I’ve been putting off writing this blog because my camera went kaput just as we were starting up the mountain so I have no photos of what was the reason to travel to Hakkari: climbing Sümbül Dağı. Of course, my climbing partners took photos, and I’ve posted some here, but I was somewhat disappointed with their photos.
Hakkari is Turkey’s most southeastern province, bordering both Iraq and Iran. Due to security issues, there are sometimes travel restrictions in place, and indeed when we were here, we weren’t allowed to travel to Yüksekova and needed special permission from the jandarma to climb Sümbül Dağı. I believe the road between Hakkari and Şırnak was also off-limits at the time.
As far as the climb, well, the last 500m vertical was a fun wide couloir climb, all on snow. We should have great photos, but it seems folks may have been a bit nervous on the steep snow to take many photos. The views from the summit of the mountains to the east toward Iran and to the south toward Iraq were fantastic, yet the only summit photos that anyone took were looking west toward the city of Hakkari. 🙁
Here are Naci Abi and Deniz, signing the summit register with the provincial capital below:
and the only photo of the fun, long couloir:
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