Sonoma County men ready for ‘Peace Climb’ in Iran

Mount Damavand, the tallest peak in Middle East, is the latest goal of the group Climbers for Peace.|

On a clear day, the view from the rocky pinnacle of Mount Damavand, the highest peak in the Middle East, takes in the Caspian Sea 43 miles north on the Iranian coast.

At 18,605 feet, the air at Damavand’s summit is thin, often tainted with the scent of sulfur emitted from cracks around a small volcanic crater.

But Fred Ptucha of Santa Rosa, a retired financial advisor and mountaineer who intends to stand atop Damavand in September, is intent on much more than making it to the top of another of the planet’s noted peaks.

The view sought by Ptucha, a 74-year-old Vietnam War veteran, is one of a world more at peace, starting by creating a bond with the Iranian climbers who will accompany his group of 11 westerners up the mountain in another case of what activists call “citizen diplomacy.”

“That’s the point of the whole deal,” he said. “The climb is incidental.”

Despite harsh rhetoric from President Donald Trump, who has called Iran “the biggest sponsor of terrorism around the world,” Ptucha thinks now is an opportune time to forge bonds with the country, two months after President Hassan Rouhani’s landslide electoral victory in what was considered a setback for the Shiite Muslim nation’s hardliners.

Rouhani was an architect of the nuclear deal the Obama administration negotiated with Iran in 2015, which Trump often promised to abrogate but agreed Monday to re-certify while also imposing new sanctions for non-nuclear activities.

“I really feel we’re in good hands,” Ptucha said, deflecting concerns about his own safety and describing Rouhani as the head of “a sensible, moderate government.”

Risky travel destination

The State Department still advises U.S. citizens to “carefully weigh the risks” of travel to Iran, noting that authorities there “continue to unjustly detain and imprison” visitors, particularly Iranian-Americans like Jason Rezaian, the journalist from Marin County freed in January 2016 after 18 grueling months of captivity in Iran.

But Ptucha’s group, Climbers for Peace, appears to have good friends in very high places.

Bahman Baktiari, head of the International Foundation for Civil Society in Salt Lake City, Utah, his college friend, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations formed a chain of connections that led to a formal invitation from the Iran Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation and entry visas for the Americans, who are currently banned from visiting Iran.

Group’s 11th adventure

So on Sept. 23, Ptucha plans to depart for Iran as leader of the 11th expedition by the group he co-founded in 1997, which has accomplished Peace Climbs on Mount Elbrus in Russia, Mount Rainier in Washington and Mount Olympus in Greece, among other peaks.

Damavand, a graceful volcanic cone cloaked in snow much of the year and often likened to Japan’s Mount Fuji, stands about 50 miles from Tehran and is usually visible from the Iranian capitol. Considered a “potentially active” volcano, Damavand last erupted in 5300 BC.

The way up is steep but no technical skills, ropes or other special equipment are needed, with guides leading the way and mules carrying the luggage.

“It’s not a walk in the park,” Ptucha said, likening Damavand to climbing 14,179-foot Mount Shasta - “plus 4,440 feet,” he said, at heights that make breathing difficult in cold, thin air.

His group consists of two other local men - Ted Sexauer of Sonoma and Matt Brown of Petaluma - five from Salt Lake City, Utah; one each from Nevada and Georgia; and one American living in England.

They will climb along with members of the Iran mountaineering federation and plan to send photos around the world of themselves holding American and Iranian flags at the summit, emblematic of the friendship and mutual trust they have forged, Ptucha said.

Greg Paul of Salt Lake City, who will climb with his son, Kevin, last year became the first person to summit Mount Everest on two artificial knees.

Sexauer, a Sonoma peace activist and Vietnam War veteran as an Army combat medic, said his 71-year-old knees will keep him off the mountain and among the Iranian people.

“It’s a diplomatic mission,” he said. “It lets people there know there are people like them here.”

Brown, 38, editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier, a seasoned climber and world traveler, said he considers the trip to Iran as an “amazing adventure.”

“Having the opportunity to be among the only Americans to be allowed into Iran within the past year, and to do it in the name of peace, is the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.

A ‘small gesture’

After eight days on Damavand, the westerners will spend a week seeing the sights of Iran and meeting with citizens.

As a “small gesture,” Ptucha said the group hopes to lay a wreath at a memorial for the nearly 1 million Iranians killed during the nation’s eight-year war with Iraq, which invaded its neighbor in 1980.

The Peace Climb won’t prevent a U.S. war with Iran, feared in some circles, but by demonstrating the possibility of kinship between the two peoples, it may make it “one-tenth of 1 percent less likely,” Ptucha said.

To bring the experience full circle, Ptucha said his organization plans to bring a group of Iranians to California next summer for a Peace Climb at Mount Shasta and visits to places like Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park and Silicon Valley.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.

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