While this blog focuses mainly on adventuring off-road, this story is a bit different. Besides off-roading, it covers on-road adventuring in my recently acquired Pajero iO—all brought in large part by something simple: atypical weather.
The Lead-up to the Journey
This story started at the beginning of February. One of my friends suggested in our group chat that we meet up on the weekend for a small gathering. At the end of the day, six of us had confirmed our attendance. At first, I didn’t think this day would be something worth writing about. But, as it got closer, something was telling me otherwise: the weather.
Starting from Thursday, the 6th of February, unprecedented amounts of snow were forecasted to fall on Yerevan for a few days. In fact, the snow was supposed to continue well into the following week.
Being a car guy, the first thing this made me think about was what driving in such conditions would feel like. One of my closest friends, Mher, had the same thought. This drove us to start our weekend outing a bit earlier: by going on a small adventure together.
The Start of the Journey: Snow Clearing
Mher and I decided to meet at about 13:00 hours. We planned a decently lengthy trip to the Azat Reservoir, just south of the city. It’s a fascinating place no matter the season or weather. The only negative about it is that the roads to the reservoir are far from ideal. This is what influenced me to take my Mitsubishi on this adventure instead of my other car—my beloved Peugeot, even though we didn’t plan on offroading. Before I could head out, however, I had a bit of preparation ahead of me.
At this point in time, it had been snowing quite a lot for just over two days. Because of this, snow had piled up a lot on my car, which I had to clear before I could drive it. Before I could start, I had to get a new ice scraper as the one I had previously was temporarily out of reach in the Peugeot. Aside from that, the process wasn’t all that exciting or noteworthy—except for how long it took.
As I mentioned previously, we don’t typically get this much snow here. So, I’m not all that skilled at clearing it off a car, especially such large volumes of it. As I set off to pick up my friend, it was evident that I hadn’t done a good job after all. Little bits of mostly melted snow were constantly dripping down my windshield when braking. Fortunately, this was nothing but mildly annoying at times, though now I know I have to do better next time.
The Trip to the Azat Reservoir
After I picked up Mher, we started our journey to the reservoir. This was largely uneventful while we were still in the city. But, as we got out of it, the roads started having more and more snow on them—especially on the sides.
As a result, passing oncoming cars was somewhat nerve-wracking. This was especially true on some of the twisty mountain roads near the villages of Bardzrashen and Lanjazat. At least the views from these roads were quite breathtaking, so the mild danger was worth it.
Reaching the Azat Reservoir
After about an hour of driving, we finally got to the reservoir. More specifically, we got to one of the observation decks above it. The ground was covered with a lot of snow here. So much so that I even had to switch into four-wheel-drive to continue making progress at one point.
One noteworthy thing about our stop at this location was that there were a lot of people there. In fact, there was a wedding celebration taking place. It seemed odd to me that these people chose this location in such snowy conditions for that purpose. They’re more adventurous than me, I guess.
Another noteworthy thing happened as we were preparing to leave after our short stay. We observed some guy drive into the deep snow in an e34 BMW 5 series. Naturally, he got stuck immediately. We stopped next to him and offered to help. Before accepting our assistance, though, he tried lowering his tire pressures. This did the trick, after which he returned to the asphalt immediately.
Taking the Switchbacks Back to Yerevan
Following our short stop at the observation deck, we chose to head back on an alternate route. This took us down one of the best driving roads you can find in about a hundred-kilometer radius of Yerevan. A handful of tight downhill switchbacks with spectacular views. Of course, experiencing them in a tall SUV with an immense amount of snow on the ground isn’t ideal. But, it was still exceptional and worth the lengthy drive to get to the spot. Come here in a light, reasonably athletic sports car in the summer, and you can have an extraordinary drive.
Short Detour to Visit Garni
The alternate route we took passes closely by Garni, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Armenia. Having a lot of time on our hands, Mher and I chose to take a short detour to see the place. We visited the temple, which was a fairly cool sight. However, what I loved about it the most were the views just behind it.
The Trip Back to the City
After our Garni stop, we headed back to the city. We set off at about 16:00 hours, which was when the ongoing snowfall really started picking up. As the weather worsened, so did the traffic in the city. As a result, this drive felt like it took ages. The subpar quality of the roads undoubtedly contributed to this as well. But in the end, we got to our meeting spot well ahead of time—managing to even stop at a store for some quick snacks on the way.
The Gathering with the Guys
As this is a blog about adventuring, I won’t bore you with the details of our gathering. All I’ll write is that we had a great time together, catching up on each others’ lives, goals, and such. I also received a few congratulations and positive comments on the recent acquisition of my Mitsubishi, which I appreciated a lot.
Going Home in Exceedingly Snowy Conditions
As we began preparing to head home, the weather had already gotten quite bad. It was snowing heavily and the roads were very slippery. Moreover, it was quite cold as well. All of these factors combined led to the first noteworthy detail of our trip home.
As we tried getting in my car, the doors wouldn’t budge. They were frozen shut. Luckily, after a lot of struggling, I was able to open the driver’s door. A lot of pulling allowed me to get the door opened just enough to squeeze my fingers behind it. This gave me a solid foundation to force it open—without worrying about snapping the door handle off. I was then able to push the passenger door open from the inside.
As we got in and set off, it was immediately evident that we would be having a lot of slippage. That said, I was able to leave the car in rear-wheel-drive for the first half of the journey. This part involved mostly flat roads, so we had no trouble with traction off the line. However, even approaching the throttle with the wheel pointed anywhere but straight resulted in oversteer.
As we got to higher-speed roads with more hills, I switched to four-wheel-drive. Following this, I experienced a unique combination of oversteer and understeer—especially when making tight turns. The route to one of my friends’ homes involves a U-turn, which is where I feel this came to effect in its strongest form.
In the end, though, we all made it home safely.
Finishing Up
Even though this was a relatively boring and short adventure, I enjoyed it quite a lot. Additionally, I also enjoyed writing about it—as I always do when writing my stories. I hope you had a good time reading it as well 🙂