Mountain Hiking

An hour's drive from Yazd lies Mount Shirkooh, also known as Mount Sir. Standing at 4,100 meters, the summit can be reached in a day. The hike starts at 1,500 meters, so the ascent to 4,100 is quite intense. It’s a tough strain on the body, especially considering the elevation gain. Normally, you should only ascend about 500 meters per day once you go above 3,000 meters. That’s why it’s crucial to take it very slowly and drink plenty of water. I have a lot of respect for altitude sickness due to past experiences. We made sure to drink lots of water and juice. There are clean springs up in the mountains, so you only need to bring one bottle, which you can refill along the way. It’s also a good idea to have something sweet with you for a quick energy boost. We brought some candies from Denmark, including one flavor that’s rum-infused. Our guide was especially fond of it. We didn’t tell him what it tasted like—though he didn’t speak much English anyway! :) We were picked up at 5 AM. By 6:10, we were ready to start our ascent, which took 6.5 hours including breaks. Locals can do it in about 5 hours. We did great! For 6.5 hours, we were just going uphill! No one felt nauseous—just a bit of a headache, so Honny picked up the pace for the last 500 meters since he had a lot of energy left. Later, it turned out that this led to a severe headache due to the rapid ascent. Luckily, it was easily cured with some painkillers and rest. The descent was the hardest part. We thought it would be easier, but no. It’s incredibly tough to go down when the slope is that steep. It took us nearly 4 hours to get back down, with tired legs and very sore feet. Today, we reached our first mountain summit together! :) Mount Sir isn’t the highest mountain in Iran; that title goes to Mount Damavand, which is easiest to climb during the summer months—roughly from April to October. In the winter, you need more gear to tackle the mountain. Damavand can be climbed in 3 days and stands at 5,671 meters. Mount Sir is the toughest single-day trek we’ve ever done. If you compare the ascent rate to that of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, it’s much more challenging. It was a good but tough experience that we wouldn’t have missed for the world. It felt amazing to reach the top!!