Saturday, January 21, 2012

Geyikbayiri



Green flashlights shinning and flashing as hundreds of climbers raved the night for the Works 5th party. All the British big climbers were dancing along the beats including our very best McClure. Seeing all the top climbers got me psyched for another trip ASAP. Yes even in party all I can think about is climbing. I spoke to the Hamer brothers about a quick trip just after the New Year as we downed Jagerbombs with the big party among us. “yeah, yeah, definitely” “psyched” “Rodellar, Siurana” it didn’t matter to me where, as long as we got to go.
   The hangover was awful the next morning but the excitement of the upcoming trip got me up early for some researching. After contacting the brothers, the conversation from the party appeared to be just booze talk. They wanted to save their money for some Easter climbing trip. Rubbish, well I am going somewhere. A friend of mine was out in Turkey, Dan Gibson was climbing on his own for 3 months. I am going to see him. I booked a flight ticket a week later.

Just before Christmas, I texted Sam that I booked a flight to tufa Turkey for some limestone and was to depart just after the New Year. 

He replied questions after questions.

“Really???”
“when?”
“who with?”
“Send me the flight details”
“How long for”

The opportunity couldn’t be missed and the Hamer brothers booked their Tickets.

Let me tell you a little bit about Sam and Ed… they are a mini version of Alexander and Thomas Huber brothers. They want the rock more than anything. They had both climbed 100’s of grade 8’s up to 8b+ and had several sponsors. Somehow I had a lot to learn with communicating, I believe they went to some school of Ali G. They used words like homie, geeza, init, safe and spoke like true gangsters!

Quite a day traveling from London to the Climber’s Garden which wasn't too far from Antalya. There were climbers hanging out outside the hut. Some strong looking Swedish had just retuned from the crag with bloody knuckles from their crazy project. Strong coffee was boiling from inside as many gathered around the fire playing the guitar. Some were analyzing through the guidebook, discussing crux moves about the climbs they will hope to crush the next day. This was the magic of Geyikbayiri This is the life of my reality.

After a few days spending most of the time on my poor finger tips on small crimps with the joy of tufa and jugs also, the rain had arrived. It lasted days and we were all feeling damp for that time. The Hamer boys tent flooded, everything got wet. It was difficult to climb as the crag options became limited. The weather destroyed the mojo of being psyched. We mainly spent those cold wet days in the caves of Trebenna. 
  One day we were in threes and I was waiting for Ed as he was ticking the entire crag off. A long haired local Turkey chap appeared at the bottom of the cliff, he was looking around in a slightly innocent way. He asked me if I wanted to team up with him for the day. He looked like a 6b climber and I was so desperate to get a move on so I agreed. What if he couldn't belay properly? what if he was one of those slow ass climbers aiding bolt to bolt? He hid his bag near a route he wanted to warm up. He had the same bag as me, a Beal rope bag. I started to have a little more faith in him. He opened his bag to reach out his harness which revealed 30 shinny sponsored 'Petzl' quickdraws among a bottle of absolute Vodka. He shot up like a rocket warming up on this damp wet 8a+. Perhaps I was the one not belaying properly as my jaw dropped open not believing what I had just seen. The man's name was Mumin Karabas, he was the best climber in Turkey and was on the Petzl team. I belayed him on "Devers Royale" 8c. He was riding the stone like a real ninja fighting his was through a dozen crux's. After three attempt he missed the tick by a nanometre. "aww man, that was awesome" a huge smile was on his face not letting the stress take over. He taught me all about staying happy on unsuccessful climbing days in this bad ass sport we call rock climbing. It's part of the challenge in this sport we live in, difficultly is the game we play.
  Eventually the sun came out again during our last few days and we finally managed to crush 'properly' once again. My highlight ticks of the trip was an 8a flash "Sarkit Souls" and 8a+ second go "Turkish Airways" Dan Gibson climbed an 8a and the Hamer kids climbed up to 8b+ and on sighting 8a+, it was impressive for sure!

A few pictures of the trip and a video of the Hamer bro's I made for their sponsors.



 me and Ed
 "Homies"
 Gaylord Sam Hamer
 Dan Gibson on an 8a
Mumin Karabas

Monday, January 2, 2012

Winter life...


Autumn is certainly the worse season for me living in the smoke, the city becomes grey and depressing. Fact, the opposite of pandora planet which is hard to get psyched on plastic. I made several trips to the amazing Gritstone with only one successful climbing day whilst the others days were soaking wet. Each time I went, of course I relied on the BBC weather forecast the night before with a lot of hope trusting the weatherman. But each time I arrived at the Plantation car park or millstone, what the fuck was the weatherman thinking?!?! 
   On my success day, I was at Higgar Tor, some of my friends promised to meet me there but they were tossing about in the works climbing wall!? but I the end I did some classics, on sighted 'The Rasp Direct' (E4) flashed 'Bats out of Hell' (E5) and tried to on sight Linkline (E6) taking the 'safe' fall. god, Linkline was desperate, I would love to return to finish the amazing steep route!

                                   Ted going for the flash

This winter I even played a football match, I hadn't played since school and was always a sub, i just simply couldn't kick. My school friends were short of players for their league match near Luton, in the text it said "we're sooo short of players, yes we are actually calling for Andre Hedger's help" In the end we lost 5-1. I wonder why.

                                    Football? I would rather do pull ups..

I have cut down on the booze enormously this year and training hard to improve. I have mainly been bouldering for a change to try and improve my sport climbing which will improve my trad climbing. Lisanne still goes out once in a while and returns home hammered with her friends waking me up through the night and leaving the kitchen in a pigsty. 

My golfers elbow has been a bit rubbish this winter, it's not really effecting my climbing but irritating. But life goes on, and I just get on with it wearing a tennis elbow. I had a serious neck injury from bouldering (i fell in an awkward position on my neck) and had to go to hospital and everything via ambulance. I was depressed for days and couldn't move at all. I cried like a big baby, the first time in 8 years as I thought I was going to be paralysed for life. 

                        End of the world...

Few pictures from Winter 2011…….

 The Westway dry tooling comp
 The Westway dry tooling comp
 The file VS
 Bats out of hell
 The VERY cold boxing day swim with dad
 Westway competitions
I am trying to work out why Lisanne looks so happy? I think she hoped my climbing career could be over!!!