Who Would Climb a Mountain Called Vochlot?

• peaksam March 30, 2025October 3, 2026

An unprecedented event in the history of hiking worldwide (for adults and kids alike).

A few days ago, more precisely on March 30, 2025, the children of the 4 Peaks mountain club managed to climb a mountain peak with no less unprecedented a name: Mount Vochlot.

But seriously, Mount Vochlot is one of the peaks of the Chknagh mountains, a branch of the Bazum Mountains. It is 2,159 m high. During the ascent, the name of this peak (which in Armenian means “lousy”, as in “full of lice”) kept making us wonder why the mountain was given exactly the name Vochlot, but we didn’t find any reasonable or logical answer. We didn’t see any lice, and we didn’t come back with any either :)))

It was exactly this unusual name that made us decide to climb this mountain. We started the ascent from the village of Gogaran. From the very beginning of the hike, a grass-eating horse filled it with a cheerful mood: seeing us, it forgot about the green grass and started walking with us. When it fell behind the line, it would come running back. But when we started moving away from the village, the horse didn’t continue the hike and went back.

There was an abandoned bus stuck on the mountainside, which attracted the children’s attention right from the start, and we had to stop here to satisfy their curiosity. One group of children was carried away with the bus, the other with a running race.

On the summit we enjoyed the views opening toward the Pambak Mountains and Gogaran village. After a mix of games, joy and laughter, we started to descend.

In Gogaran village we visited the Surb Astvatsatsin church. The Surb Astvatsatsin church of Gogaran was built in the 4th century, but specialists working in Soviet times deliberately dated the church to the 17th century, since they did not want it to be connected with the earlier (pagan) culture. However, as a result of excavations, it became known that the church was built on the foundation of a pagan temple.

📏 Distance: 6 km
📈 Elevation gain: +350 m
🗻 Ascent: 2,159 m