it was my first time in niğde aladağlar but then I came there so many times it's the best place that I liked!I would like to be there...!with my buddy attila...

another heavenly day in Demirkazik waiting for good weather to climb. . .

Climbing on the classic route of Demirkazik (3756m), september 94. Not a technical route, but with plenty of exposure around 4K meters.

Resurrection Story: In a late afternoon in 94, I placed a cup of hot tea on a blank envelope. Later, I figured that all the slides from the last climb was inside this envelope, still in plastic waiting to be framed. Melted plastic merged with the film, and it was a mess. I never showed these slides to anybody after this destruction, but I also never could throw them away. Years later, in a procrastinating state of mind, trying to do something else but my thesis, I sit down to work on this slide. With the help from DICE I manage to get an almost clean scan, and cleaned the rest in PS. The other lost slide is here

Climbing on the classic route of Demirkazik (3756m), september 94. Not a technical route, but with plenty of exposure around 4K meters. In late september, day light is short, weather is still warm but not dependable, and winter is just around the corner.

Resurrection Story: In a late afternoon in 94, I placed a cup of hot tea on a blank envelope. Later, I figured that all the slides from the last climb was inside this envelope, still in plastic waiting to be framed. Melted plastic merged with the film, and it was a mess. I never showed these slides to anybody after this destruction, but I also never could throw them away. Years later, in a procrastinating state of mind, trying to do something else but my thesis, I sit down to work on this slide. With the help from DICE I manage to get an almost clean scan, and cleaned the rest in PS. The other lost slide is here

A view from the top of Direktas

our best friend super psycho before climbing

you would swim after climbing in direktash lake

emler summit(3723) has an easy rote and a beatiful view

I finally had time to process the films waiting since the summer. My favorite place from Turkey Aladaglar, another shot from the same series and yet another panorama. This 360 degree image contains the climbing target, the camp, where did we come from, and detorating weather all in one image.

tech mumbo jumbo: It is 13 images shot vertically at 19mm using tmax400 b&w film. I scan them at medium resolution, not to bring my computer to its knees. None of the programs I tried could make the panorama, 19 mm is a bit too much deformed at the edges. Heck, shooting without a tripod did not help either I guess. I created 7 partial panoramas using 3 images each time, and blend them together in PS. Some paint work required, but I manage to get the complete panorama. The final image is 10000x2000.

The image being 360 degrees, I actually have the opportunity to play with the order of items, alternative frames could be seen here, here, or here.

The title credit goes to mingleefu.

I have hiked the trail from the main road into the Emli valley far too many times. Nowadays, joints hurt more and time is sparse, so a quick tractor ride into the hearth of the mountain range does the trick. Although I might say, that this ride alone might be the most scariest part of the trip, huh.

This (almost) 360 degree image is put together using 10 wide angle images. Some hand painting required, since I shoot the images without stopping the jumpy ride.

olive looks seriously concerned, i guess she is expecting me to fall from the tractor anytime.

At the end of the Emli valley in Aladaglar, a bowl of peaks will surround you. After many years and many visits, this place never ceases to amaze me. On the right, the amazingly beautiful Parmakkaya (aka fingerrock) is visible, which we intended to climb from its classic (easiest) route. The weather seemed pretty bad, yet we continued to our climb, hoping to get a window of climable weather. After three days of rain and wind, we had to turn back. Olive in the picture, is carrying heavy loads of trad gear to our camp.

Tech note: The image(s) are shot with a 19mm lens on tmax400 b&w negative. I stiched 2 images, yet working with 19mm has its problems. I have a hardtime fixing the deformation around the sides of the images to stich seamlessly. I used panorama tools ps plugin to correct the distortion. Next time I should stick to 50mm lens, since they are easier to stich.

this is taken after a long climb in kocasarp mount.whie going down the ridge the sun was going down and suddenly there was this incredible view for a few minutes...

here is a picture of demirkazik while the sun is going down.i took it from our camp in dipsizgöl in august 2003.the east and north walls are seen in the picture.

