All activities / Mountaineering / Summits / Mount Ararat
Mountaineering / Summits in Mount AraratTR
Turkey's highest mountain at 5,137 meters and the legendary Ark peak: a four-to-five-day permit-and-guide ascent from Dogubayazit in the country's far east.
Why here
Ararat is the mountain of the Ark story and Turkey's highest summit at 5,137 meters, a bucket-list 5,000er climbable in four to five days from Dogubayazit with glacier travel only on summit day. The bureaucracy is the crux and also the filter: the peak sits in a military security zone, a government permit is mandatory, and a licensed Turkish guide is legally required, no independent climbing, which keeps the mountain organized and the operators professional. Scheduled open-group departures run June through September, permits process in a week or two, and the summit sunrise looks across three countries and biblical geography.
Best months
June through September is the permit season. The route is non-technical but high: acclimatization is built into every itinerary, crampons come out for the summit glacier, and the 2026 permit runs about 50 dollars a person on top of the guided package.
Getting there & around
Fly to Agri or Igdir via Istanbul, then to Dogubayazit. Operators handle permits, which want one to two weeks' processing; book open-group dates one to three months out.
Skill levels: intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
Ararat Peak
GuideA local guiding operation running permitted Ararat ascents with published permit guidance and scheduled seasonal departures.
Two Ararat
GuideA Dogubayazit operator publishing open-group Ararat climb dates years ahead and handling the mandatory permits and licensed guiding.