Skimo Week in Aladağlar
An Ultimate Alpine Touring Adventure in Anti-Taurus Mountains
Duration
Best Season
Tour Type
Accommodation
Difficulty
: 8 Days
: January - February -March
: Backcountry Ski
: Pension-Hotel
: Moderate – Hard
Overview
We offer you the best of the best alpine touring opportunity in Central Anatolia. Anti-Taurus Mountains, aka Aladaglar, is well known as the most visited mountain range in Turkey. Aladaglar region has been an Ecole for Turkish mountaineering just more than a destination.
This demanding trip outstands as happening in remote locations of Anti-Taurus Mountains. Out of the crowds, even without any ski traces ahead, the participants of this trip enjoy the tranquility, remoteness and pure mountain adventure in every single step. We will skin up to the colls, ridges and summits to earn the turns. After all we will run the best lines and valleys.
Consecutive days of challenging skinning and skiing require a certain level of physical condition as well as personal experience to enjoy this trip. However, anyone can reserve the right to rest and enjoy the cozy accommodation if they do not want to join any of the day trips. Because we will stay at the same place without any hassle of repacking everyday! We stay in our cozy village house during the week.
We will be touring in variety of valleys and terrain every day. If you are into a week-long touring in Anatolia, this is one of the trips should be in your bucket list. Split boarders are also welcome for the itinerary.
Explore Anatolia’s mountains with one of a lifetime alpine experiences!
Itinerary Outline*
Day 1: Meeting in Kayseri and transfer to Aladaglar. Check in the pension. Briefing and warm up.
Day 2: Pancarlık Summit (2870 m)
Day 3: Mangırcı Valley – Körtekli Summit (3250 m)
Day 4: Karayalak Valley – Çelikbuyduran Pass (3500 m) – Mt Emler Summit (3723 m)
Day 5: Parmakkaya Valley – Avcı Beli Pass / Yoncalı Taş Summit (3450 m)
Day 6: Aladaglar Mountains - Demirkazik pass 3.400m - Cimbar Valley
Day 7: Sıyırma Valley to Mt. Guzeller 3.461m or Mt Kucukcebel (3377 m)
Day 8: Return
* The aforementioned routes and itinerary operation may vary depending on weather conditions, road conditions, snowfall on the mountain and / or any other current conditions effects the operation such as avalanche risk and slope stability. Your tour leaders are entitled to make changes in your tour program for your safety by evaluating these conditions and informing you of alternatives.
Alpine skiing is a sport that is off-piste off-slope skiing. Apart from skiing skills, it requires off-piste skiing experience. Recommended for the ones above beginner level. This activity requires a high physical and mental condition. Some stages participants are required to carry ski or boards attached their backpacks. Most of the days consist of more than 1000 m of elevation gain by skinning and descents.
Itinerary
Day 1: Meeting in Kayseri and transfer to Aladaglar. Check in the pension. Briefing and warm up.
We will meet at Kayseri Airport and drive to Aladaglar. We will check in our home, Taurus Guest House and have lunch. A detailed briefing, equipment check and and a short warm up hike session will be held by our experienced trip leaders. A cozy evening and feast dinner await for us this evening. We will rest well for a great trip start!
Vehicle transfer: 2 hours
Meals included: Dinner
Day 2: Pancarlık Summit (2870 m)
We will start with Pancarlık, aka Kavlaktepe today. Today is going to be the day for getting adapted and warm up with our team. So, we will start with a relatively lower mountain to be well acclimatized. We will gradually rise the scale up after today. Pancarlık has different view than the other routes in the itinerary. It has an easy approach for quite fine downhill. We will be off early in the morning and drive a short distance to the beginning of the route. We will be back to our house late in the afternoon.
Vehicle transfer: 25 minutes
App. Activity Time: 6-8 hours
Meals included: Breakfast– Lunch Pack – Dinner
Day 3: Mangırcı Valley – Körtekli Summit (3250 m)
We will get up very early in the morning to enjoy the breakfast and hop on our 4WDs to have short drive. We will get to Emli Valley to kick a start. Today’s target is to skin up as high we can along Mangırcı Valley. Then we will attempt to rise on Mt Körtekli to the top. There is such a wonderfull panorama on the summit! Then we will switch to an amazing ski run. 4WDs will be waiting for us at the same spot that we started. Another short drive should wait for a little celebration. Cheers!
We will back to our village house pension late in the afternoon.
Vehicle transfer: 20 minutes
App. Activity Time: 6-8 hours
Meals included: Breakfast– Lunch Pack – Dinner
Day 4: Karayalak Valley – Çelikbuyduran Pass (3500 m) – Mt Emler Summit (3723 m)
Here is the highest mountain day in the trip. We will wake up early and hop on the 4WDs after breakfast and preparations. We will drive to Sokullupınar campground. We are heading to Karakayalak Valley. This huge gorge will lead us to east and we will skin up to one of the highest passes, Çelikbuyduran. Çelikbuyduran is the busiest mountain pass in this region when trekkers are here in summertime. Then just a short climb is needed to be on the top of the third highest mountain of Aladaglar. Today we have a stunning ski run ahead. Depending on the conditions we can ski a bit further then the starting point. We will back in the lodge late in the afternoon.
App. Vehicle transfer: 45-50 min.
