2000 yılında Ağrı Dağı’nda dağ kazasında yaşamını kaybeden arkadaşımız İskender Iğdır’ın kurtarma operasyonunun hikayesi hakkında bir yazı yazmıştım. Sonradan, ünlü İngiliz Arama-Kurtarma uzmanı Hamish MacInnes’in derlediği ‘MOUNTAİN DİSASTERS’ (Dağ Felaketleri) adlı kitapta 2003 yılında yayınlanan bu İngilizce yazının edit edilmiş hali aşağıdadır…. Bu vesileyle, arkadaşlarımız İskender Iğdır ve Kürşat Avcı’yı da anıyorum.
WİNTER RESCUE ON MOUNT ARARAT By TUNÇ FINDIK The Great Mount Ararat is known as Agrı Dagı in Turkey. It’s summit (5137 m /16.916 ft.) is perpetually sheathed in dazzling ice armour. This isolated mountain has always attracted climbers and adventurers. İt has been the subject of many stories and legends throughout history, the most famous one being the claim that it is where Noah’s Ark came to rest after the Flood. There has been numerous unsuccessfull expeditions searching for it’s timbers. For climbers, the mountain is a popular venue, a peak to bag- just like Mont Blanc in the golden age of alpinism. The first recorded ascent of the mountain was made by Russian climber Friedrich Parrot in 1829. At the time of Parrot’s ascent, the religious fanatics refused to believe he reached the top.. Now, many people have scaled Mount Ararat. Until 1989 and the fall of the iron curtain, the icy northern face of the mountain was very near the USSR border, being in such a sensitive area, it was generally off limits for climbers. Beginning in the first years of 1990’s, terrorist conflict in the eastern Turkey interrrupted the mountaineering on and around Ararat, and until recent times, the mountain was closed to climbing..However, in 1998, Ararat was reopened and, being the highest peak on Turkish territory, it has attracted huge numbers of climbers, both novice and experienced, like a powerful magnet. Until then, a full generation of Turkish climbers had grown without climbing on the mountain! Unfortunately, when many people rush enthusiastically to a large mountain, accidents occur.The classic South Face route on Ararat is a high altitude trek in summertime, just like the North Face of Aconcagua in South America. But in winter, it is a different ball game, the tables turn and the mountain becomes more dangerous and serious. Ararat is a peak that looks deceptively easy but it has it’s own arsenal of hazards – like violent fast-changing weather, severe thunderstorms at any time of the year, and ice and rockfalls, as well as hidden crevasses for good value.In Turkey, mountaineering is in it’s infancy and until the 1980’s, mountain rescue was virtually non-existent. Add to this the great size and complicated terrain of the country, then the logistical problems of a rescue becomes enormous.. Today, thanks to development of a climbing community, rescue organisations like AKUT- an İstanbul based rescue unit- and the helping hand of the Turkish Armed Forces, the mountain rescue set-up is much more effective in quality and quantity. The main problem is that the rescuers (climbers) live generally in big cities of İstanbul and Ankara situated in western Turkey. Therefore attempting a rescue in the mountains of eastern Turkey is time consuming at best. In organısıng a rescue call-out, the back-up of the Turkish military is indispensible with their transport planes, helicopters, supplies and manpower. Before the advent of any of the search and rescue organisations, climbers going to the Turkish hills and mountains did so at their own risk, unable to depend on any organised rescue, only on fellow climbers who happened to be on the area. Self rescue and self sufficiency were the name of the game. Around 1995, the first organised mountain rescue efforts were made by AKUT. Things got better with specialised training and more equipment was acquired. After the Marmara earthquake of 1999, many organisations including the Army’s own rescue units, were established. Still, mountain rescue in the remote mountains of Turkey remains a logistical headache but it is only a matter of time until regional SAR units are formed.The following story illustrates such a long- distance rescue at a high altitude and it is remarkable how so many skilled climber/rescuers got to this remote mountain a thousand kilometres from their homes in a vert short space of time. At the beginning of March 2000 on a frigid but sunny day on Mount Ararat, there was hardly a cloud in sight. The weather was typıcal for a hıgh pressure eastern Anatolıan winter day, and the four clımbers had pulled off a successful summit climb on this remote volcanic peak; that’s to say that all went well untıl fate took a leading role- which cost one of the party his life.The four alpinists, Nasuh Mahruki, Selcuk Kahveci, Kuvvet Lordoglu and İskender Igdır, all had sufficient alpine experience. One of them, Nasuh Mahruki, was the first Turkish climber to summit both Mt. Everest and notorious K2 in the Karakoram, the second highest point on the planet, and reputedly the most dangerous. On this Mount