Turkey-Kabe Left Climbing (Day 116)

It felt good to be out of Jo.Si.To.  I don’t know why maybe it was just great to be back at the beach and the water was amazing.  Just so clear and blue.  LOVE IT.

We headed to the one of the closest climbing areas which were in Cirali Canyon.  We ended up at Kabe Left wall.

Since the stream was high is was a little hard to cross to we spent about 15 minutes tossing rocks in the river until it looked stable and I could rock hop across.  Since I had on 5.10 shoes and Anja was just wearing running shoes I hopped back across and took her pack across for her.

We warmed up on Supradyn 5.9 which was kind of slabby but ok. 

Then Anja wanted to get on Istanbul Sendromu 5.10d it had a tough move traversing to the right and she had to hang to get it.

I gave it a shot and had to hang at the crux too.  Drag another missed 6b onsight.

Then we moved to the right on the wall and got on Sedergine 5.10a.  It was a little thin in spots but ok.

Anja headed up it and checked out the 6c extensions onto some tufas but they were both just a little too hard and steep.

We rounded out the day on RBT 5.9.  None of the climbing was amazing but it was a real nice day walking next to the ocean and climbing above the river.  We were really enjoying .Cirali.

Turkey-Drive to Olympos (Day 115)

We settled up on the bill and Tobais was a little more relaxed and we agreed to pay one extra night (35 euro) for our early departure.  We also rented a car through them for 23 euro a day and a 7 euro charge to return the car at the airport.  This was a great rate as far as I could find.



Jo.Si.To menu.



Anja driving the rental car.  It was a piece of junk Fiat with like 130,000 km on it but whatever works for us.

We drove down the coast to Cirali the canyon just north of Olympos, Turkey.  It was on the beach and gorgeous!  We’d chose to wing the accommodations and checked a few hotels and checked there wifi in the room and download speed.  Anja checked out Hotel Odile and loved it and managed to talk them down to 50 euro per night. 

IT WAS AMAZING TO BE BACK IN A FULL TRUE WESTERN HOTEL ROOM!!! It is a little hard to express this. We’d had good accommodations but it was just so much nicer. Mind you this was not a deluxe hotel but it was just SO GREAT.

A truly normal bathroom so great.

Turkey- Magara (Day 114)

We again asked around about recommendations and were suggested the Cave about Climber’s Garden.  We checked out the guidebook and the cave had about 4 routes which sounded really nice.  Anja was laughing about a section in the guidebook about “not sun bathing at the crag” and “please remember this is a Muslim country and the locals may not be comfortable with climbers in bikinis.  Climbing in bikinis were pretty common but we’d never seen people sunbath at the crag.  Anja asked who would do this?

Sarkit on the left and Magara on the right.  The approach was easy about 10 minutes on the road and then 10 minutes on trail.

Magara looked really cool as we approached and not too busy.

Anja lead up Muhtar 5.9 without much problem.  It was kind of funny as she was climbing it was like the time in at 1-2-3 wall when I would look up at Anja and then look down and there would be another guide group.  The only difference this time it was Swedish people.  We soon were sharing the cave with about 15 Sweds. 

Well we found out about the sunbathing as a number of the Swedish women got to the crag and stripped down to bikinis to hangout on the warm rocks.

We were able to squeeze onto Mum Isiginda Yemek (left) 5.10c a 6b which didn’t look like much from the ground.

Once you got higher up and pulled onto the roof of the cave it got real good quick but I again missed a 6b onsight due to a hard anchor climb.  This was becoming all to common in Turkey and kind of a drag to have such hard anchor clips.

There were too many people in the cave so we shifted over to Sarkit to try a 6b+ tufa route we’d seen others on earlier.

The route was called Saxafon 5.11a/b and not any harder than the 7a from the day before but was just awesome with tufa features.  Anja came close to the onsight but couldn’t get the anchors clipped without hanging.

My effort on the climb was far lesser hanging at ever bolt but I still had a really fun climb and clipped the anchors no problem!  Oh wait that was because Anja had extended them with about 4 quickdraws.  Thanks baby.

Views from the crag.

We were pretty tired at that but I still jumped on Working Class 5.10b.  It was a kind of thin and balancy with a little hard, you guessed it, clip to the anchors.  Anja was done for the day and just ran up it on top rope and expressed she would not like leading the thin section.

Turkey-Alabalik (Day 113)

We rolled out of bed more excited about the climbing possibilities.

We enjoyed a breakfast of bread, cookie biscuits, and nutella we’d gotten at the market.

This morning we walked down to the mess hall and asked around some people where we should go and got recommended Alabalik (Salmon).  They said because it would be in the shade and not so hot.  Hot?  The temps were like in the 70’s serious that is too hot?