App. Activity time: 6-8 hrs
Meals included: Breakfast– Lunch Pack – Dinner
Day 5: Parmakkaya Valley – Avcı Beli Pass / Yoncalı Taş Summit (3450 m)
We are heading to a different valley today. We will get to Emli Valley again firstly. Depending on the road condition wr can drive further as far as we can. If not, we will start from Emli Valley to skin up. The route of the day is to one of the most amazing valleys of the region. Today’s run will blow your heads off! We will skin along Parmakkaya Valley. We are aiming to reach Avcı Veli Pass. According to the current condition, we can alter our route to the top of Mt Yoncalı Taş. We will run all the way down to our 4wds. Split boarders can suffer from the flattered terrain during the last stage of the run. Keep in mind!
App. Vehicle transfer: 40 min.
App. Activity time: 6-8 hrs
Meals included: Breakfast– Lunch Pack – Dinner
Day 6: Aladaglar Mountains - Demirkazik pass 3.400m - Cimbar Valley
Another early morning start today! We will load up the vehicles and drive as far as we can to Sokullupinar plateau to get into Narpuz Valley. We will follow the valley base along the South face of Mt Demirkazik and climb up to the pass at almost the end of the valley. Steep couloirs, short rocky passages, probable scramling will let us to the pass. We will switch to ski and descent the steep run down to Cimbar gorge. At the end of the date late in the afternoon we will our vehicles to pick us up to the pension.
App. Vehicle transfer: 50 min.
App. Activity time: 8-9 hrs
Meals included: Breakfast– Lunch Pack – Dinner
Day 7: Sıyırma Valley to Mt. Guzeller 3.461m or Mt Kucukcebel (3377 m)
We will be back to Emli Valley today. Emli Valley rises to south-southeast direction and after Kocadolek that we visited before, changes the name to Siyirmalik. Siyirmalik valley is one of the excellent terrains in aladagalar for ski rando. Depending on the conditions we will evaluate to climb either to Mt Guzeller along a steep and narrow western couloir or turn right to climb another steep east face of Mt Kucukcebel. Both of the options have more or less the same touring characteristics. We will run down along the same route to hop on our 4WDs to drive back to Cukurbag Village. Tonight we deserve a last night celebration before finishing our great adventure.
Day 8: Transfer to the airport
We will say goodbye to Aladaglar today. Depending on the flight schedules we will drive you to the airport in Kayseri.
Visiting Cappadocia and touring in two big volcanoes of Central Anatolia is always a good choice if you like to expand your trip to fulfill the ultimate adventure of life time.
Meals included: Breakfast
Tour Dates & Prices
Best in February and March
Please ask for new prices for group of min 7, max 10 pax.
For groups under 7 people, please also contact us.
Please ask our special prices for closed groups and Travel Agencies
Price Includes
English speaking tour leadership & mountain guide
All vehicle transfers from Kayseri Airport to Kayseri Airport
All transfers with 4WDs
All meals mentioned in the program
7 nights half board accommodation in TWN/TRPL rooms
First-aid kit
General safety equipment
Ice-axe, crampons and snowshoes if needed
All required permits and entrance fees for the NPs
All legal obligatory insurances
1 MONTIS Trip Leader for 4-8 pax groups
2 MONTIS Trip Leaders for 9-10 pax groups
Price Does Not Include
International and domestic transfers and/or flights to Kayseri Airport
Personal equipment
Alcoholic drinks and beverages
Unscheduled requests
Personal insurance
Tips
*Personal technical equipment (helmet, pickaxe, crampons) is provided free of charge on this tour. Personal equipment such as touring skis and split boards, avalanche detectors are not included in our price. A limited number of shovels, DVA devices and avalanche probes are available free of charge. Any snowboarders asking for snowshoes instead of skinning are welcome, we can provide snowshoes for free of charge.
Single Accommodation:
Single Supplement
Euro (due to availability)
Accommodation
Taurus Guesthouse – Aladaglar
A cosy family pension at the skirts of Aladaglar at Çukubağ village. You will find a comfortable facility with clean rooms and delicious meals at this family pension.
https://www.taurusguesthouse.com/tr-tr
FAQ
Travel Plan
Recommended Flights
Itinerary is scheduled to arriving and departing flights to/from Kayseri. There are daily frequent flights to/from Kayseri to Istanbul and some other big cities in Turkey. Transfers will be held as group transfers.
Please contact us to have private transfer from Kayseri Airport.
Different flighst and airlines options are available. You can contact our office for different options for the program. You can buy your flight tickets from our agency. You can make your flight reservation requests by calling our ticket sales department at 0 312 44 0 05 85 or by sending an e-mail to info@montis.com.tr. Our agency is not responsible for any changes made by airlines.
Visa
Holders of most European passports,UK, Austrian, Irish, Portuguese, Spanish and US passports require visas. Visas must be obtained in advance, passengers need to obtain an e-visa prior to their arrival. This can be done online at https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/ for approximately US$20. The visa is valid for a stay of up to three months (dependent on passport holder's nationality). For a longer stay a visa from a Turkish Embassy is required. Please click for visa requirements to Turkey for detailed information:
http://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa
Vaccinations
There are no mandatory vaccination requirements.
Weather
The peaks are subject to severe winds, and sudden changes in temperature.One has to be equipped for the worst, and one has to know when to quit. Daytime temperature is usually 0-8 C degrees and night temperatures are -5 to -12 C degrees without windchill affect. But the temperature can decrease to -15 C degrees above the 2500 m.The occasional storm can't be ruled out.
Is this trip for you?
Activity Level: Moderate / Moderate – Hard (3-4)
Click here to see the difficulty grading
Please note that the Tour Leader reserves the right to refuse participation of any client on any activities on safety grounds or if they feel that their participation will compromise the safety and enjoyment for the rest of the group.
The order of activities, trekking routes may be changed to suit local weather conditions.