Elevation
3,607m
11,834 ft
First Ascent
Local Kurdish residents have known and ascended the mountain throughout its existence. The first international expeditions in the explicit modern mountaineering sense came in the 1990s.
Best Season
May–October
Summit Days
2–3 days
Permits
Required
Overview
A 3,607-metre peak in the Zagros range of Iraqi Kurdistan, the highest mountain in Iraq. Halgurd sits in a region that has not been part of the international climbing community's standard objectives, and the mountain has been climbed by relatively few non-Iraqi mountaineers in the modern era. The political and security situation in northern Iraq has affected access to the peak through extended periods of the past century. The Kurdish Regional Government has progressively developed the climbing infrastructure since approximately 2005, and the mountain has begun to receive international climbing attention.
The first ascent in the modern mountaineering tradition is poorly documented. Local Kurdish residents have known and ascended the mountain for as long as the surrounding villages have existed; the peak appears in Kurdish folkloric and oral tradition as a meeting place of the local population and as a refuge during periods of political instability. The first international expeditions to climb Halgurd in the explicit modern mountaineering sense came in the 1990s, primarily by European climbers with regional experience.
The technical difficulty of the standard route is moderate. The climb involves a long uphill walk through Kurdish villages and rural terrain, with several sections of steeper climbing in the upper portion of the peak. The route is typically completed in two to three days from the village of Choman. The fatality rate has been low, primarily because the mountain receives so few attempts. Climbing on Halgurd is logistically dependent on the political situation in the region; access has been granted variably.
What Halgurd represents is a category of mountain not represented elsewhere in this Atlas — peaks in regions that have been substantially affected by political conflict, where the climbing infrastructure has had to be rebuilt or reconceived under conditions of limited resources and substantial security challenges. For climbers from the broader Kurdish community in northern Iraq, Turkey, and Iran, Halgurd is the home high peak. The summit views toward the Iranian Zagros range and across the Iraqi plains are among the most extensive in the wider region.