Aladağlar

PeaksNiğde,Türkiye

Turkey's climbing country: forty bare limestone summits above 3,500 metres in the Taurus, with high lakes that fill in July and vanish by September.

September·Peaking now

Jul–Sep

High summer is the full range: all routes run, from the Yedigöller crossing to the 350-plus bolted lines in Kazıklıali canyon and the north face of Demirkazık. Skies stay dry and near-rainless, though the Seven Lakes shrink to cracked mud by September.

Year-round The limestone walls, the karst gorges and the wild goats are here all year; the lakes, the birds and the snow are not.

Aladağlar is the climbing country of Turkey, and for half a century the maps were wrong about which of its summits is the highest. Forty-odd limestone peaks stand above 3,500 metres in the central Taurus, nearly all finishing in bare rock. Twice a day the range earns its name. At first light and again at dusk the low sun rakes the ridges, the grey rock flushes copper and rust while the valley floors stay black, and ala means mottled. The wall everyone knows is the north face of Demirkazık. Nobody climbed it until 1972, when an Australian and a New Zealander worked out a line up it. It still holds the hardest alpine routes in the country and keeps its ice into spring. On the scree at its foot you have hundreds of metres of bare limestone leaning over you. Kazıklıali canyon cuts two kilometres into the massif, its conglomerate walls giving you pockets and single-finger holds on 350 bolted routes. Walkers get the same mountains without a rope. The way in climbs the Emli valley through fir and juniper to Sokulupınar, a camp where herding families still spend the summer under canvas. Two more days of stony gorges bring you out on a cirque at 3,100 metres with seven lakes. By September six of them are cracked mud, and only Büyükgöl still has water. The goats on the cliffs above Demirkazık are bezoar ibex, the wild animal every domestic goat descends from. They are counted in December, when the rut brings the males off the rock to fight, and the last survey found 1,358. Birders leave the village at four in the morning for the Arpalık pastures and sit still: this is the classic ground in Turkey for Caspian snowcock. As for the high point: a retired colonel went back through the old survey sheets in 2007 and decided the numbers did not add up. Surveyors carried GPS to both summits, Kızılkaya came back at 3,771 metres against Demirkazık's 3,756, and several official pages still print the old figure.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The way in is Demirkazık village, above Çamardı — Sokulupınar is the road-head camp, and a rough track climbs on from there to the Arpalık pastures by tractor or pickup.
The Yedigöller crossing usually clears only in late June — go earlier and the passes still hold hard snow, which means an ice axe, crampons and someone who has been up there before.
Fill every bottle before you go high — this is limestone, so the streams sink into the rock, and between Sokulupınar and the plateau the springs are few and easy to miss.
There is no marked trail up here, only cairns and open karst — hidden sinkholes, loose scree and cloud that builds fast after noon; most parties hire a Çamardı guide for the plateau.
Give the herding camps a wide berth — the flocks on these pastures run with big loose guard dogs, so swing out around a camp, keep walking, and let the shepherd see you coming.
Scan the scree at first light — the wild goats feed low and in the open early, then climb into the cliffs and are all but invisible by mid-morning.

Things to do

1
Trek up the Emli valley to the Yedigöller lakes
The classic way in runs up the Emli valley through Taurus fir and juniper, with limestone walls closing in and the Parmakkaya pinnacle on the skyline. It ends at Sokulupınar, the camp on the grass where herding families still spend the summer under canvas. Two more days of stony gorges bring you out on the Yedigöller cirque at 3,100 metres, where you can pitch a tent by Büyükgöl, the one lake that never empties.
2
Stand under the north face of Demirkazık
Nobody climbed this wall until 1972, when an Australian and a New Zealander finally picked a line up it. Stand on the scree at its foot and hundreds of metres of bare limestone lean over you — still the hardest alpine routes in the country, and cold enough that the face keeps its ice into spring. The summit above was first reached in winter three years earlier, in 1969.
3
See the grey walls turn rust-red at first light
At dawn, and again at dusk, low sun rakes along the ridges and the grey limestone flushes copper and rust while the valley floors stay black. The range is said to owe its name to exactly this — ala, meaning mottled, many-coloured — and it lasts only a few minutes.
4
Climb the pocketed walls of Kazıklıali
A canyon cuts two kilometres into the massif, and both its walls are conglomerate: 80 to 90 metres of pockets, single-finger holds and overhangs, carrying more than 350 bolted routes from gentle warm-ups to open projects. It is the biggest sport-climbing venue in the range.
5
Wait for the snowcock above Arpalık
Birders leave the village around four in the morning, grind up to the Arpalık pastures at 2,200 metres and then sit still and listen. This is the classic place in Turkey to find Caspian snowcock, along with wallcreeper, crimson-winged finch and Radde's accentor.

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Nearby

79 km