Erciyes Summit Climb

Just before getting into bed at 00:30 I set my alarm for 04:45. With the excitement of the next day's activity I slept only half a night and woke at once when it rang; the hardest moment was leaving the warm bed. At 05:00 I met my teammates — six of us set off. We drove by car to the Zümrüt ski facilities; from there, with no road beyond and the cable cars not yet running, we began walking from this point (2,250 m) at 05:45. We aimed to summit via the Ridge Route, so we moved from the "Çoban İni" spot toward it; at the start of the ridge one friend gave up and turned back. We reached the top of the ridge's first ramp at 09:00 (3,305 m), where another teammate also turned back. Along the ridge we followed a long, undulating path; the view of Develi and the clouds forming along the way were superb. At 09:55 we reached 3,440 m, at 11:50 we reached 3,655 m and Hörgüç Rock — the biggest obstacle on the route, which we passed on its lower right, reaching 3,710 m by 12:30.

After this point the ground became entirely slippery, made of shattered stone, with a high chance of rocks breaking loose from above — and many did. This was the hardest part of the route and took us a full half hour to cross. Following the path toward the top, we reached 3,815 m and the summit at 13:02. Before us stood a sheer rock 101 metres high whose top is 3,916 m — the reason the mountain's summit is recorded as 3,916 m. At the summit there is a wholly different atmosphere: people sharing food, asking after one another's health, warm dialogue among strangers — truly enchanting. Roughly 20 others summited with us that day. The weather kept opening and closing; clouds suddenly wrapped around us, then the sun scorched our skin; Niğde, Yahyalı and Pınarbaşı were each visible on different sides. When the weather closed in, the strong wind froze us, and thick glaciers descended from the summit. The happiness mixed with tiredness I felt then is beyond description.

The summit register lay in a bag hidden under large rocks; we signed it, ate a few bites, watched the breathtaking view, phoned our loved ones to celebrate, and set off back. For the return we used "Cehennem Deresi" (Hell Creek), so named both because it is very steep and because its ground is made of shattered rock (çarşak). The creek narrows into a gorge, and all the loose rock reaches the ground through it, so climbers have no choice but to pass this way. The descent was very fast but very dangerous; in places we even had to "ski" over sand, and the crashing of rocks breaking loose from above was chilling. Climbers don't begin descending until those ahead have crossed, otherwise the earlier team's lives are endangered. We reached the Zümrüt facilities at 17:30 and finished the climb there. In total we walked 11 hours 45 minutes, climbing 10 km and descending 8 km (18 km in all).

Summit date: 18 August 2013. Summit time: 13:02. Summit team: Cihat Aydın, Muhammed Ali Koç, Bilgin Yazlık.