Climbing Touchal peak

Mt. Tochal marks the southern boundary of the Alborz Mountains at Tehran's longitude. It rises over a sloped plain where the city of Tehran is located. The city ranges in elevation from around 1800 m at its northern end (where sprawl has driven the neighborhoods up the slopes as far as possible) down to1000 m at the southern end (where it approaches the margins of the central desert of Iran). The summit of Mt. Tochal (known as Sar Tochal) is a high point along the length of a 12 Km long ridgeline that is entirely above 3500 m (much of this ridgeline is higher than 3700m). While the eastern 8 Km of the ridgeline runs east-west and looms directly above northern Tehran, the western 4 Km takes a northwest-southeasterly direction and its view from north Tehran is blocked by lower peaks such as Palang Chal (3520 m) and Doshakh (3045 m) (see topomap).Besides the official summit, other peaks/high points can be defined on the crest of the ridgeline. The most notable of these is the 3876 m summit of Mt. Shah Neshin 3.75 Km to the west of Sar Tochal.