Damavand 2021

Lyudmila Korobeshko, guide of the 7 Summits Club: Hello to everyone from Shiraz - the ancient capital of Iran in the south of the country! Yesterday we flew here from Tehran and fell in love with this city from the very first minutes. Immediately in the morning we went to the magical mosque of roses, where we enjoyed the amazing play of light through the colorful stained glass windows. Then we had breakfast in the Persian gardens of one of the palaces of Shiraz. Then we walked around the city center, visited the bazaar, tasted freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. In the evening, we visited Hafez's garden at his grave - a magical place where lovers and just romantics come to read aloud the poems of the great Sufi. The parrots pulled out prophetic verses for us. We meditated at sunset in a magical Mirror Temple and had a picnic on the side of a cozy park on the outskirts of Shiraz.

Today we are already going to Isfahan.

  Greetings to all from Iran from the Demavend from the team "Kakasy in Iran"! Today, the whole team climbed on  the top of Mount Demavend! We started from the refuge at 4 am. About 10 hours on the approach to the top, the weather turned bad. Visibility dropped to 50 meters, a strong wind blew, and a snow blizzard began. But we showed perseverance and continued to move. At 11 am, the whole team was standing on the top of the highest volcano in Asia. By lunchtime, we went down to the base camp. We are resting now. Tomorrow we will go down to Tehran.

Group guide Lyudmila Korobeshko: Greetings to all from Iran, from the slopes of Demavend, from the team "Kakasy in Iran"! In the morning, we had to get up very early to get to the Demavend assault camp by secret paths, since Demavend is officially closed and the police do not allow us to climb the mountain. We started the ascent on foot from 2700, although usually everyone starts from 3100.

By lunchtime, we arrived at the camp for 4200. We are staying in the old refuge, as the new refuge is closed due to a lockdown. Tomorrow will be a day of acclimatization and preparation for the assault. All participants feel great.

The guide of the 7 Summits Club Lyudmila Korobeshko:

Greetings from Iran (almost from the slopes of Demavend) from the group "Kakasy in Iran"! Today we managed to leave Tehran, make our way through several checkpoints and arrive in the town of Larijan at the very foot of Demavend.

Now we are soaking in the hot springs, resting and preparing for tomorrow's transition to the assault camp on Demavend.

Greetings from Tehran from the team "Kakasy in Iran"! Today we had a long, busy and difficult day. We made a heroic ascent on the top of Tochal (3960m). In fact, the heroism was to overcome a very long descent with a drop of 2000 m in the heat, by stones and rocks. At 7 am, we went on an assault from a height of 2700m. At 12 o'clock in the afternoon we were at the top. And only at sunset we went down to the bus. We are glad that we all went up and down all together!

Tomorrow we will try to break through to the foot of Demavend. In Iran, the authorities have just announced a lockdown. And all the roads to Demavend were blocked. We hope that our relations with the Iranian Mountaineering Federation will help us overcome all the barriers.

Lyudmila Korobeshko, the guide of the group "Kakasov in Iran", was in touch.

News from Iran. There is the first ascent on the highest volcano in Asia - Demavand (5670 m) this season! Ivan Novikov climbed on the top of Demavend as a preparation for the expedition to Lenin Peak. He added another volcano for the program "Seven Volcanoes"! Congratulations! We,  Russian climbers, are very welcome guests in Iran!

Ivan is impressed by local cordiality and hospitality!