ArmeniaNow.com, Armenia

Peak Experience: Climber says `Masis’ at top of mountaineering achievements

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Karo Hovasapyan has followed Noah. And when he reached the Biblical
hero’s landing site, the mountain climber fell to his knees.

The climber.

`When I reached the summit of Masis, I was dead on my feet so I fell
to my knees with tears of delight burning my eyes.’ says mountaineer
and polar explorer Karo Hovasapyan, who fulfilled his dearest dream by
hoisting the Armenian tricolor on the snow-white top of the Mount
Ararat, now the property of the Turks, but the spiritual peak of every
Armenian.

Climbing Ararat was not Hovasapyan greatest mountaineering
experience. He has reached the highest peaks of the six continents,
including Mount Everest and the North and South Poles.

Toping `Masis’ (as it is known by Armenians), however, was his
greatest joy.

`I have felt excitement and pride each time I climbed the mountains,
but standing on the top of the Mount Ararat symbolizes something very
special that I think every Armenian should feel,’ says the mountain
lover.

Hovasapyan and 10 others launched their Ararat expedition on September
3, and reached the peak 5,165 meters later, on September 6.

He says climbing Masis (the bigger Ararat) was not a complicated task
in terms of mountaineering. However it was difficult to get
permission.

A citizen of the US and Russia, Hovasapyan had been denied permission
to climb in Turkey, three times. His fourth application succeeded
because Hovasapyan had joined Russian mountaineer Shataev’s
expedition. Shataev has been making expeditions on Mount Ararat in
search of the Noah’s Ark for the last seven years.

Hovasapyan has been the only Armenian who has reach the North Pole and
the South Pole and will soon become one of only 11 alpinists who have
been able to conquer the highest points in seven parts of the world.

`I have only the Mount Winson peak in Antarctica to reach. I think I
will manage it this December,’ he says.

A carpenter by background, and a native of Tehran (then Russia, Canada
and, finally the USA), Hovasapyan, age 47, has been enchanted by
alpinism since childhood, when the heroes of the books about mountain
climbers became his everyday friends.

`I dreamt of passing the same route, of overcoming all those
difficulties. It seemed to be a challenge. You take the dare, you
overcome and ask nature to help you, to make you its part,’ says
Hovasapyan.

Hovasapyan got acquainted to the whims of nature in the Geghama
Mountains and on Mount Aragats (the highest peak in Armenia), which he
climbed six times.

But the idea of overcoming Everest would haunt him. `I had been
dreaming of reaching Everest for 23 years but I managed to do it only
last year.’

Hovasapyan reached the roof of the world at first attempt losing 14
kilograms of his weight in two months.

He reached the summit of Everest on May 30th 2005 at 6:15 a.m. seeing
the sunshine on the whole world’s panorama in front of him.

Hovasapyan’s two dreams of reaching the tops of Ararat and Everest
have coincided in time: he has reached both summits at 6:15 a.m. and
it has become a symbolic time for him.

`I am lucky. The weather on the summit was perfect that day and I
managed to stay there for 30 minutes and enjoy the wonderful view of
the dawn,’ the mountaineer says.

Staying on the top of Ararat for so long turned impossible because of
the strong wind, when the climber was forced to go down in ten
minutes.

Hovasapyan says the weather on Masis is difficult to forecast. It
changes quite frequently and unexpectedly.

And still, no weather has ever hindered Hovasapyan to climb the
mountain he wanted to and to hoist the flag of independent
Armenia. Until last Friday (September 8) Hovasapyan himself hadn’t
been in Armenia since 1988, when he came to be a rescue worker after
the Spitak earthquake.

He does not live in Armenia but its flag is with him even in the most
difficult moments.

`In the future I will give the flag that has overcome all the
difficulties with me as a gift to Armenia. That will be the first
flag that has been hoisted on the highest peaks of seven parts of the
world,’ says Hovasapyan.