From Kilimanjaro to Everest, all-in-one adventurer Ara Khatchadourian plans to conquer new heights in monumental undertaking

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenian mountaineer and climber Ara Khatchadourian is originally from Lebanon. He and his family re-located to France when the civil war began.

Khatchadourian says they settled in Marseille, where he began to work in the jewelry field, which soon became his main activity.

“When I was 40 years old, my friends from Lebanon invited me to participate in a marathon run,” he told ARMENPRESS.

“I liked the offer, and I began training actively. Excited from the training and the marathon, I decided to keep on actively training. After some time, when I was back in France, I got another offer to participate in another competition. In order to maintain good shape, I decided to climb Mont Blanc, which is 4810 meters high. When I reached the summit at 6:30 in the morning to enjoy the sunrise, I got very impressed, it was very exciting. This made me continue mountaineering,” he said.

He later conquered the summits of Kilimanjaro and Ararat, something he described as “very emotional”.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union, the AGBU, requested Ara’s audience to tell about his 2013 Ararat climb. During the event, Ara brought forward a proposal – he said he will climb the highest mountain of the world – Mount Everest – in case of support.

“I was planning to dedicate this climb to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide”, he says.

“I wanted to draw the public attention to the Armenian Genocide issue with this,” he said. Ara began rigorous training for the ascend. He visited Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador to climb mountains ranging from 6000 to 6700 meters to prepare for the mighty Everest.

But, according to him, this wasn’t enough, so he traveled to Kyrgyzstan to climb the Lenin Peak, the 7134 meter mountain.

In 2015, Ara traveled to Nepal for his mission.

His rigorous training routine included cycling, jogging, swimming, climbing stairs by carrying a heavy backpack, restricting oxygen inflow and other methods to improve breathing. He says there were days that he would walk for 16 hours.

Ara says the ascend was difficult, and many of his team members even refused to continue and returned to base.

The mountaineer says he was very impressed by especially the last day. “We were on an elevation of 8300 meters, on this day at 20:30 we decided to continue the ascend. We reached the summit at 8:30 in the morning – the 8848 meter altitude was conquered. It was very emotional, I experiences very strange feelings,” he said.

On his way to the summit, Khatchadourian writes a letter to Turkey’s President – calling for facing the history and recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

He began a new tour later to deliver the letter – Run For Peace – a marathon from Marseille to Yerevan. He ran through eight countries, 150 cities and overcame nearly 5000 kilometers from April to July this year.

At the time when he was passing through Turkey, the country was holding presidential elections, and he says he didn’t give the letter since he didn’t know who will be the president, so he continued running to Yerevan – where the revolution was underway.

“I began the Run For Peace in the beginning of April, and Nikol Pashinyan carried out the peaceful revolution. I was very happy that the developments were calm. People were full of powerful energy, everyone was happy and smiling,” he said, calling for joint and daily work to reach goals.

But since the letter to the President of Turkey is still not delivered – Ara has a new idea. He will row across the Mediterranean to reach Lebanon from France.

He will pass Italy, then from Greece to Turkey, where he plans to give the letter. He will then continue the journey towards Syria, and finally Lebanon.

He estimates the journey will last 50 days if he will be able to row 100 kilometers every day.

He will soon embark on a rigorous training to prepare for the trip.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan