Back to Barek Mountain: finishing some projects, and progressing in others

We were back on Barek mountain for a bouldering session with Guner, Aysen, Murti and Cansu. The day opened at Masa Kaya as always. Murti and Cansu was just trying bouldering outdoors, so we spent some time at Masa Kaya with warm ups. 

Skoptoma 7B: What a send with what a fight!

After we tried some of the warmp ups on Masa Kaya, we went down to Skoptoma 7B to give it some tries. I unfortunately broke my index finger nail badly about ten days ago here. Maybe it was also because we were kind of in a rush since that was a weekday afternoon attack. 

Today, my finger nail was much better, and having climbed three days in Geyikbayiri let me take my mind a bit off from the pressures of sending my projects. I was just feeling more relaxed, a bit more confident I should say. The weather was still surprisingly hot. We gave a few tries to Dombisot 6C, however both Guner and I was still far from doing it, maybe also because the sun was still shining on the sloping holds of that route. 

Skoptoma was all in the shade. So, we switched our focus to that, since the main goal for coming there was that route. My initial tries were quite desperate, but I was also feeling that I just needed a bit more warm up, a bit luck, and well, maybe a bit more wind? I tried to show all the patience I can, by trying to take long rests between the tries. And finally, all the planets and the stars aligned, and I could pull the dead-point move to the left undercling crimp with near perfect positioning, and I was suddenly on the small footholds, trying to take the high sloping crimp with my right hand. Guess what, that move also went, and I just do not remember if I could close my crimp or not, well, maybe I closed it, because I felt quite powerful on that, and I could finally take my left hand to the other crimp. 

I was just hanging there with my feet on quite loose footholds, and my both hands holding the two crimps. One side of my brain was telling me that I was already two tired, and a soft-landing to the crash pads would be a good retreat. The other crazy side of my brain said: shut the f..k up, and jump to whatever hold there is in front of you. There was no time to think, and I was tired of falling from the last moves of this route, so I just lunched up with a loud slap on the sloper on the lip with my right hand, with no clue if I would be able to hold on or not. Guess what? I held on, and took the other hand up too, and after a few seconds of hesitation, my right heel was already grabbing the far side of the lip, and finally I was on top of this hard route. 

Well, this was a great route, and this ascent on this very day, was a great fight on my side. I would definitely try this route again in later times. It is such a nice looking, accessible and proper boulder. 

Here is some climbing-shoe tripod footage of the climb, with some tunes for sparing you from my actual screams during the climb:

Do It - No Name 6C

We went to the Do It block after Skoptoma, and tried some easier routes there. Guner made a nice accent of Do It 6b+, and I could send the line that starts on the left of the block and going directly to the top without using the holds of Do It. Ugur Yilmaz and Fikret climbed this route the last time they were here and there is not a name yet for this route. Unfortunately, the drawings of the routes on this block is quite tangled in 27 Crags, so, it is really hard to put this route there, but I could squeeze it here, anyway. 

Progressing on Crossing the Bridge 7A+

We ended the day on T7: Crossing the Bridge. I was back in this gorgeous route. It was a bit cooler than the last time, and I instantly noticed that the friction was better. Maybe I was also stronger, I don't know, but somehow, I could pull the move from the sloper crimp with a left arm lock off, to the far right pinch. The last time we were here, I wasn't even close to doing this move. 

However, the route is still hard after that move. I struggled a lot by changing the beta over and over, and when I finally could find one that could work for me, I was already too exhausted, and whatever Eminem song we would play and however loud, it would be silly to push more on this day. I left the route for another day, but I have a strange feeling of overall satisfaction on this route today. The progress since last time was well... quite noticeable. 

And I should one more say that this route feels quite hard for me. Harder than its assigned grade. I don't know, some routes are just harder on some people, and this comes harder to me. I can go as far to say that it feels harder than Skoptoma 7B - but their styles are so different, and I know that it would be a silly comparison. But that's just how it feels to me. 

A perfectly spent day with lots of good chit-chat with friends, with an energizing and patient team. Many thanks to Guner, Aysen, Murti and Cansu for their positive energy and the great photo shoots on this beautiful day.  

Here are some shots from my tries on Crossing the Bridge: