Kayseri Rock Climbing

There is a valley to the south of Kayseri, in a town called Hisarcik that hosts some nice cracks and potential for hard, steep face climbs. There are about 60 routes ranging from 5.5-5.12. All climbs in the area are trad climbs ranging from about 15-30 meters and unfortunately have no anchor bolts (wouldn't be consistent with the rest of Turkey but maybe there's a no-bolt rule or something...). Some routes are definitely walk-off-able, but some look like they end before a big roof and so getting down without leaving gear behind can be an interesting feat. Also some climbs are pretty dirty and have prickle bushes guarding them, as the area probably doesn't get much traffic other than beer-drinkers and sheep.

The valley is beautiful with a stream running through it and various flat grassy/sandy areas to camp for free, but unfortunately the place is full of garbage. We're over-cautious sometimes, but were a little scared to even boil the water from the stream after seeing everything that was scattered around it. It's really too bad, as this area is absolutely beautiful!

Go to hisarcik.tripod.com for route info and topos of most of the crags. We were only able to climb a few routes but they felt harder than they were rated (or maybe that's because it was our first day of the season!). The website is all in Turkish but if you really need to, you can use Google Translate. There's also a page on the website with grading conversions if you need that.