This image shows the moment I first saw the Aladaglar region. In June 1992 four of us went there for the first time and without a guidebook. We had only a rough description of the region and a map which we cannot make too much sense anyhow. Our plan was to ascent classics routes of Alaca and Kaldi. We bailed, because we didnt had any clue what we are doing.

I shoot 8 pictures with my semi-working Zenith camera and stich them together to hang in front of my desk. A couple of years later I scan them with all the dust and fingerprints. My initial try to stich them together digitally failed, since I was lacking the all the tools (oh, my state-of-the-art 386DX40) and skills at that time. A manually stiched halfdone image was my background for more than a year. The images float around in my harddrive, I never had the courage to delete them, hoping one day I will finish the job.

Finally, after more than 11 years, I put them together, cleaning and color correcting, trying to get the image burned in my mind years ago. Here it is, the exact moment, which changed my life forever.

In our second try to make the first winter ascent of Kaldi north ice field, we got stuck at the end of the ice field and could not make the traverse to the chimney. Tired and frozen we returned to our camp at 3100 meters. The north ice field is the right one on the picture.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

First pitch on Demirkazik north wall finishes on a very large ledge. The problem is that with the early sunlight rock pieces start to fall directly to this ledge. Eventhough we climbed this pitch the day before and fixed the rope just to reach the main chimney (it is on the left side of the image), where we can be secure from the falling rocks, we were late. It was really scary. I am on the belay, and Ayhan is cleaning the pitch. Our third, Korhan, is not visible in the picture. The photo credit goes to Baris Akkiris.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

Sulagan keler is probably the only place to find water during the hot summer days in Emli valley Aladaglar. It is also possible to find water in aksampinari during the early summer. Behind the camp the north walls of Lahitkaya and Kaldi is visible.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

Itoturumu north wall (IV, V-)is one of the fun short climbs where you can get used to chossy aladaglar limestone. On the second pitch Ayhan is traversing to the big ledge under the crux pitch, and Buzbas is on the belay (not visible). It was my second wall climb and I ended up climbing the face next to the all wet chimney pitch.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

As you reach under the north wall (the route is 600m vertical starting at an altitude of 3100m, and goes at IV+ VI), you start wondering the size of it. Ayhan is rereading the route description and wondering what the hell we are doing. Unfortunately at 7th pitch I dropped a rock on his hand, breaking 2 fingers. We had to retreat one pitch short of the crux. Usual to aladaglar, small rocks are raining, and especially the first pitches should better done in the very early morning. Even at the end of august, some of the pitches were still wet.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

The yedigoller high plateau is at 3000 meters, with many 3500-3700 peaks around. Just behing the great lake is Direktas, one of the shorter summits at 3500 meters. The visible face is the north face, and goes at IV-, V.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

At the end of emli valley, there is a large area, where the nomads camp with their goats during the summer. Visible are the peaks Siyirmalik and Guzeller. To the left is the ridge to Gurtepe. Water can be found a little bit higher (100 meters) on the valley to the right.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

Returning from a 10 day long camp with multiple climbs, the last 5 km walk back to the village hurts my already tired feet. Aladaglar looming in the background, and emli valley is just over there.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

Seriously, the large plateau just before the Kaldi (3736 m)is called "the football field". As you can see, it was getting dark, and we ended up with a cold bivuac (spelling ?) ,not too far from our camp.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

To reach the yedigoller high plateau, you have to climb up to the celikbuyduran pass (3200 m), which is between Emler (3723 m) and Kizilkaya (3725 m). Since it is used by the local people and their mules, there is a nice trail.

10.14.05 Edit: My old slide scans were not so clean. I decided to clean dust, fix color errors, and resubmit them.

Parmakkaya is located between two plateaus, Aksam Pinari and Avcibeli which are the main base camp locations for the climbs for many peaks in Aladaglar. Parmakkaya can be translated into english as Finger Rock (parmak=finger, kaya=rock) but you can already tell that by its appearance. The guy resting on right is me. A friend of mine, Berkay took this shot for me while we were getting down to Aksam Pinari from our Kaldi(3734mt) climb in March 2000.