Up The Rocks

On Sunday my dad drove: me, Mkhitar, Tatevik, and Vardan to Noravanq to go rock climbing. I woke up at 7:30Am to meet Mkhitar and Tatevik at a bus stop in town that was next to the “Sas” convenient store

My father and I got there a little early so we had to wait around for Mkhitar and Tatevik to show up. I kept busy by listening to music and watching the cars go by. Finally Mkhitar came with all of the climbing gear. We shook hands and waited impatiently for Tatevik to arrive for we were hard pressed for time. Luckily she showed up five minutes later, so we got into the car and drive to where we were to meet Hayq. Once we had every on in the car we finally departed for Noravank.

We had a grand time talking, laughing and listening to music. The car trip seemed to take less than 3 hours even two it did in fact, take that long to get there. When we arrived at Noravanq we stopped at a small restaurant/convenient store to stock up in water and to buy some bread for our lunch. While we were there we looked around at the rocks and at the sport routes "Soyuz 82" 80m and “Danak” 60m, that Mkhitar promised to climb with me when I was ready for it. When we had all finished stocking up and rested a bit we moved on to our rock climbing spot.

That was the section “threeangle” with three sport climbing routes. The left route “Kret” 5a, started out with a small crack and then segued into a wall with a bunch of hand and foot holds. The right route “Oc” 5b (which was my favorite) was a crack form top to bottom. Then the middle route “Kaitsak” 6a was a wall with comparably small foot and hand holds. Then we took all of the gear out of the car and started to get ready. Mkhitar and I un-coiled the ropes and put on our harnesses and climbing shoes and climbed by “Kret” to the top of the routes and set up an anchor up top. Then Tatevik climbed “Kret”, and then Hayq did. While we were all climbing countless passers by stopped and stared at us in wonder and admiration. A few even stopped and watched for a while before heading off to do their own business.

It was getting close to noon so we all took a break and ate a huge feast by the rock wall. After eating for a half hour we rested out stomachs a little bit before I tried the route “Oc”. I started off solidly and ended solidly despite this being my first crack I have ever climbed before. After I got down Tatevik decided to try the crack too. She made it to the top and got belayed down. When I got down I immediately started to go up the route “Kaitsak”. It was a little harder but I made it up nonetheless. Then Vardan went up the middle route. After that it started to get dark so we packed up and left for home.