We got to the crag after a little navigation challenges and it was pretty busy which motivated us to “warm up” on 6b so I jumped on Alabalik 5.10d.  I hung pumped out on the crux.  Guess I’m still not leading 6b totally solid but Anja pulled through it no problem.

We then just started working our way left and jumped on No Gearrr 5.10b which went ok for both of us but the camera battery had died.  Drag.

A lady we had meet the day before said we should try Brazilia Carnaval 5.11a/b and that no moves were harder than the 6b we already did so I gave it a shot.  I made about 6 bolts of great climbing and then had to start hanging at every bolt but flailed my way up to the last bolt and got it clipped.  Now just the anchors to go but they were up and over a slab.  I pulled the moves to reach onto of the slab but now 4 ft above the last bolt I was going to take a poor fall if I slimed off the slab so I stepped back down and dropped onto the bolt to hang.  NO WAY I’m topping out that way.  I had spotted a bolt anchor for a different climb just a few feet left and up so I climbed and clipped them then pulled up to the anchor for my climb by bigger holds.  I was still proud to manage to clip the anchors on the first 7a I’d ever tried to lead.

Anja gave it a shot after me and made the last bolt clean and pulled up to the slab and so no way and did same as I did.  I squeaked out one last picture of Anja high on the climb.

After that we headed out to checkout the rest of the area and the only climb less than 6b which we found interesting was Baby Bat 5.10b so we jumped on that quick. 

After Baby Bat I packed up and walked over to check out a little cave quick and when I came back Anja was gone.  I ran around for about 30 minutes looking for her at the crag and the bathrooms and back to the base of Baby Bat.  Couldn’t find her, it was about 1.5 hours until sunset so I headed back to the bungalow hoping she had ditched me.  I got back to the bungalow and she had ditched me.  Of course she thought I had ditched her and I had headed back and was surprised to find I was not at the bungalow when she got back.  I lectured her about outdoor ethics a little.

OUTDOOR RULE: When outdoors if you lose your partner or the group always return to the last spot you saw each other.  This sort of error is common but can result in serious situations like if one person is injured or more simply if one person believes they are in the back of the group and is actually in the front trying to catch up.  Easy way to find yourself without a tent for the night.

Back at camp.

We made arrangements to head down to Olympos and climb in hopes that the wifi would be better down there.  We had to talk to Tobais about this and he gave us a line about their reservation policy was only a 20% refund for cancellation.  I started prepping for a fight over our early departure due to services not rendered due to the lack of wifi at times.  We’ll see how that go.  He seems reasonable but not very cool about providing poor service.

Turkey-Work day (Day 112)

We took a rest day and Anja worked and took a run.  We also worked out a plan to head down to Olympos and see if the wifi was better down there so we asked to talk to Tobias because we had made a reservation for the whole time.

Our bungalow.

The view from our deck.

Photo from Anja’s run.

She ran back up to the market.

Running back down.

Turkey-Trebenna West Middle (Day 111)

We checked out the guidebook a little more today and decided the coolest looking formations were at Trebenna so we headed over there. 5.10

Looking up at Trebenna West Middle.

We started on Flower Tower 5.9 and were pleased to find it straight forward climbing, fairly easy, and not too sharp.

Next we climbed Lycian Alpinist 5.9 and were again pleased with the quality of the climb.

We’ll 5.9 went well Anja thought, lets give 6b a shot since we could normally climb that in Asia so we tried Aquaduct 5.10d.  It was hard and Anja lowered off because some of the moves got stiff a little above the bolts.  I headed up and pulled through the moved to the top.

Since that didn’t go so great we went over to Lycian Highway 5.10a which a lot of people had been climbing.  It was more straightforward but had an awkward undercling. 

The undercling moved into a nice chimney move rest on the broken stalactite.

Last we gave 6a a shot and got on Bone Bridge 5.10c.  It was really good up to and through an undercling but then got bold and thin above the last bolt to the anchor.  This was becoming typical in Turkey and starting to get old.

Turkey-Right Cave Climbing (Day 110)

We were still jet lagged something awful from our over night airport stay but got up at about noon and went to the closest climbs.  They were about 100 ft behind our bungalow and sounded like a good warmup on 5c+ range climbing.

We started on Silvie’s Secret which felt hard, sharp and thin.

Then Pianist 5.10b.  It also felt hard, sharp and thin.

Then Lola 5.9.  Yep hard, sharp, and thin.

Anja had had enough of the sharp rock and called it a day.  I finished out on Sincap 5.10a.  It was a more fun but still a little sharp.  It was definitely an uninspiring day of climbing and we were left wondering if we should have come here.

Since we felt a little trapped at Jo.Si.To food wise we went for a 40 minute walk uphill to the town of Geyikbayiri to the market and to look for other guesthouses which have stable wifi.  On our way back down this doggie was sure I had something in the bag for him.

The town of Geyikbayiri.  We didn’t really find any better options than Jo.Si.To so we started considering other options.