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jueves, 26 de junio de 2014

End of trip: Sarikaya and Aladaglar

Sadly yesterday I said goodbye to the beautiful country that have been my home for the last 5 months. Even if I didn't wanted  was time to return to see again physicaly my people and not through a skype screen. Have been 5 months of non stoping activity. Meeting new people, climbing, studying and discovering super cool new places, and obviously i've been enjoying my last days doing exactly the same.


This time the trip have been to one of the coolest places i've visited in Turkey. Maybe the place with the best sunset i've seen and probably one of the greatest places to climb where alpinism, multipitch, trad and sport climbing go together. This place is Aladaglar, an alpin massif of 3000 m mountains located like hundred kilometers at the north of Adana, where we spent 12 days basically climbing at Kazikli Vadisi and Cimbar valley, without forgetting to make a fast stop just some days before at Sarikaya, where I sent the bouldery arete called Umagumma, a really solid 8a, and Gamze a fucking hard powerfull 7b+ for wich i don't remember the name.


In our 12 days we set our "base camp" in the little town called Demir Kazik at the Ordos Mountain House (So much thanks for letting us stay there!), from where we were able to reach both valleys with not more than 10 minutes of car. My aim this trip was try something harder, to push me a little bit further, and I was super excited with the nice looking of the super big cave located at Kazikli Ali. Unluckly some days before was raining a lot in Aladaglar, so the routes in the cave were super wet and with a lot of mud in the big holds. From this point I started to search for other hard projects in other nice sectors but outside the cave there weren't so much, and the few i checked had bird  nests or bee hives in the holds, so finally I changed my objective to just climb lots of routes. Some of the most notable sends I did where the bouldery and hard Lanet 7c, The super long Trans Aladaglar 7c+, Misyoner another 7c+ that felt really hard, Kirim Kongo 8a and Nebukat nezar 7c+, which felt too easy for the grade and in my opinion are 7c+ and 7c, and the one that I enjoyed the most, and for which i want to congratulate Recep (the bolter) is Master Papets, a 35m 8a "King Line" I was able to climb in my 4th try after sticking the slippy crimp of on the second crux!

Also Gamze sent hard routes these days like the Cehennem bekçisi 7b+ (really hard in my opinion) and the physical Nebukat Nezar 7c+ after testing some interesting tricks to dry the crux hold!


In Cimbar valley, we only climbed there one day, but better to don't tell my disaster day. Let's just say that wasn't my best day climbing and we finished playing in some easy adherence slab routes at the afternoon. Even that, the little trekking inside this amazing limestone canyon, made me realize the super big potential that this place have, and also made me dream for new future projects. Sure I will return! :)



I would like to finish this post giving a big teşekkürler to all the people I met these days and made this 5 months the best of my life. Also I want to specially thank Gokçe and the people from the Ege climbing gym for letting me train there to don't finish my erasmus fat like a cow and letting me discover Kaynaklar, The "ankara climbing crew" and Emrah for the belays and the beta sharing, and Gamze also for the long belays, the "hobbit" methods sharing, and specially for showing me the fucking paradise that Aladaglar is. For all of you I wish the best luck in the world and I wish we will meet again any day even in Turkey or Catalonia, and  you know that you have a guide and an open house to come to climb in Catalonia.
So much thanks :)



lunes, 2 de junio de 2014

Shady Sarikaya

Sometimes shit happens, and this time at the beggining of the month the Kalymnos trip had to be cancelled, what doesn't means that climbing has stopped.

Even if the lasts three days has been raining, last month, the heat has increased a lot. Kaynaklar sectors where we were developing our activity, now are like a fucking furnace and is practicaly impossible to climb without the sensation that you are slipping even if you are holding a jug. Luckly Izmir has more to offer than Kaynaklar. Just at the north-west of the city before arriving to Manisa, there is a windy place called Sarikaya where you can find shady sectors before one o'clock and where despite being in Turkish May/June you should be prepared to be cold.

Sarikaya is basically an endurance limestone crag with routes about 20 to 45 meters long, where you can find climbs from 6b to 8b being 7's the most common grade. Maybe at first the rock can seem a bit fragile and broken, but the quality and the movment of some of the routes will make any visit being awarded with a perfect climbing day. 


In Sarikaya I invested my last four climbing days, where I did various routes between 6b to 8a, for which i would remark Kybele 7b+/7c in two tries which felt really hard for the grade, Karnivor 8a in 5 or 6 tries which is basically a good powerfull endurance testpiece that also Gamze sent after an impresive fight, and Dharma 8a in 3 tries despite i'm not sure if it's really an 8a or a 7c+. Anyways for me was the best of the three and the one that I enjoyed more :)  

Now it's time to finish my last 4 days of class here, and then being prepared to see where i can go in my last 23 days here in Turkey before returning to Catalonia.