Ararat climb, they had established Camp 1 at an altitude of 3200 metres. After a day’s resting and acclimatising, the team ascended to their fassault bivouac for the summit bid. This cold site was located on an exposed ridge at an altitude of 4200 metres, on the south Face of the mountain.Mount Ararat is a gargantuan mass, it is a mountain with a very large base area like a voluminous bustle- the total circumference round this base is 100 kilometres. Approach to the mountain in winter, especially after heavy snowfall, takes two days with big rucksacks. The mountain’s easy lower slopes are lstrewn with black-grey volcanic rocks and screefields. The peak itself has an enormously deep glacier cap (in some places, seventy metres thick).The northern, eastern and western upper slopes give moderate glacier climbs, whereas the classical route up the South Face of the mountain is much simpler and, up to an altitude of 4850 meters, it generally follows a footpath in summertime. Obviously, the glacier cap which covers the upper and summit sections of the mountain has to be climbed to get to the top. Here comes the crunch. İn winter this can sometimes be very dodgy due to a covering of very hard, black-blue ice, created by the violent winter wind and cold at 5000 metres. So, being the only technical difficulty of the climb on the classical route, one has to make a short and moderately angled ice climb here, but in summer this slope transforms to a snow hike and occasionally, ascent teams fix a rope by using ice screws to safeguard the descent.The four climbers successfully reached the summit and took in the fantastic view from the highest point in Turkey but they had to pull themselves away and face the descent. They started down just after the midday and for crossing the icefield they used the classic hip belay for security. Kuvvet slipped and fell. Iskender, while trying to arrest him, fell to his death down the southern glacier gully. The other two climbers were pulled off their stances by the impetus of the fall but somehow managed to stop themselves by using their ice axes. This happened about midday and the survivors descended to search for İskender as he had shot out of sight down the ice gully.They spent the rest of the day looking for him without success. As they had mobile phones,they used these and managed to report the accident.Despite the vast distances involved and due to the fact that Ararat is an isolated peak, mobile phone communication is possible. Already, as the darkness was falling, the wheels of a major rescue operation were turning over a thousand kilometres away.News of the tragedy reached our rescue team shortly after dusk and preparations were immediately under way with a military transport plane scheduled to fly us to Kars, one of the larger cities in eastern Turkey. We had mustered a big party of rescuers from different organısations: AKUT and ORDOS, a volunteer rescue club, also individual climbers from İstanbul and Ankara. By midnight we landed successfully at Kars, despite an enveloping mist. Here, road tansport was waiting and we drove to the town of Dogubeyazıt which is situated to the south of the mountain. İt was after about two hours of work that we finalized our rescue plan. It was proposed that a large team of rescuers would try reach the fallen climber on foot, and a smaller team would be dropped near the accident location by a military Blackhawk UH-60 helicopter. By the first hours of daylight, every rescuer moved on to the mountain. For us, a brief and turbulent flight resulted in a windy drop from the helicopter at an altitude of 3600 meters. This was on the top of a flat shoulder on the icy South Face of Ararat. There were six of us in our party, with limited equipment, bivouac gear and food. As soon as possible, we climbed to a higher position, closer to the area where we understood the fallen climber was.There is always a risk in rising too quickly to altitude. However, we were all well acclimatised except one of our rescue party who immediately got altitude sickness caused by this sudden height gain from 1100 meters to 3600 meters, and realised that he would have to descend. The rest of us continued up in changing snow conditions: first, a long traverse on a deep and wind-slabbed snowfield, then a tricky climb up powder snow, followed by loose and low-angled rocks.. At a safe place around 4000 meters, we decided to stop and establish a bivouac. While Kursat Avcı, my climbing partner and ı dug out a snow ledge for the tents, Yılmaz Sevgul, Ertugrul Melıkoglu and Burak Akkurt continued upwards to try and locate the İskender.It was cold, probably in the region of -25 C , but it had now turned into a bright sunny day, with hardly a breath of wind. Yet it was’nt until sun was dipping on the horizon, with the mountain transforming to a pinkish hue, that our friends returned. They had grim news: Yılmaz had located İskender, but as he was trying to reach him on treacherous snow, he had fallen in a small hidden