb without paying so much money. We found a local guide who was willing to drop us off and pick us up at the trail head and allow us to climb alone. We would have to pay some money to pad the pockets of the check points and climb without a permit. It sounded adventuresis, so off we went and up the mountain we climbed. Mt Ararat is a deceptive mountain, it looks close, as it sits there taunting you to come climb. There are no trees, only rocks, with patches of occasional green grass used to graze sheep. On top sits the white glaciers that are often shrowded by clouds.

We got a late start the first day, 2:30 PM. But with all of our gear on our backs and one bad map up we went heading for the first camp. My hiking companions walked much faster, leaving me pretty much to walk alone. I didn't mind though, I love walking in nature, in solitude. By the time I finally caught up with them they had already set up camp and were preparing to eat, good timimg on my part. In addtion, it was fast getting dark and we would soon be bedding down for the night. The night was not so restful, once again my stomach was rebelling. But, that was nothing compared to our morning. At about 5:30 AM, the zipper of our tent slowly went up and a shotgun barrel came poking in. Uh oh, I thought, it 's the army who came to get us for climbing without a permit. It wasn't. Instead, as the zipper went further up it revealed a young man with a blue silk handcerchief across his face like some character in a western movie. Holding an ancient 12 guage single barreled shotgun pointed right at us, we weren't going anywhere fast. The other tent with the Czech couple also had a visitor holding a pistol, demanding the same thing, money, money, money!

As I sat in my underwear inside my sleeping bag, I thought hmm this is interesting. Our bandit gave us the curtisy of breaking his gun barrel to show us it was loaded and ready. Shay, my tent mate and I were pretty much left alone, after I lightened my load and gave him the $150 I had on me. The Czech couple were having more problems. They had no money with them and the bandits thought they were hiding it. They emptied out their backpacks and tore things apart looking for money. In a moment of frustration the bandits even fired a shot to try and scare them into giving them money.

I was more concerned about my camera and gear then my money, money is easier to replace. After realizing they had all of our money they started yelling for a cell phone, 'phone phone phone!' We had no phone. Eventually the fled, telling us in some kind of sign language not to leave the tent for one hour. I wanted to go after them, but my tent mate was shaken up and asked me to stay. I'm not sure what I was going to do anyway, throw rocks at them maybe!

After a cup of tea we decided to march upward and stay closer together. Our ride was not do for 2 days and we had no way of contacting him. In addition, with no permit, we weren't even supposed to be there, so going to the police was not a real option. As we climbed higher, we were constantly scanning the horizons looking for the next gang to come riding up. After climbing all morning we finally reached high camp, the jumping off point for the summit. Exhausted from the morning, both phsically and emotionally, we laid in out tents trying to get some rest. Suddenly in the wind we heard some voices. Our tents were surrounded by a rock wall built by past climbers for protection from the wind, so the tents were hidden from view. Creeping out of our tents, we grabbed our ice axes and peaked over the top of the rock walls to see what was out there. We saw no one, but now our minds were working and we came up with a battle plan in case we had a second encounter. ( but jeesh, rocks and ice axes against guns are not good odds!)

Thankfully the Czechs spotted a climbing party down below us. We knew that now we could rest because the chances of something else happening dramatically went down. Waking up at 5 AM on our own this time, we poaked our heads out of the tent to discover snow pellets and clouds, not a good sign. I had winter gear, my climbing mates didn't. After waiting for 3 hours, we made the dissapointing decision to abandon the climb. It just seemed like we weren't supposed to climb that mountain and all manner of events were occuring to make sure it was so.

Now ahead of us was the climb down, and in our minds into bandit territory. We cautiously approached the climbing parties below, feeling unsure about who we could trust. With a little careful talking, we were able to call our driver and change our meeting time to earlier in the day. Sensing the worst was over, we decided to maintain height to our advantage and follow the ridge down, giving us the view. We felt a sigh of relief to see our driver walking up the trail to meet us. Once in the car we explained to the driver what had happened to us and went to the village to sort out what to do from there. He asked what they looked like, 'well' I said , 'they had dark skin, black hair and brown eyes', that eliminates about 5% of Turkey I thought. As we explained our story, one of the older woman listening who apparently lives much of her time high on the mountain asked 'why didn't you fight them? they were two you were four'. I responded by saying 'it was a little rough given I was in my underwear, trapped in my tent looking down the barrel of a 12 guage shotgun, I didn't even have a rock to throw!' She just smiled with her few teeth and lit up a cigerette. Eventually she said, 'next time you come with me and we will have a smoke up on the mountain.' Knowing there will not be a next time, I just said 'OK' as we walked out the door.

Soon I was saying goodbye again to my travel companions as our expereince was transformimg into my latest travel adventure.

I decided that a guide up Mt Atarat wasn's necessary, the route is clear enough and the direct, but a armed body guard is a good idea!

Cheers from Turkey!

Love,

Dean