Climbing in Turkey was such a great experience. The word that can summarize everything in my head is variety. The country offers great variety in almost every aspect – type of rock, type of climbing, atmosphere, climate, altitude, etc. For sure climbing there is not visiting crags, climbing and than going back to the camp or something like this. It is a complete experience that is quite memorable for me.

In brief, we spent 21 days in Turkey, hitch-hiking from place to place and climbing. A few times we have locals with us, but most of the time we were on our own.

The climbing society in Turkey is quite different from what you are used to see, if you are a European. First of all, it is quite small compared to the size of the country. Turkey is 80 million people and climbers according to me are not much more than in my own country Bulgaria with population less than 8 million people. Here is a good example, in Ankara, which is the capital and it is about 4 million people there are only 2 climbing walls. One in the university and another one maintain by AKUT, which is the local mountain rescue team. Another good example is the city of Kayseri, which is located in the foot of Erciyes mountain and with population of more than 1 million people, but according to the local climbers they all know each other and they are really trying to built a climbing wall there.

Well, yes climbing is not super commercial there, though u can find sites that offer climbing as a touristic activity, and you can hire a guide to take to Ararat peak or around DemirkazIk mountain, still it is not like in Europe.

On the other hand, people that we met there were really amazing with strong and pure attitude toward climbing and mountains. Most of the climbers do not look at climbing as weekend activity or hobby. Moreover, they really look at it as lifestyle that gives them mental and physical development. This was very motivating for me. It is not often to meet people fully devoted to trad climbing and I mean pure trad climbing, where you or really have to push hard if you want to progress and to be inventive and creative. A good example for this was the wooden hex that I saw amongst the gear of Nuri - a climbing friend from Kayseri.

Visiting Nuri`s back yard or what he calls his back yard was also quite impressive. It is a trad climbing crag called HisarcIk, located in a basalt canyon up in the foot of Erciyes mountain. What differs this place from anything else is that there is no bolting, no pitons, no belay chain, no nothing, only solid basalt and great variety of cracks. Local climber are really struggling to preserve the place as it is and climb only with the protection of nuts, cams and hexes.

Moreover, the high climbing motivation is not seen only in the trad climbing believes in many of the climbers there. Even amongst the beginners and pure sport climbers you see different point of view toward climbing. It is great to see a group of young people at the university climbing wall in Ankara that are doing homework and climbing. Hah, it is funny yep! A few math problems and than a few boulder problems. The group of boys that we met near CakIt vadisi were even more interesting, 5 boys with two harnesses, 1 pair of climbing shoes, one rope and a few slings. They make a top-rope and than all of them climbing one after another trying to improve the time for ascent.

Also there are many foreigner operating in Turkey, going there for first ascents, developing crags, running climbing facilities. A good example is Gayik Bayir. A great place for climbing and a good camping for climbers. The place is near Antalya and with its more than 400 well-maintained routes it is getting world fame now. There are foreigners running accommodation venue near Aladaglar mountain and opening new sport routes in Cimbar valley. A very good sign of the powerful presence of foreign climbers in Turkey and especially in Aladagler mountain is that the guidebook for the alpine routes was firstly published in English and afterwards it was translated and republish in Turkish.

Many things can be said about climbing in Turkey and many different points of view can be heard, like any other country different interests are facing each other on the rocks...drawing the modern face of climbing in Turkey.