Olympos Climbing: Day 5
Oct. 19th, 2017 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylMost people seemed to be feeling a bit sparkier this morning. This might be because AH had some holistic healing from someone yesterday — it seemed to involve the laying on of hands and anointing with oils — or it might be because he was ordered to sit and meditate in the energy spot for half an hour a day, or it might simply be his immune system getting a grip on the dreaded lurgi. Gav, on the other hand, was in the grip of an acute recurrence and wasn't even sure he could make it to crag.
With everyone who could eat ready to depart, we set off to the crag above the beach for a second crack at some of the routes there. We warmed up on a couple of easy 5s, the first of which featured a annoying move which I misread somewhat, while the second involved a lot of nice bridging moves. My initial attempt on the second climb was not entirely without incident, although the send was clean. Embarrassingly, I z-clipped the second draw because the first two bolts were absurdly close together. Fortunately, the drag was so massive I noticed immediately and, because the bolts were so close, it was trivial to fix: just reach down and drop the first clip; if it'd been a harder route, I'd've reclipped, but as it was, I just left it and motored on for the flash.
We then moved to a 6a+ and a very short, very bouldery 6b+ along the cliff. With my confidence starting to come back, I powered up the 6a+ as if it was an indoor route, finding a neat early rockover with a gaston to stabilise it, then smearing through the next moves to get to the top in no time at all.
Everyone else had a go on the 6a+ but, with the exception of E, who cruised it, everyone else really struggled, including J. The rest of us left him to it and moved down to the 6b+. W made a couple of stabs at it, but couldn't get beyond the third move. I hopped on and worked the opening moves, coming up with a wide bridge that neither of the others — despite being much taller than me — were able to get. I then moved up to match hands on the tufa to the right — J has his left foot on it in the photo — complete the big rockover, and motor up the rest of the route. Feeling tired, I didn't commit to the last move — a nasty fingery thing — but instead shamelessly pulled on the draws to get to the top so that I could rethread and strip the route.
Despite feeling a little tired, I promised Newberry I'd try a 6b on top rope before calling it a day. I made a horrible mess of the short, bouldery first section, which I comprehensively misread, before really settling in and making light work of the second part of the route. I didn't do the whole thing clean because I didn't want to rip up my hands on the sharp first part again, but with hindsight, I should've dropped back down and restarted, because I'm sure I could've sent the route cleanly.
At 20:00 we clambered into a taxi which had been laid on to take us to the eternal flames of Yanartaş. After 20-30 minutes on the road, we stopped at a market to allow people to buy water and to allow J to rest his stomach (and to move to the overspill car with the guide). Coras laughed and told us that he and Newberry had walked here and that the town was actually just down the beach, by the crag they'd walked to yesterday, and although it seemed like we'd come a long way, it was actually only two miles from Kadir's.
We resumed our journey, eventually arriving at the chimaera site. We got a comprehensive description of the place in Turkish from the taxi driver — not the most helpful thing in the world, given our poor language skills — before setting out up the mountain to the place of the flames. The torchlight climb was amazing, mainly because there was almost no light pollution and the Milky Way was lit up like a dramatic scene above us. The flames, when they eventually appeared, were interesting, but not nearly as impressive as the sky.
Interesting though the flames were, they were just flames, and those of us who were tired — E lay down on the rocks like some sort of Wagnerian Brünnhilde — felt that the visit went on long past the point where it had been interesting, but we were still obliged to wait for the guide. After half an hour or so, we all trooped back down the mountain, loaded ourselves into the taxi, and endured the 45 minute drive back to the tree houses, arriving well after I'd normally have been in bed...
With everyone who could eat ready to depart, we set off to the crag above the beach for a second crack at some of the routes there. We warmed up on a couple of easy 5s, the first of which featured a annoying move which I misread somewhat, while the second involved a lot of nice bridging moves. My initial attempt on the second climb was not entirely without incident, although the send was clean. Embarrassingly, I z-clipped the second draw because the first two bolts were absurdly close together. Fortunately, the drag was so massive I noticed immediately and, because the bolts were so close, it was trivial to fix: just reach down and drop the first clip; if it'd been a harder route, I'd've reclipped, but as it was, I just left it and motored on for the flash.
We then moved to a 6a+ and a very short, very bouldery 6b+ along the cliff. With my confidence starting to come back, I powered up the 6a+ as if it was an indoor route, finding a neat early rockover with a gaston to stabilise it, then smearing through the next moves to get to the top in no time at all.
Everyone else had a go on the 6a+ but, with the exception of E, who cruised it, everyone else really struggled, including J. The rest of us left him to it and moved down to the 6b+. W made a couple of stabs at it, but couldn't get beyond the third move. I hopped on and worked the opening moves, coming up with a wide bridge that neither of the others — despite being much taller than me — were able to get. I then moved up to match hands on the tufa to the right — J has his left foot on it in the photo — complete the big rockover, and motor up the rest of the route. Feeling tired, I didn't commit to the last move — a nasty fingery thing — but instead shamelessly pulled on the draws to get to the top so that I could rethread and strip the route.
Despite feeling a little tired, I promised Newberry I'd try a 6b on top rope before calling it a day. I made a horrible mess of the short, bouldery first section, which I comprehensively misread, before really settling in and making light work of the second part of the route. I didn't do the whole thing clean because I didn't want to rip up my hands on the sharp first part again, but with hindsight, I should've dropped back down and restarted, because I'm sure I could've sent the route cleanly.
At 20:00 we clambered into a taxi which had been laid on to take us to the eternal flames of Yanartaş. After 20-30 minutes on the road, we stopped at a market to allow people to buy water and to allow J to rest his stomach (and to move to the overspill car with the guide). Coras laughed and told us that he and Newberry had walked here and that the town was actually just down the beach, by the crag they'd walked to yesterday, and although it seemed like we'd come a long way, it was actually only two miles from Kadir's.
We resumed our journey, eventually arriving at the chimaera site. We got a comprehensive description of the place in Turkish from the taxi driver — not the most helpful thing in the world, given our poor language skills — before setting out up the mountain to the place of the flames. The torchlight climb was amazing, mainly because there was almost no light pollution and the Milky Way was lit up like a dramatic scene above us. The flames, when they eventually appeared, were interesting, but not nearly as impressive as the sky.
Interesting though the flames were, they were just flames, and those of us who were tired — E lay down on the rocks like some sort of Wagnerian Brünnhilde — felt that the visit went on long past the point where it had been interesting, but we were still obliged to wait for the guide. After half an hour or so, we all trooped back down the mountain, loaded ourselves into the taxi, and endured the 45 minute drive back to the tree houses, arriving well after I'd normally have been in bed...
