Climbing Mount Nemrut

LOL go_2 ... ditto here, I fall over my own feet all the time and have broken both my ankles, once at home and once in Cuba. Not fun.

Had a great time Go_2 and have the photos to prove it. Won't be surprised if I find myself on YouTube as it seemed there were several blank strangers photographing or filming me. I was obviously quite a show. There was nothing going to stop me getting to the top:-)

Edited by: pipermam

Piperman, what a smashing blog you write! You have a really keen eye for composing photos. Wunnaful, wunnaful.
Lee

Thanks Lee, friends asked me to start writing some of my stories from my holidays in Turkey and this is the result. Never imagined I'd become a blogger but...

Thanks go_2 – just loved your post.
And I love Turkey.

You wrote the perfect sentence…."As always, it’s the unexpected little things that make a trip memorable"

go_2 thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts on Nemrut and co. Just found this thread and looks like you had a ball and glad you did. Hope your trip to Petra also went well.
You're complaining about climbing 400m you lazy bum :) have you quit smoking yet?
I stayed at Karadut late last month and was hell bent on conquering the mountain. We woke up at the crack of dawn got rugged up and left outside together with a friend and 3 German tourists in a snow storm to climb 10kms to the peak. We walked and walked in knee deep snow, took turns at leading the pack in a single file line but ultimately after trekking for just over 6kms with another 4kms left to the statues we decided to throw in the towel and admit defeat due to our pace slowing down and our bodies not being able to maintain the heat when we were moving faster. At least we went down fighting and have absolutely no regrets at our attempt. At least we tried but nature prevailed.

Mt Erciyes at Kayseri receives much more snowfall than Nemrut yet the road is constantly cleared out by snow clearing machinery and kept open for traffic to always be able to flow thru.
Nemrut is such a touristic area but being in the heart of the winter we were actually very surprised to see other tourists there besides me and my friend whom came there with the same intent as us and didn't care about the weather like us. Apparently there are still a lot of people worldwide calling the pension wanting to visit Nemrut but the owners are discouraging them saying that the roads are closed yet more than 1/2 of those people still come.
The owners of Karadut Pension have advised me that the council may just may be planning to make a chair lift which will take you from Karadut to the peak during winter months.
Theyre also thinking of investing in motorised snow scooters just so they can take tourirts up the top in winter when the roads are closed. The road isnt closed as such but is covered with snow. The snow clearing machinery only clears the road up to Karadut and leaves the rest untouched to Nemrut.
There's also talk of the two roads leading up the mountain from both Adiyaman and Malatya joining but I think for this to happen the cows need to come home first.
The Malatya side has taken a very strong initiative to lure more tourists as their councils are working hand in hand to better the experience for tourists while the Adiyaman side unfortunately is lacking the purpose and initiative.

After talking with locals in Karadut and Adiyaman I got the picture that the mayor of Adiyaman is not doing anything to improve access to Nemrut year around apart from the bare minimum on purpose for his own various reasons which didn't seem to make that much sense to me but hes in power so.

All said and done I will be back in Nemrut again in winter but either at the beginning or the end where if the roads are still closed hopefully there'll be less snow and I can hike the 10kms or alternatively I may give it a tilt from the Malatya side or if it fits in my holiday come during a warmer month but for some reason I don't enjoy Turkey during summer as much as I do during winter. I could bare to experience 2 winters a year but 2 summers a year is a bit full on. And this is coming from a person who loves the sun and beach, go figure. I think living in Turkey for 5 years in Ankara really made me fall in love with winter and snow.