Us at the Bezengi Mountaineering Camp

• peaksam July 28, 2024October 21, 2026

This trip, like our ascents in Iran in 2022, can also be described as “exceptional”, since until now only adults from Armenia had traveled in this direction, and we were the first group of children from Armenia.   

We had already been planning to go to Bezengi since the beginning of 2024. Those who don’t know what Bezengi is are missing out a lot.
It is one of the most enchanting and majestic mountain areas of the Caucasus, where snow-white summits stretch toward the sky through the blue of the glaciers.

In the Bezengi area there are six of the eight peaks exceeding five thousand meters (with the exception of Elbrus and Kazbek). Russian mountaineers call this area the “Little Himalayas”, because of its high peaks and the huge glaciers stretching between the great mountain valleys. And it is at the meeting point of two gorges running between these mighty peaks that the “Bezengi” camp is located. 

On July 28 we set off from Yerevan, and on July 29, after crossing two borders and a 21-hour journey, we reached the Bezengi high mountain camp. Although we were tired from the road, we didn’t waste the day: we hiked to the Zhiginji waterfall and enjoyed the nature and the honey-sweet colors of the setting day. We walked 4 km and covered 150 m of total elevation gain.

The hike on July 30 was full of views of “breathtaking” mountains. All around there are such mountains that it never even occurs to you that it’s possible to overcome the height of those giants. But come and see that there are daredevils like that, though the talk here isn’t about us. On the third day of the camp, we walked to the Ukyu-Kosh mountain belt, also called the “Mud Hut”, which is located at an altitude of 3,200 m. Over 3.5 km of the route we covered 600 m of total elevation gain, and over 1 km, 400 m. That last kilometer was quite tough. Up on top we pitched a tent, enjoyed the views from above and were lucky to see goats. On the way back, the children were so cheerful that it seemed as if they hadn’t just covered 1,000 m of total elevation gain and walked 9 km. It was a good day, one of the unforgettable ones. The children came back fully charged with energy, which was obvious from their shining eyes.

It’s hard to tell about July 31. You also need to look at the attached photos, so that you can at least partly form an idea of the beauty we saw. Why only partly? Because photos don’t convey what we saw in reality. The morning weather was dense and cloudy. But trusting the inner voice, we decided to walk to the Mizhirgi glacier and have a lesson in glacier climbing. By the time we had handed out the equipment and done the training on the ropes, the clouds began to pull back. This time new mountaineering gear had been added to the ropes: an ice axe, a climbing harness, crampons and everything else needed for climbing. The Mizhirgi River was flowing below, while we were climbing up. We saw glacial cracks, listened to the sounds of rockfall, even witnessed a small avalanche, walked on the glacier, did glacier climbing, realized that climbing perfectly vertical isn’t such a hard thing after all, and gained great experience from all of this. And throughout all this time we kept meeting groups of mountain goats, which were quite close to us and didn’t run away. Everything went very successfully and productively. We walked 14 km and covered 960 m of total elevation gain, feeling the breath of the Northern Caucasus of Bezengi.

On August 1 we had a fairly light day. In the first half of the day we were free, and in the second half we did rock climbing. We climbed two routes, about 16 m high. The difficulty here was that we had to climb in hiking boots, because when you’re in the mountains and need to get past some rocky section, you most often won’t have the chance to put on climbing shoes, and the rocky section has to be passed in your hiking boots. 

On August 2, our group of strong ones set off from Bezengi, and on August 3 we were already in Yerevan. This was a great opportunity to gain new knowledge, improve skills, and connect with nature and friends. As one of our senior hiking friends put it, this year the children will write quite an impressive essay about their summer holidays.