crevasse. He had injured his kneeand had trouble even getting back to our bivouac. Now we had a further casualty! That night at our lofty camp it was bitterly cold but by dawn we had struggled into our freezing boots and shortly afterwards were joined by the other rescuers who had climbed up from base.The southern glacier gully of Ararat is reminiscent of a glacier canyon. It has steep crumbly volcanic rock walls on both sides, a few big serac barriers and many hidden crevasses. Generally it is moderately hard hard snow or ice climbing. In summertime this place can be a death trap with huge volcanic rocks falling from above, it’s a case of running the gauntlet (with crampons!) but in winter it is frozen solid by the numbing cold of eastern Turkey, a cold which always seems worse in the centre of large land mass. We were now faced with negotiating this defile.It was a cloudy and windy day and visibility had deteriorated. Nevertheless, we were told that the helicopter was awaiting our radio call to pick up the body. We ascended within this gully for a few kilometres and as the terrain got steeper, we had a council of war, just below the dangerous section. We decided that Kursat, Ertugrul and I would go up, find İskender and prepare him up for the helicopter pick-up. The rest of our group would meanwhile wait in a safe place, free from stonefall; from where they could come and give us back-up in case of complications.Upon entering the narrow section of the glacier which bypasses the fifty- metre high serac wall, we climbed a 45-50 degree hard snow gully which harbored a few hidden crevasses, then ascended to a scree- covered glacier plateau. From here, we spotted our deceased friend İskender at the foot of the yellow right wall of the canyon, at a height of around 4600 meters.. We were all friends of his and were devastated that he had lost his life when he had so much to live for. From where we were, we could see the full line of his fall day before. İt was a slope of steep blue glacier ice, dotted here and there with rocks… I realised that once he had picked up speed, there was no possibility of him self arresting on the steep stone-hard surface. We got to him and secured him with perlon slings and a climbing rope which made it easier to lower him to a safer place, out of stonefall danger. We also called the helicopter as well as our ground control, informing them of progress. In a short time we were ready for a pick-up, with, I must add, little confidence that the chopper would make it. The safe operational ceiling of a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter is 3000 metres. Where we waited in anticipation was at an altitude of 4600 metres.At this ceiling, the air is too thin to allow this class of helicopter to operate safely. To comöpound things,sinister black clouds were nudging the mountain and wind was rising by the minute. Because Ararat is a massive bulk of a volcano rising from the flatlands, it gets hammered by every storm going, as well as manufacturing it’s own particular brand!Kursat belayed himself to a large rock alongside the casualty, ready to clip İskender onto a weighted line which had been lowered from the machine . The helicopter approached, slowly edging in as if expecting at any moment to be smashed against the slope by the wind. İt was tricky flying, all the stops were out now. A fusillade of snow and ice particles violently hit us after the olive green Blackhawk inched slowly down and, after what seemed an eternity, hovered only four to five metres above us. We peered through this maelstromof ice particles as Kursat tried to catch the snaking rope end. He got it, clipped İskender on and gave a thumbs-up signal. The roar of the powerful turbines increased and was deafening, reverberating from the ice. Then the body slowly rose, suspended from the green monster.The success of the operation was beyond all our expectations and with this came relief as the cyclone of arctic wind subsided. Our friend was on his way home. We watched sadly as the big aircraft sped away and down- down with its grim suspended load. It was a blessing that he had been lifted by the helicopter, for it would have been a traumatic task for us to have taken him down the long descent through seracs and across the scree fields.We were both sad and happy; happy that we had completed the mission. We watched with relief as the Blackhawk sank smaller to the horizon until it was barely a speck. But we were sad as we had lost a good comrade and a kindred spirit. We climbed down to the waiting patiently below, and under ominious skies and unrelenting blizzard, we slogged back to our bivouac.. That night, we ate the remains of our food.The following day dawned bright but very windy, and we were picked up by a military helicopter. From the fuselage windows we gazed at that great icy mountain one last time. We were returning with an empty felling. Later we were told that this had been the highest helicopter- assisted rescue in Turkey.
