Ararat Redux: Abovian, Prof. Parrot and First Ascent

Abovian’s first and repeat ascents of Ararat, in addition to his subsequent first ascent of 13,435 ft. (4,095 meters) Mt. Aragats while accompanying University of Munich’s Prof. Moritz Wagner, firmly establish him as the father of Armenian mountaineering. After returning to Armenia from his university studies in Dorpat, Abovian established himself as a progressive educator and the premier national man of modern letters.

Parrot had met the young Khatchadur Abovian at Echmiadzin. It is interesting that later in 1844 Abovian also accompanied Herrmann von Abich, a professor of mineralogy at the same University of Dorpat as Parrot, to Ararat. They made three unsuccessful attempts together, having been turned back by violent storms just short of the summit. During one of the attempts, they erected a cross short of the summit. The following year, however, Abich, accompanied by Peter Sharoyan, a student of Abovian’s, and two other Armenian guides, was successful in ascending the eastern summit. One of his guides was Simon Sarkisian.

Abovian was, nevertheless, destined to successfully ascend Ararat once more. This time he did it together with the Englishman Henry Danby Seymour and Simon Sarkisian on September 30, 1846. Sarkisian was a survivor of the 1840 Agori avalanche and would summit for the third time with the massive 68-member expedition organized by the Russian Army topographer, Col. Iosif Khodzko, in 1850. His fourth attempt at ascending was in 1878, while guiding another Englishman, George Percival Baker. This time the now 90-year-old Sarkisian was forced to turn back short of the summit. Baker continued on to successfully ascend the peak on August 7.

It is also of interest that a dozen years later Abich’s cross was discovered by the Englishmen Maj. Robert Stuart and Walter Thursby on their way up to the summit on August 14, 1856. Three of their companions had summitted two days earlier. “About 1,200 feet from the summit, we came upon an oak cross that had been fixed by Professor Abich,” Stuart wrote. He speculated, “Professor Abich made several attempts, but failed in all, as is proved by the position of the cross…” Not being familiar with the history of the mountain, Stuart mistakenly assumed that they were the first.

To shed more light on the matter one must seek out the Russian and Armenian sources. One such invaluable source is an article by E. G. Weidenbaum, “Greater Ararat: and Attempts to Climb Its Summit,” published in the Transactions of the Caucasus Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society (vol. Xiii, 1884). According to Weidenbaum’s account, one year after Parrot’s ascent, Ivan Shopen, the chairman of the Incomes and Properties Department of the Province of Armenia, expressed doubts concerning the veracity of Parrot’s announcement of reaching the summit of Ararat. Thus we learn the identity of Parrot’s principle tormentor, whom he had described as “… a man belonging to the educated European public, a man of merit in his way — one who on account of his long residence in those countries possesses undoubted claims to confidence in his local knowledge.”

Weidenbaum also mentions Karl Kokh, a noted botanist, who was personally acquainted with both Parrot and Shopen. Kokh opined that “jealousy was the principle reason for Shopen to question the veracity of Parrot’s statements, in view of the fact that he himself had made two attempts at climbing Ararat, and both times experienced total failure.” He continues to say that Shopen’s portly body was hardly suited for such an endeavor, in contrast to the athletic build of Parrot.

Another such skeptic was the postmaster of Yerevan, Artem Kalantarian. He was to hound Abovian into agreeing on a wager to climb Ararat once again to prove it possible. Before that could take place, regrettably, one day in April of 1848, Abovian left his home and mysteriously disappeared. No trace of him has ever been found.

In any event, the most conclusive evidence of Parrot’s achievement is to be found buried in the pages of a book by Kozma Spassky- Avtonomov, The Ascent of Ararat, published in Moscow in 1839. Spassky-Avtonomov’s was only the second expedition to successfully summit Ararat in 1834. His account also dispels the mistaken notion of most chroniclers that Spassky-Avtonomov may have only ascended the lower eastern summit pyramid or even not reached the summit at all. As a matter of fact, he climbed both summits. In that endeavor he was fortunate to be assisted by two Armenian guides from Agori, Hovannes Aivazian who had also accompanied Parrot on his successful third attempt and proven so helpful to him, and Yeghdar Ghougassian. The Armenian village of Agori was situated at an elevation of approximately 4,000 feet above sea level at the base of the Agori Gorge on the northern slope of the mountain. This was prior to 1840 when a powerful earthquake violently shook the mountain, triggering a catastrophic avalanche that totally destroyed the village and the monastery, and buried all its inhabitants under a massive layer of rock and ice. I believe that the Turkish name Agri Dag for Mt. Ararat is derived from the name of this Armenian village.

Aivazian confidently guided them to where Parrot had bivouacked on the first night of their third attempt. The following morning Aivazian directed them to the cross on the dome plateau that Parrot had erected at 16,028 feet, the high point of his second attempt. The trio continued to climb atop the snowcap toward the eastern summit pyramid, which they soon successfully ascended. Following a relaxing lunch break in the saddle between the two summits, they headed toward the western summit. As the climbers ascended the higher western summit pyramid, Aivazian suddenly shouted out to Spassky-Avtonomov that this was where Parrot had stood. Thereby prompting him to write, “for myself at least, it became clear why the guide Aivazian initially had stated to me that the professor had not been on the summit, but later began to insist that he had been; he, as all Agori residents, considered the main summit of Masis (Armenian for Ararat) to be the eastern peak. Therefore, for Aivazian the professor had not been on Masis, when he had been only on the western peak.” The eastern summit is a mere 50 feet lower than the true western summit; however, Agori villagers and, in fact, all observers from the north side of the mountain view the closer eastern pyramid to be the higher of the two due to the trick played by perspective on observers some 14,000 feet below. Having seen the mountain from the north, I too had been under that impression. But my July 19, 2003, successful summiting up the southern route with a British expedition dispelled the confusion and also exposed me to Ararat’s unique beauty and the spell it casts upon its admirers.

A mere five years had separated the first two ascents. Spassky-Avtonomov had been fortunate to share the able services of Parrot’s guide Aivazian, who was a participant and eyewitness of both successful summit ascents. His spontaneous, unsolicited declaration atop the true summit must be accepted as proof positive that Parrot and his party did indeed summit Ararat in 1829. The proof had been there for all to see, but inaccessible to most chroniclers on account of the rarity of Spassky-Avtonomov’s text. It is my firm belief that this information should lay to rest any lingering questions and doubts surrounding Parrot’s truly spectacular achievement, for his ascent was one of the highest of any human to date.

(Philip Ketchian is a retired physicist, who climbed Mount Ararat with a British Expeditionary Group and his wife, Elsa Ronningstam Ketchian, in July 2003.)