Olympos Climbing: Day 3
Oct. 17th, 2017 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylEven as I was going to bed last night, it was clear that things were not going well: C, my roommate, was feeling ill and, thanks to the thin partitions, between the rooms, it was evident that someone else was busy being horribly sick elsewhere in the block. Sure enough, dawn and breakfast confirmed my suspicions: C was still in bed; E was nowhere to be seen; K said that W had had a bad night and she wasn't feeling too good either; AH was down with d&v; and J was still suffering from the illness that had struck him down the previous day.
Very thin on the ground, AB, H and I accompanied Rhos, Gav and Newberry to a crag close by the road to the beach where the other group had gone on day one. I told Gav to look on the bright side: he could now tell people that their holidays gave people one-to-one tuition with the UK's best climbers. I managed to get most of the way up a 6b+ before messing up and popping off. Around mid-afternoon, Coras arrived with a slightly healthier looking J. I spent the rest of the day being belayed by Coras, who was on a rest day, working a 6a+ which I should've been able to send but which I kept on making more and more of a mess of.
While Rhos was up on the route, we got talking to a couple of hitch hikers who'd wandered up to the crag to ask about the options for climbing in the Olympos area. Newberry suggested they ask at activity centre at Kadir's, where they could hire gear and a get a guide for the day, although the hikers were clearly angling for one of us to offer to take them out for free.
While Rhos finished her route, the rest of us stepped across the road for food and drink at one of the restaurants — the poor server struggled with the fact that we (a) were very disorganised; and (b) didn't speak any Turkish, but she patiently put up with us and sorted out our food order like a master. I had chips — truly superb — while the others had a mixture of things form spaghetti to kebabs, before we returned to the wall.
The first time, A came off because he shot blind for a pocket without getting his heel on. The second time, he used a heel hook on the righthand tufa to keep himself stable while he slapped for the pocket with a huge power scream and sent the route.
After returning to the tree houses for supper, I was forced to confront the fact that I wasn't feeling well. My stomach was a bit gurgly and I felt very cold all of a sudden — and not just because the temperature had dropped after sunset. Feeling pretty terrible, I went back to the room and shivered my way to sleep.
Very thin on the ground, AB, H and I accompanied Rhos, Gav and Newberry to a crag close by the road to the beach where the other group had gone on day one. I told Gav to look on the bright side: he could now tell people that their holidays gave people one-to-one tuition with the UK's best climbers. I managed to get most of the way up a 6b+ before messing up and popping off. Around mid-afternoon, Coras arrived with a slightly healthier looking J. I spent the rest of the day being belayed by Coras, who was on a rest day, working a 6a+ which I should've been able to send but which I kept on making more and more of a mess of.
While Rhos was up on the route, we got talking to a couple of hitch hikers who'd wandered up to the crag to ask about the options for climbing in the Olympos area. Newberry suggested they ask at activity centre at Kadir's, where they could hire gear and a get a guide for the day, although the hikers were clearly angling for one of us to offer to take them out for free.
While Rhos finished her route, the rest of us stepped across the road for food and drink at one of the restaurants — the poor server struggled with the fact that we (a) were very disorganised; and (b) didn't speak any Turkish, but she patiently put up with us and sorted out our food order like a master. I had chips — truly superb — while the others had a mixture of things form spaghetti to kebabs, before we returned to the wall.
The first time, A came off because he shot blind for a pocket without getting his heel on. The second time, he used a heel hook on the righthand tufa to keep himself stable while he slapped for the pocket with a huge power scream and sent the route.
After returning to the tree houses for supper, I was forced to confront the fact that I wasn't feeling well. My stomach was a bit gurgly and I felt very cold all of a sudden — and not just because the temperature had dropped after sunset. Feeling pretty terrible, I went back to the room and shivered my way to sleep.
