Winter Ascent of Mount Gutanasar and a Visit to the Black Sand Wall

• peaksam March 4, 2024October 4, 2026

For those not afraid of snow: this is how we can describe yesterday’s hike participants. We went to climb Mount Gutanasar, after which we had to walk to the black sand wall. Already from the village of Fantan there was snow, and the closer we got to the mountain, the more snow there was. As the snow increased, walking got harder, and the difficulty doubled when we started covering steep slopes. Sometimes the snow was such that we would take one step and slide back a step or two. But of course, that didn’t stop us from reaching the summit of Gutanasar by battling the snow and encouraging each other. It was a full winter ascent. After resting on the summit, we started descending toward the black sand wall of solidified lava, on the way to which we managed to have a good snowball fight and slide down. The weather and the views were so beautiful: all around was sparkling snow, in the distance the regular cone shapes of Mount Hatis and the volcanic Geghama Mountains were visible, the sky was blue and decorated with feathery clouds, and Mount Ara, Aragats and Ararat, though slightly hazy, were still in our field of view. On the snow there were traces of the presence of wolves, foxes and especially hares. The black sand wall made a very strong impression on the children; the photos can’t convey it, and they won’t convey to you either the beauty and impressiveness it has in reality.    

With these young hikers, gifted with great willpower, we walked 9 km and covered 450 m of total elevation gain.