The Everest of Irena Kharazova

We all have our own Everest in life: we set ourselves a goal and achieve it. These words belong to Irena Kharazova – the first Armenian woman in the world to climb the world’s highest peak in 2016. Irena overcame the height of 8848 meters and now proudly talks about her journey, about the fears she experienced during the ascent, and about the difficulties she overcame.

Recently, by our initiative, Irena held a meeting-seminar with a group of hikers in Armenia. On that day, she talked to us about her experience on Everest and about mountaineering in general. She looks at ascents as goals that need to be achieved.

“Why are you doing this?”

“In mountaineering, everyone has their own motivation: some are attracted to beautiful landscapes, some do it because of their love for hiking life. Personally for me, this is a goal that I must achieve, because the feeling of victory that you experience when you reach the top is irreplaceable”, says Irena.

Talking about Everest, Irena notes that all 45 days of climbing were about fear. “At least I had it that way. You always hear conversations about death. For a moment you feel that you are going crazy. Then you feel proud of yourself. Then you see dead bodies and start to think about them and how they died. You are constantly in that atmosphere. You talk to your family, who sit carefree in some cafe, while you are struggling in Everest. You start to think, why do I need all this?”

She noted that after 4500 meters, the human body is no longer able to recover. “You start to curse yourself for being there. You think it would be better if you stayed home. The problem is that you do not know how the brain will work at such a height. Up there, I almost did not admire the beautiful landscapes, because that was the last thing on my mind at that moment”.

“I did not want my body to stay on Everest”

The first Armenian woman to climb the peak of Everest, told us about the four-stage climbing plan. She said that sometimes people set a goal to climb not to the top, but to a certain height. The final stage is only for those who are confident in their abilities, since at this altitude no one can help you, and even if you die, no one can get you out of there. That is why mountaineers saw many dead bodies of the people, who at some point could not reach the top and died. Irena says that sometimes she even saw the faces of the victims, because in such conditions the skin does not change much over time.

“I told to my Sherpa: “Let’s discuss an action plan if I suddenly die”. I did not want my body to stay there, and people to pass and look at me. I told him that my family will make him rich if he will take me down from the mountain and not leave me there. He said that he was not sure if he could do it. Then I told him: “If something happens to me, then take off my hat, so that my hair flutters in the wind, and I will die like a queen” “, says Irena.

The first Armenian woman on the top of Everest

Irena notes that she managed to reach the summit of Everest thanks to the leader of their group, Alexander Abramov. She says that she often experienced fears, but Abramov always managed to motivate them to keep walking. Irena noted that Abramov instructed them to descend to an altitude below 7000 m immediately after reaching the summit. He said that if you rest for too long, then it is possible that you will no longer be able to continue walking. Irena noted that many people died because of this. Therefore, the group reached the top, congratulated each other, took pictures and immediately began to descent.

“Having reached the top, increases the desire to live. You want to live in order to come back and tell people about all this”, – said Irena and noted that she descended so quickly that she was the first to reach the camp.

“The road to Everest is about a dream”

After all this, Irena is sure that the ascent to the highest point in the world is worth it. “The road to Everest is about a dream… We all have our own Everest in life: we set ourselves a goal and achieve it”.

The first mountain that Irena climbed was Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 m). There, she heard about Everest for the first time and set a goal to overcome this peak. She says that before that she had not even spent a night in a tent, and five years later she climbed Everest.

Life after the war

The first Armenian woman on the top of Everest said that during the ascent she met people with different problems. She noted that she came to Armenia to meet and inspire the guys who are in rehabilitation centers after the war. She told us that in the group of people climbing Mount Everest, there was also a young American who lost his leg during the Iraq war. He managed to reach the top. Among those who climbed Everest was the famous Argentine actor Facundo Arana, who went to Everest a year after completing a course of chemotherapy.

“I want to talk to the guys about how you can live after the war. People who have become disabled often set a goal to climb Mount Everest. And they climb it. After everything they have been through, they find strength and do something amazing”, says Irena. She plans to go hiking with the guys who participated in the war and were injured. Irena didn’t climb Armenian mountains yet, but she told us that she climbed Mount Ararat and plans to climb Mount Aragats.

During the seminar, the founder and head of Armenian Geographic Tigran Varag presented Irena Kharazova with his bilingual book “Mountains of Armenia”.

Armenian woman, who climbed the world’s highest peak, thinks that mountaineering is the best and most expensive drug that allows the human brain to recharge.

Photos were provided by Irena Kharazova.

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Hiking and Trekking in Armenia