Well, since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, we decided we'd tackle one of Kurdistan's tallest peaks, Halgurd Mountain. We all knew the name and the way locals spoke it with reverence, but with our recent trip to a thrice bombed village the famed mountain finally came into view (that which was not covered by clouds that is), and it took our collective breath away.
A friend of ours who had recently made the trek agreed to take another ascent and, boy, were we excited!
My nephew, Jake, and his friend, Kevin, we're leaving the next day after having spent a month with us to return to America, and we wanted to make sure they had had the full Kurdish experience.
Well, we left the house at 6am and didn't return again till after 9 that night. It was a day that I won't soon forget.
Luckily, we were able to drive to about 7,000 feet where a 'tribe' of Kurdish shepherds gracious lent us their walking sticks. What were we thinking of climbing 5,000 feet of mountian without walking sticks? I barely packed a snack.
As we were driving up to our 'base camp' for lack of a better word, the mountain just loomed over us making us wonder, "What are we getting ourselves into?"
Words like "Monster" and "Unfriendly Beast" were muttered as we winded our way up the dirt roads before setting out on foot.
There was no trail on this thing, so without a guide we would have been lost for sure. As we made our ascent there came a moment when the angle became so steep rocks were being let loose by our fumblings causing those below to have to quickly dodge the flying projectiles. One nearly caught me right in the mid section. This was no pleasure hike.
But, it wasn't just all rocks, towards the beginning of the climb we saw beautiful mountain streams and bright yellow flowers. It was gorgeous!
As we were getting closer to the top, Jake kept grasping his head in pain -- the altitude sickness was settling in. Then, a stiff, cool breeze made our previously sweating bodies cringe with the cold.
"Hey, isn't this June, in Iraq for goodness sake?" I was glad I brought my wind breaker along.
As we rounded one last peak, finally the summit came into view as did a blanket of snow and ice on the Halgurd's Northern face.
It wasn't much further, but, Jake couldn't take another step and finally succumbed to the altitude induced headache. We'd have to join back up with him on the way down. We were all pretty well worn out.
But, ever so slowly we mounted the final meters, grasped the summit and took in the view.
Just north of us in the distance, is Iran, we would later learn, just 2.65 miles away.
Since the ascent just wasn't 'cool' enough I thought I'd give "ski booting" a try on the way down. Here is my attempt at staying on two feet of snow and ice at what felt like a 40 degree angle. I started to build up so much momentum that I had to break out into a full run to keep from making a facial impact on the mountain.
Four treacherous hours later we neared the bottom of the mountain side as the sun cast the surrounding country into a blissful, golden hue that finished off one long, long day which wouldn't be quite complete without purging oneself of a belly full of snacks on the side of the road as we drove home.
Yea, it was quite a day. Why do we climb mountains again?
A very nice job and it is a very interesting story, it is really worth reading it but one thing concerns me that you said Iraq throughout your story but have not mentioned Kurdistan even for once. Actually, this place is primarily Kurdistan and doesn't have Iraq nature as well. I'm sure you know what is Kurdish and I'm sure they helped you a lot to finish your trip in there but unfortunately you have not even mentioned Kurdistan for once.
Posted by: Shapol | April 17, 2012 at 06:31 PM
From the Summit of Halgurd, one can see two high mountain ponds ( some people refer to them as small lakes), the surrounding lower mountains,and even on a clear day, one can see (with the aid of a binocular), Lake Ormia in Iran.
Caution: The ultra-violet (UV) rays are very intense on the summit, use gloves and cover the exposed parts of the face with a facial cream (zinc ointment will do).
Posted by: Zack Khattat | September 12, 2013 at 03:45 AM
Dear Shapol, we aim to please and have made the appropriate changes to the blog post. Viva la Kurdistan!
Posted by: Billy | November 05, 2013 at 01:07 AM