Armenian Rockclimbing

"Quadra" in Armenia and not only ...

(author A. Trubachev)

photographs

Climbing program in Armenia in November 2008, was organized by the School of Mountaineering and Climbing AlexClimb

Armenia, climbing, climbing Aragats

Armenia, climbing, climbing Aragats One day, sitting in a humble shepherd's hut, a small fire, which basked tiny Turk with fragrant coffee, I heard a legend that one of the neighboring valleys can be seen crotch Cyclopean structures that were built in ancient times hands giants. And in a particularly clear day, when the sun, rolling in the gap of the gorge in the west, as if from below highlights the rocky ridges of mountains, purple flames erupting teeth collapse of the ancient city walls ...
History will remember, and a few times with friends exploring the rock formations of Armenia for the laying of new climbing routes, we tried to examine the details of the gorge in the vicinity of Jermuk, which tells the old shepherd. But, anyway, that due to bad weather, then due to lack of time to find anything worthy of attention did not succeed.
And then, quite by accident once in Armenia in late November and successfully hitting a period of particularly clear and warm weather, which is typical for Armenia in late autumn, I decided to spend a few days and still find those mysterious ruins.

Armenia, climbing, climbing Aragats ... The sun had already set behind the horizon, when its last rays for a few minutes brightly lit upper belt of rocks of the gorge, and suddenly remembered the words of the legend is clear. Above, a hundred meters above us, the fire blazing sunset is absolutely right, standing in a row, high vertical columns, a partial collapse, sometimes he'd just emerged from under the chisel of the sculptor. The spectacle is very attractive and fascinating, especially because almost instant change of all shades of the sunset. The sun had set, it was gloomy and cold in the gorge, where wintry night fell quickly.

Armenia, climbing, climbing Aragats From early in the morning the next day, not yet melted frost during the night settled on silver withered grass slopes of the gorge, we went to get acquainted with his discovery, which, as you might expect, had nothing to do with giants of the past, but nevertheless represents for us not only climbing interest because nothing like this in Russia practically does not occur.
Thus, we have found in Armenia is very interesting, rare for Russian and European views of the rocky terrain - columns of basalt, which is known locally as "Quadra".

Previously, I've seen similar rock and even climb on them. For example, the "Organ Pipes" Elbrus - a beautiful, built of completely smooth black basalt kolonnik, totally unsuitable for climbing because of the large number of "live" stones and slippery as glass surface.
In New Zealand, where the volcanic islands of the past makes itself felt at every step on the moss-covered and quite ruined basalt columns laid a lot of climbing routes.
But the tower arrays Jermuk in Armenia is difficult to compare with anything, especially if you think in terms of a climber. Armenia, climbing, climbing Quadra Aragats in Armenia - a strong, almost crumbling tower height of 40 meters, from gray to dark brown, with a good friction surface that enables you to climb, using the technique of thrust between the faces of columns, spaced other at a distance of 1 meter. Between the columns there are long vertical cracks from 1 to 5 centimeters wide - ideal for use hooks, all kinds of accessories for mortgage insurance, friends, etc.
Appliances climbing cracks (Crack), Russian climbers have developed a fairly weak as possible to fulfill its nuances is simply nowhere. Neither the limestone massifs of Crimea or flat granite rocks of Karelia do not give even a distant idea of the possible existence of long routes, where the only support for the feet - it's just plain verge of columns, and all hooks for hands - this is the only narrow vertical crack, which hardly pass phalanges. However, like rock climbing is very common for some rocky areas of the US, such as Vantage, Washington.

Strange-looking rock formations consisting of tightly pressed against each other right shape pentagonal columns, are found throughout the world, especially in places relatively recent volcanic activity. The mechanism of formation of such relief is quite complicated and is based on algorithms and cracking cooling (crystallization) of basalt in the form of regular pentagons that is dictated by the molecular characteristics of this breed. The color, the terrain, size and density, rocks can be very different, but in passing, you will never go wrong - strange forms basalt column catches the eye, makes us think about how diverse, surprising and incomprehensible world around us .. .

The composition of the photos on this topic can be found here

In the manufacture of collage used materials from the site:

www.alexclimb.com
www.summitpost.org
www.wikipedia.org
www.centripetalnotion.com