Turkish Sea Cliffs: A New Frontier

I think it’s fair to say that for the deep water soloist, there ain’t no substitute for calm seas, warm water and sunshine. Our search for them is often rewarded by the Mediterranean region, with its virtually non-existent tides, settled weather, and prolific sea-cliff limestone. In all my travels and climbs around the ‘Med, I have found few better examples of deep water soloing perfection than the cliffs I discovered on Turkey’s south coast - along with Gavin Symonds and Julian Lines - earlier this year.

The country is hard to quantify, defying conventional measures of place and culture. It’s on the borders of Europe and Asia, with an application in place (dating back to 1987) to join the European Union. Turkey was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership of the EU at the Helsinki summit of the European Council in 1999. Despite these political links to Europe, in many ways the country feels more like Asia - with a largely Muslim population, a Middle-Eastern climate, and its proximity to Syria, Georgia, Iran and Iraq.

The development of rock climbing in Turkey is a relatively recent adventure, which has opened a enormous array of new potential to European climbers. For sport climbers, there’s the recently developed Geyikbayiri - a paradise of steep bolted limestone in the tradition of neighbouring Kalymnos. For the trad climber and big-waller, there are almost limitless opportunities in the Ala Daglar mountains of southern Anatolia. And for the deep water soloist, there are the crystal-clear waters of the Aegean Sea, in which water temperatures often hit twenty-degrees Celcius before the end of May – and reach a bath-like maximum by early October. Combine this with a limestone coastline extending for several hundred miles, and you have the recipe for a soloist’s utopia.

May 2008 saw the first (or first recorded) concerted effort to explore southern Turkey’s  coastal cliffs. The usual soloing parameters applied: ideally fifteen metres maximum height, plenty of deep water, and with the routes steep enough to miss everything when you take the plunge. The trip consisted of Julian Lines, Gavin Symonds and myself,  and our aim was to explore the 450km of coastline between Dalyan and the city of Antalya. The journey was undertaken by road, and consisted of driving, boat rental, walking, scrambling – and a large amount of swimming. We found a tremendous amount of new climbing, and there’s plenty more to find.The following photographic essay is a record of our findings. Hopefully, our adventures will be the beginning of a new wave of deep water soloing on Turkey’s enchanting Mediterranean coast. 

Taking to the high seas: in Turkey, you’ll always find a man who can. Just haggle a bit on the price of a boat for the day, and follow your nose. This photograph was taken near Dalyan on one of our first excursions by boat in search of climbable cliffs.

Our first discovery. We were tipped off about this crag in 2006, by a British climber who’d briefly swum to it from a boat. We spent a long day here, establishing a number of good new routes.

There’s no better way to explore than getting in the water. 20 degrees in late May - paradise!

Turkey’s breathtaking Aegean coastline: Gavin and Julian stand high above Butterfly Bay, south of Oludeniz.

 

Gavin Symonds on the finishing moves of the massive, 150m-long traverse of Turkish Rainbow (F7b), on the sea cliffs of Oludeniz. The area is steep, has good water, and is a maximum height of around 14m.

Further east now, and the beautiful cliffs at Patara Beach. This shows the very first ascent of Ottoman Jewel (F6b+), by Julian Lines - probably the best route we put up in our trip.

The line to the left of Ottoman Jewel at Patara Beach is here attempted by Gavin. The result? Take a look at the next picture! The project is still open…

The price of discovery. Gavin’s foot pops off a smear, he spins around in the air, and pirouettes towards the ocean.

Along the coast at Olympos, found a little south of the city of Antalya. We stayed here for two nights in the tree-house, seen here up on the right.

The astounding flowstone crag to the north east of Adrasan Bay, known as Yarasali. It’s approachable by boat only (unless you have ten hours to spare in thrashing through the jungle). The rock is superb, the tufas extend all the way down to the sea, and the water depth? Water-nervous folk need not apply - it’s rumoured to be around 400ft deep.

Drying out on board ship is a swift business under the Turkish sun: our rock shoes were ready to go again in about half an hour.

The author flails his way across the very steep buttress of Without Fail (F7b), on his second try. This route is found at Hanging Rock, close to Yarasali.

This tourist boat arrived just as Julian had completed the second ascent of the amazing The Persuader (F6c), at Yarasali. If you look closely, you’ll see him in the small ‘finishing cave’, up and right of boat’s bow.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can read more about Turkish deep water soloing on Juliet Scott's blog here.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PlanetFear media is exclusively funded by our online store. Please consider shopping with us for your latest outdoor gear: visit the planetFear shop here.