Türkiye Radyo Amatörleri Cemiyeti

TRAC Ordu Şubesi tarafından işletilen 145.600 Karagöl dağı rölemizin bulunduğu 3107m Rakımlı Dağ zirvesinden Uzun mesafe görüntüleme/gözlemleme meraklısı Slovakya’dan Richard Jezik ülkemizden Rusya kıyılarını ve özellikle Elbrus dağını (5642m) görüntülemek üzere bir süre önce bizim ile irtibata geçmiş, nihayet 19-20 Mayıs’ta bu rekor denemesini yapmasına yardımcı olmuştuk. Belirtilen tarihte kar ile kaplı tepeye ulaşmak da bir o kadar meşakkatli olmuş, Rekor denemsi ise başarılı olmuştu. Yine aynı çalışama günü 19 Mayıs Atatürk’ü Anma Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı olması sebebi ile Özel gün çevrimi zirveden yapılmıştı.

Bu hobinin ayrıntılarını Richard’ın kaleminden okuyabilirsiniz. Ayrıca aşağıdaki linklerden orijinal fotoğraflara ulaşabilirsiniz. 73!

Long distance observations from Karagöl Dağı

I'm Richard Jezik from Slovakia, and my hobby is long distance observations and photographing them, since around 2018. In 2020 I found out possibility of seeing Caucasus mountains from Karagöl in Ordu region, Türkiye. After year of analyzing weather in area of eastern part of Black Sea, in early 2024 I started watching weather conditions waiting for situation when it's possible to see Caucasus. It took almost whole year, in December 2024 I finally saw possibility, so I travelled for the first time to Turkey, and spent whole night on summit above Sağrak Gölü (3035m) - because of weather I didn't want to risk long journey to main summit. At sunrise I was able to photograph Caucasus mountains in low quality. Conditions were very hard, strong wind and low temperature (-13°C), descending back to Aksu (Dereli) village was big challenge, wind threw me away many times. I'm very thankful to local people, mainly Halil from Sağrakgöl Yaylası for helping me with getting from village to Giresun.

You can find the first experience photos from December 2024 here.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jw3BNQr43rVNhA9s9

I knew I have to return here but to main Karagöl summit and preferably at more comfortable weather conditions. For safety I didn't want to go alone, in December it was very dangerous. Luckily I was able to contact people from TRAC ORDU - mainly Hüdaverdi GÜNEŞ TA7OM who, even before visiting mountain helped me with informations about summit conditions and possible try of photographing long distance horizons when weather conditions are favorable. We agreed that when I will see good weather, I will tell and he will help me with getting safely to the summit and back. After some months I saw on 16th May 2025 that weather forecast predict favorable conditions for photographing Caucasus mountains, so I bought flight tickets, hotel and wrote to Huda TA7OM that during early morning on 20th May 2025 there is chance of seeing Elbrus and other distant mountains.

On 18th May 2025 evening I successfully landed in Ordu-Giresun Airport, where I was warmly welcomed by Huda and Mehmet, and we talked about details of trip to Karagöl summit. Next day me, Huda TA7OM and Hasan TA7SSB met and went with long car ride to Karagöl, Hasan TA7SSB is very skilled driver and we managed to get into 2574m altitude by car. Weather was good, no wind and some clouds around. Terrain was also good, I didn't even had to put crampons from my bag, snow was wet and it was often possible to go on rocks instead of snow. With all pauses and breaks (and picking up water) it took us 4 hours from car to the Karagöl summit. Recorded GPS track of ascent is here. Huda and Hasan went busy with transmitter maintenance and I was busy with finding good place for making photographs. Immediately after reaching summit it was cloudy and there was not much to be seen, but it was slowly improving and before sunset conditions were good enough to start photographing.

After sunset I managed to photograph Erciyes Dağı and Dütmen Dağı (Alaçam) and with visibility to Black Sea I was optimistic for morning. I did also some night photography but didn't like it much. At evening I helped a little with preparation of wood so we spend night in warm cottage. I didn't expect to be that comfortable, usually in European Alps in such altitude I'm happy that wind isn't blowing directly to my face. Here we had warm food, tea and good connection with other people thanks to TA7OM radio and transmitter (in case something bad would happen is this very useful). A lot of work was done with bringing all equipment and cottage to the summit, I'm very thankful to everyone who helped with this, in worse weather it can save lives. After not very long sleep, around 2 hours before sunrise I went out of cottage and prepared my camera equipment. With sky on horizon starting to glow, I managed to photograph whole Caucasus range from Mount Fisht (near Sochi town) to Ushba in Georgia. Elbrus was big enough to be visible with naked eye and I'm glad I could show this beautiful panorama to Huda TA7OM and Hasan TA7SSB, they came out of cottage little bit later but still before sunrise. At morning Huda and Hasan made final maintenance and preparation of transmitter and cottage and we started descending. Temperature was around -2°C, snow was frozen and walking on it was very easy. With short stop near the lake we got to car in 1,5 hours. Descending went on this GPS track.

I'm very thankful for time spent with TRAC Ordu members and huge effort they made so I enjoy my visit of Türkiye as much as possible. It's very nice part of the world and I'm glad I got oportunity to bring nice and rare photographs of horizons that can't be seen very often. Theoretically, during winter it's possible to see Caucasus from Karagöl summit as white strip of mountains above Black Sea, but weather conditions for this are even more rare and getting to the summit during winter is very challenging. I hope I will get oportunity to visit this beautiful region during such conditions.

You can find the original photos here;
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kveCg87hEtSFpKS3A

Theory of long distance observations

Because of curvature of Earth, both observer and object must be at sufficient altitude so line of sight goes above Earth surface, and there should be no other mountains that may be blocking view between. Karagöl Dağı is unique because of Black Sea and optimal distance to Caucasus, where distance to Elbrus is 474 km. For example, from Mount Everest, highest mountain on earth, theoretical maximum visibility is only 455 km and because of dirty air over India it's not possible to photograph it. There are only two places on Earth where it's possible to see even more distant mountains than from Karagöl, and both are iny my opinion not feasible (Tarim Basin - Asia, Pico Cristóbal Colón - Colombia - South America).

Simulation of Karagöl panorama is on link Here.

Line of sight trajectory from Karagöl to Elbrus - can be seen why Caucasus mountains are not visible from Ordu - line of sight would not go above Black Sea.

Other example is photograph of Erciyes Dağı - despite it's closer than Elbrus (320 km), because of other mountains blocking view only highest parts of Erciyes are visible and if observer move only slightly, it won't be visible anymore. Karagöl is farthest point from where Erciyes Dağı is visible.

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Richard Jezik, Slovakya