Up The Rocks

In the evening of July 15 we got to Arpa gorge and set up the camp below the slope of the “Devil’s tower”.

“Devil’s tower”, the basalt columns and “Watch tower” above the gorge are considered as Natural Monuments by the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA and are being protected strongly, so the club Up The Rocks got a permission to climb it by clean climbing style before the Armenian First Ascent Open Festival 2009!

July 16. It was a strong windy day so we decided to examine “Watch tower” for climbing. Finding it too far from the camp we decided to postpone the idea and preferred the basalt columns near the camp.
In the evening Vadik and me took up the equipment to the “Devil’s tower” to examine it and climb the next day.

July 17 was a calm day and with all the team we went up by the slope to the “Hell’s tower”. The lower part of the tower columns are corrosive, and I decided to make the line by the separated from the tower lower part column. It took me 2 hours to get adapted in my mind to the idea of climbing this column as it looked really scary.
Plus, during these two days we had seen a couple of huge eagles flying very close to the tower as their nest was 30 meters left from the tower, so we were worried about the possibility of being attacked by them… thinking about that scenario I found out by myself that it would be a great honor for me to be attacked by an eagle ;)

So Vadik got all his bravery to belay standing under the separated huge column which looked like could fall at any time and the climbing started!
I can’t add anything about that climb to what Will Nazarian wrote commenting to the pic put in the Facebook: “Rock of the God's” .
As during the climb no eagles were flying around above, we decided to call the route “Eagles aren’t at home”

Our Czech friends decided to go back to Yerevan.

On July 18, we took the equipment and went about 2 kilometers up by the gorge to examine the columns there to climb the next day. So we found perfect cracks and went back to have a rest in the camp with a strong motivation to have a climb the next day.

July 19, Vadik and me did 30 meters FA and called it “Arpa”, the name of the river below.

July 20, early morning Vadik and me set off to the fat basalt columns down by the gorge, right on the new way to the city of Jermuk.
There we found amazing relief with perfect 30 meters cracks but the kind of the rock was different, blue-green kind of tuff or something else.. the rock seemed a bit chossy so we decided not to risk and climb it next time after cleaning it properly.

In the afternoon we gathered the camp and get back Yerevan. From July 23 to July 28 it we are going to climb on Garni gorge columns so check the news in our website on July 29 !

The descriptions of the routes “Eagles aren’t at home” and “Arpa”:

“Eagles aren’t at home” 28m single pitch, 5.8 A0 (6b+ by free climbing), FA.
Metolius cams: #0 x 4, # 2 x 2, # 5 x 2, #7 x 4, #8 x 4, # 6 x 2
Kong stoppers: #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
There was put 10mm x 40mm single rappel anchor

“Arpa” 30m single pitch, 5.8, FA
Metolius cams: #0 x 2, # 3 x 2, # 4 x 2, #6 x 1, #8 x 3, # 9 x 2, #10 x 2
Kong stoppers:, #4, #7, #8
Carvex: #6, #7
Camp D1: #4, #7
Tricam: #1 ,#3

We have put 13mm x 60mm single rappel anchor

Remember, we do not quadrant the rocks are solid, be extremely careful while climbing the route !!!
Get a permission from the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA to climb the rocks !!!
Climb the columns only and only by clean climbing style!!!
DO NOT ADD ANY BOLTS OR PITONS !!!