I made an attempt to climb Damavad in December in 2007. We only made it to Bargahe sevom, as we were turned back by a big approaching storm. The winds can be ferocious up there there so be warned. In fact i was knocked over and also totally messed up my ligaments on the way down.

Wouldn't mind doing a winter climb myself. If I have enough vacation this year, I might take a train down in december. Ow vacation AND somebody to climb with .

yea, winter climbing of Damavand can be a serious challenge. This spring 3 (of 4)mountaineers death on Damavand. They faced with storm and couldn't stand that night by Bivouac. 2 of 4 death cause of hypothermia in snow cave and the 3rd one fell about 70-80m to her death next morning influenced by last night. The only survived guy has seroius toes frostbite.

Please be carefull with Damavand at winter conditions. It's quite a wild summit with a calm look.

I plan to climb Damavand in September. As far as I understand the new hut up at Bargahe sevom is finalized now. Seems to be a rather good hut. Does anyone have any feedback? cheers, André

yes good but expensive, no service at winter

andre hangaard wrote:I plan to climb Damavand in September. As far as I understand the new hut up at Bargahe sevom is finalized now. Seems to be a rather good hut. Does anyone have any feedback? cheers, André

How did you manage to get a visa? I saw many people stuck in Istanbul because Iran is not giving out visas to anyone right now.

divnamite wrote:How did you manage to get a visa? I saw many people stuck in Istanbul because Iran is not giving out visas to anyone right now.

My info isn't that fresh, but when I was there last time the Istanbul consulate was really bad. Very hard to get a visa from there. The embassy in Ankara was slightly better, but still they told me to wait around for two weeks to get the visa. In Erzurum the waiting time was three days, but the guy in the consulate there told me to go and get in Tbilisi (as I was passing there anyway), where the waiting time was only one night. So, shoot for Erzurum or Tbilisi as first choices.
At this very moment the situation may be a bit more tricky than usual though.

divnamite wrote:

andre hangaard wrote:I plan to climb Damavand in September. As far as I understand the new hut up at Bargahe sevom is finalized now. Seems to be a rather good hut. Does anyone have any feedback? cheers, André

How did you manage to get a visa? I saw many people stuck in Istanbul because Iran is not giving out visas to anyone right now.

Well, technically I have not obtained my IR visa as of today but our applications are at the IR embassy in Stockholm and Im quite sure it will be ok.... But of course, you'll never know....

divnamite wrote:

andre hangaard wrote:I plan to climb Damavand in September. As far as I understand the new hut up at Bargahe sevom is finalized now. Seems to be a rather good hut. Does anyone have any feedback? cheers, André

How did you manage to get a visa? I saw many people stuck in Istanbul because Iran is not giving out visas to anyone right now.

Walked in to the country, paid 50, got a stamp, walked on... . 10 minutes max. Quite a difference with let's say... Russia

I go to Mount Damavand in winter route northwest
Who is willing to climb the north west??
Northwest is in the low-traffic routes and value in terms of technical...

I've just summited Damavand via North-East last week. The wind was serious on the 2nd day so didn't let us to climb...
I think wind will got more sever on winter, so be careful about it ...

neghafi wrote:I've just summited Damavand via North-East last week. The wind was serious on the 2nd day so didn't let us to climb...
I think wind will got more sever on winter, so be careful about it ...

NE climb about 2 or 3 next week , The descent route is in our South...
We can get logged happy with the Route North-West for the winter...
I'm waiting for your beautiful picture...

We descended from the south face too. We had a mistake not to brought crampons and 3 of us relied on only my ice-axe ... so it turned to a challenge traversing blue-ice of a glacier.

I lost Winter climbing of Damavand cause of a knee hurt

neghafi wrote:I lost Winter climbing of Damavand cause of a knee hurt

Too bad man! There's always next year, no?