Hrachya Ivanyan

What’s your profession? What do you do?

I am a lawyer. I work for “Hovnanian International” company.

When and how did you decide to take part in a hiking trip for the first time? What did you feel being out of your comfort zone for the first time?

I hike for many years. At first, these were mainly excursions and my goal was to get to know my homeland. I started to climb mountains later. Although I climbed several mountains before, my real journey started when I climbed the mountain of my dreams. In the winter of 2014 I saw that ArmGeo is organizing an ascent of Mount Ararat. After my immediate phone call, long conversation, excitement, on 20th of August 2014 my life completely changed. Since that day, excursions were replaced by mountain hikes.

I don’t even remember how I left my comfort zone for the first time. Moreover, over the years my “comfort zone” has changed. With each ascent and descent I realize that most of our power and pride remained there, at the top. In the mountains I feel myself.

Why do you climb mountains, what do they give you?

“The happiness is not beyond the mountains, it’s in the mountains.” For mountaineers, this phrase is not just a joke, but a slogan, which consists of dozens of mountain peaks, hundreds of kilometers, amazing people, and life…

During hikes, each person has different feelings. For me, being at high altitudes is the craziest and the most attractive feeling, and the freedom is the most desirable. The horizons that open from the mountain peaks provide a perfect sense of freedom.

All this is just an attempt to briefly answer why I climb mountains. And what do mountains give me? I don’t know. Do they even have to give something? Such an expectation comes from people’s consumer attitude to everything. At the same time, when you are in endless search, but in the mountains you reach a certain level of self-awareness and feel harmony, you start to understand that mountains are “higher” than our attitude. They give us everything without expecting anything in return.

On the way to self-awareness, people often test the limits of their capabilities. When you are exhausted and only the unstoppable will to reach your goal is left, and when in mountains you feel in your element and ready for any challenge, then you try to shorten the roads leading to the mountains.

Do you have a favorite quote about mountains?

I always remember Nietzsche’s following lines: “I climb upon the highest mountains, laughing at all tragedies – whether real or imaginary.”

Do you have a desire to climb higher mountains?

As long as mountains exist, the mountaineer’s gaze will always be directed upwards…

Sure, I want to climb higher mountains. I even have a list, although not all the mountains on the list are more difficult or higher than the ones I have already climbed.

However, I have to mention, that for me mountains are not an end in themselves. They are not just objects for me. Mountains are people, mountaineers, and friends on whom you can rely, with whom you travel and overcome difficulties, share the joy of reaching the mountain top, with whom you are ready to climb higher and more difficult mountains. Mountains are also the people we meet in the villages. They are simple, honest, openhearted and kind.

What was your most memorable hiking trip and what made it special?

It is hard to single out one hike when you spend almost every weekend of your year in the mountains. I will try to single out at least 3 hikes, which happened only in 2017.

1. The peak of Mount Baghatssar, 3249 m. I have climbed more than 100 mountains, and this mountain is the only one, on top of which I felt something that I didn’t feel in any other place. I never felt so strong and never experienced such pure joy.
2. The sunset on Mount Tsarasar. “…I saw the sunset forty-three times!” (Un jour, j’ai vu le soleil se coucher quarante-trois fois! Saint-Exupéry).
3. Each second of our three-day hike to Mount Kusanats. Tigran says, “You either love Artsakh, or you have not been to Artsakh…”

However, experience has shown that each hike surpasses the previous ones. So the best hikes are ahead. Therefore, be closer to nature and go hiking.

What advice do you have for those who want to start to go hiking but don’t dare to do that?

The fact that you want to do it is already great. I think that the desire is the primary precondition. It is never too late. Just take your phone, dial ArmGeo’s number and it will surely change your life. Nature and mountains are not opera performances that you either love or not. One ascent is enough to fall in love with the mountains.

Members of ArmGeo Club