30th - Getting started

I realized that I had been misreading the trip information all along until arriving in Turkey. I was convinced that we were supposed to carry our own bags all the way but I found out that was not the case anyway. Out main bags gets carried up to the camps by horses while we won’t be carrying anything else than our daypacks. Something I soon found out would be a good thing.

Getting up at 0700 we started off with a small breakfast after which we carried our now prepared bags to the small busses waiting for us to take us to the climb’s starting point, a 45 minute drive from the hotel. Arriving at the base of the mountain the temperature had risen generously, making me feel relieved that we only had our daypacks to carry. Slowly we started the climb, and 4-ish hours later we arrived at base camp.

Most of the tents had already been pitched, and after a snack in the dining tent we started spreading out into the tents. I was looking for my main bag when I saw a large drop land on the ground. And then another one. And another one. Seeing my bag running in my boots suddenly became easy and I ended almost throwing myself headfirst into our tent with the bag under my arm. This started 2 hours of heavy rain, hail and quite a few wonderfully big thunderclaps.

Afterwards there wasn’t much to do and we had a small walk around in the camp to get a feeling of the area. One of the guys who lost his bag got a text from his wife saying that they had located his bag. It was still in CPH – without its luggage tag. The two who were bag-less had bought most of the necessary things in the previous town, and the “big” things (sleeping bags etc.) they were able to borrow from some of the locals.

Dinner at 1800, briefing for the next couple of days and weather forecast. Apparently it is to rain and hail again tomorrow afternoon, but otherwise the weather seems clear.

The night sky is beautiful; clear view of the Milky Way from one horizon to the other and lots and lots of stars.

The hotel was at an altitude of 1700m, the starting point at 2200m and base camp is at 3200m. No wonder I was walking around with a slight headache all afternoon.

We were recommended to bring 4 bottles of water (each 1½ litre) with us up for the days on the mountain. Despite the bottles looking flimsy we were promised that the local team had never had a bottle break yet, potentially soaking clean clothes or sleeping bag. Guess who received a bag with a leaking bottle? The bag compartment with my shoes and sleeping bag had been soaked – luckily none of the water had gone through the plastic bag I had wrapped my sleeping bag in, and only the shoes’ soles had gotten wet. No real damage after all!

Unpacking the busses and getting ready to start the first day of climbing.

Finally getting base camp within view!

The view after the rain and hail.