Ilgaz’ Küçük Hacet

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Bryan Keith

For New Years week I went to Ankara to spend some time with Gezginder friends.  That’s the name of one of Ankara’s hiking/outdoor groups, like TODOSK in Antalya.  Banu and Deniz were busy working on their theses, but Sabiha, Pınar, and Ateş were able to get away for the weekend to climb Küçük Hacet in Ilgaz.  We went by bus a few hours (2-3?) north of Ankara to the Çankırı/Kastamonu border and left the main road at Ilgaz Geçidi, a pass that Julie and I had climbed on our bikes (from the Black Sea side) 15 years ago.

I was curious how much I’d remember about the road from the pass to Çankırı since I’m pretty sure Julie and I used the same road.  Ha, nothing!  It looks like it must have been a big fun descent, but I have no recollection of it.  I’m thinking about going back to Çorum this year for some cycling — guess I don’t have to worry about a seen-this-all-before feeling!

There were about 8 of us on the Küçük Hacet climb, and most of us signed up because we were excited to climb in snow and use our crampons and ice axes.  Well, there’s still very little snow in Ilgaz this year.  The small ski resort there must be running on a tiny base.  I’ve heard they have the same problem at the ski areas in Bolu, Isparta, Antalya, and İzmir.  Hopefully it’s been snowing more in eastern Turkey since I have a ski trip planned there in March.

We had a casual start from Ankara Saturday morning and that day only walked a couple kilometers from the main road to the spot where we made camp.  We camped in the snow, but it certainly wasn’t cold like Colorado winter camping.  The weather that week was quite mild, but also the elevation was fairly low: 1800m at camp, 2500m at the summit.

DSCN9451 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Isparta’s Barla Dağı

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Bryan Keith

Barla Dağı (2800m) is in Isparta, not far from beautiful Eğidir Gölü.  I joined TODOSK for a weekend ascent of this peak a couple months ago.  I had been with TODOSK on a number of their crowded (40-100 people) Sunday hikes and also on a couple rock climbing days, but I had never been for one of their “mountaineering” (dağcılık) weekends before.  It was a little too regimented for my taste (“walk single file”, “you’re not using your poles correctly”).  I found being at the back was better because fewer people can see you and criticize you.  However, one time I stopped to pee, and the sweep radioed ahead to the leader to tell him to slow down the already terribly slow pace.

DSCN9268 by bryandkeith on flickr

Still it was a fun weekend.  We did some touring on the way to the mountain, including a stop in İslamkoy, the village where former prime minister Süleyman Demirel was born.  There’s a museum complex and library which in my own humble opinion will be interesting to very few people.

We had a more interesting stop in Isparta, a provincial capital I had never visited before.  Unfortunately my camera was buried in my pack which was itself buried in the back of the minibus so I didn’t get any photos.  I’ll have to remember to get a small bag handy during these trips.  In that regard the others were more prepared than I was.

We had one night at camp (car camping) and then got a very early start the next morning for the short easy walk up the mountain.  I’m not sure why we walked for two hours in the dark in the morning when we could have comfortably done the whole walk during the light.  The weather (and weather forecast) was perfect.
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Çalbalı, a short hike near Antalya

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Bryan Keith

One of the prominent but not very high peaks to the west of Antalya is Çalbalı Dağı.  It’s only 1650m, low enough that it still has trees on top.  It looks like there could be good climbing routes to the summit, but most people simply walk to the top.  Indeed even the trad climbing guide book that I have for Antalya doesn’t list any climbing routes on Çalbalı Dağı.

Ahmet who I’ve cycled with and been up a couple mountains with was nominally our guide for our short walk up Çalbalı.  I think he’s been up the peak dozens of times.  He said at one point that he climbs it almost every month.  I imagine that’s an exaggeration.  In addition to Ahmet were Terry and Cemalettin and a couple Turks visiting from Kayseri who I hadn’t met before.

Here are a few photos from our hike:

DSCN9165 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Kurban Bayramı — Turkish Thanksgiving?

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Bryan Keith

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday in the US.  Sure, a lot of turkeys are sacrificed, but it’s really all about a time to get together with friends and family and eat and drink and talk.  My first experience spending Kurban Bayramı with a Turkish family reminded me of US Thanksgiving.  Here, however, we give thanks for not being a sheep (or a goat or maybe even a cow).  Another difference is that there’s not as much as drinking in Turkey.  Indeed one friend told me that in his family they ate a chicken on Kurban Bayramı because they wanted to drink rakı with their holiday meal.

Chickens and rakı?  That probably needs some explanation.  Kurban Bayramı in English is Sacrifice Holiday or something like that.  It’s a religious holiday in origin celebrated 40 days after the end of Ramadan or something like that.  The animal (a sheep, goat, or cow) is sacrificed as an offering to Allah (I’m really going out on a limb here) and since Muslims aren’t supposed to drink alcohol, they’re particularly not supposed to drink alcohol with the sacrificed animal.  Following this logic (is there any logic to follow here at all?) if you want to drink alcohol with your animal, make it a chicken.  I suppose a pig would work just as well, but good luck finding a pig in Antalya.

I met Hatice in the morning at the covered pazar near her house.  I think it was her brother-in-law, Tuncay, or maybe her father who was at the pazar at 4am to get in line for the butcher.  They bargained for the sheep (one for Tuncay and one for Hatice’s father) and got tags 25 and 26, indicating the order for the butcher.  It was after 9am by the time the butchers were slitting the throats of our sheep.  The sacrifice is done with such little ceremony that I wonder why they bother.  Most of the Turks I know, including Hatice, think it’s a gruesome, out-dated practice sort of like what the Mexicans now think of bull-fighting.  Once again PETA wasn’t there.

DSCN9063 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Eight hours in Düsseldorf

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Bryan Keith

On my trip west Air Berlin was nice enough to give me an overnight in Berlin where I was able to see Antje.  On the way back, however, it was eight hours in Düsseldorf which I wasn’t really looking forward to.  It turns out, however, that getting from the Düsseldorf airport to the city center is quite easy.  Sitting across from me on the train into the city center were three Russians fortifying themselves with vodka at 8am.  Had I known how cold and deserted the city would be at this early hour I might have asked to join them.

DSCN9025 by bryandkeith on flickr
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