Takhte soleyman and Alamkooh zone

Panorama of Takhte soleyman and Alamkooh zone from alpineclub of tehran university website

In a distance about 200 km of tehran beyound the way that terminates to Caspian see coast you can finde the zoon Takhte soleyman (seat of solomon) and Alamkooh(flag mount) zone . The way passes from west of Tehran , Karaj , Gachsar , Siah bisheh , Marzan abad and Hasankiff(kalar dasht) . After Hasankiff , you will reach the village Roodbarak . Roodbarak is a mountain village which is often coverd under fog in summertimes . This the original gate of the region of Takhte soleyman . You can find a large harborage in roodbarak with many rooms , bath and other instruments for cooking and resting .
You can find pickups to moving to a start point with the name Barir . After a day treking in a summer day you will reach to Alamchal glacier . There are nearly 400 peaks with height about 4ooo m in this zone . But the best beauty of region is bigwalls and glaciers which tempt you to climb . Proceeding I describe about my last climbing on a classic route .



The best time to climbing Alamkooh is the August but you can climb in winter if you are a professionall mountaineer (becouse its -30.C make it like north poll).In summer time Alamkooh has too many climbs and the best climbers in Iran or from other country gather in zone to enjoy from nature and routes.

Most of routes on alam kooh bigwall is opened by climbers who have come from europe (Germany,France,England and Italy),but nowadays Iranians climbs their route too .

Last july me (Shahram Abbasnejad) and my friend ,Shahram Hanifa decided to climb a route which its name is Gordeye Almanha (Germans ridge) . This route is on a ridge betwean northern glacier and western icefall of Alamkooh .

We had climbed some compeletly routes in this zone ,the routes : 52 polish+shokooh(not Hanifa), 48 polish(the most beatifull and professional),france classic route (not me)and shakhak bigwall winter climbing(not hanifa) .


We spoke about climbing after 1 hour walking in streets , when we reached in front of our old mountaineering club :"The club Damavand". Our initial plan was :



1) Wednsday ; Aug 8 .2007 : Traveling from Tehran to Roodbarak


2) Thursday ; Aug 9.2007: Moving from Roodbarak to Barir and trekking to Sarchal shelter and Alamchal glacier


3) Friday ; Aug 10.2007: climbing the curvex off Shaeh kooh (comb mount) and assending knife ridge of Alam kooh


4) saturday ;Aug 11.2007: coming back to Sarchal shelter , Barir and Roodbarak .

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1) Wednsday ; Aug 8 .2007 : Traveling from Tehran to Roodbarak

We started our travel later than we had promised . The road had traffic of summer travels . We arrived in Roodbarak harborage at 23:30 . We must rent a mule to bear our instruments to Alamchal but mule is rare than unicorn .

Roodbarak hotel for mountaineers

2) Thursday ; Aug 9.2007: trekking to Sarchal shelter and Alamchal glacier


After waking up on 4 am by means of my cellphone alarm , I put a big pot of water on fire to every body 's usage . Waking up for shahram was beside a lot of joke ! Before riding pickup I spokewith Mr.Einollah the old deriver of mules ,he promised to me for bearing bar to alamchal .


In Barir we put our instruments on a mule and with a light bag start trekking . Each 50 kg needs a mule (depending on its size) and a renting a mule costs about 50 $ .

Mules and instruments on the way of Sarchal and Alamchal.

We rest in a place by the name Keshti sang near the water .Keshti sang(ship stone)is a good place for bivouac in winter . On 8:15 am we were at the top of the Naftchaak ,there we met a shepherd who gave us cheese and bread . hanifa was like tiger he ran all the way to sarchal shelter . but i was slow .We reached to Sarchal on 12 oclock . We ate a sandwich and tea then we treked to Alamchal . It needs 2 hours time to reach from Sarchal to Alamchal .all the way you walk on stones that replace with glacier movements .

First view of bigwall of Alamkooh after Sarchal shelter

When I reached to glacier I didnt stand and i went directly to end of it then after coming back to desroyed shelter we started to standing our tent . Nearly I can tell you that you have just 2 original selection for your tents 1 in first and 1 in end of glacier.

Alamchal glacier from shanekooh curvex

Tents on Alamchal glaciers

We selected the first place namely destroyed shelter . I think this is better than other places becouse ground is warmer than others and It is near to Bigwall and near to turning route from bigwall.

to be continued