The gamble

Alice has worked hard to find small roads that go high across the turkish mountains. The paper map shows a tiny road that is just in the right place. Unfortunately Openstreetmap shows an intriguing 1km gap in the road so Komoot will not route us. Google, with a little encouragement, thinks it is possible. A little more research shows that a tunnel is being built to shortcut the pass and associated road works may explain the “gap”. We can see tracks on the satellite map which also suggest feasibility.
There are a few other sticking points. The pass is at 2610m and the top is a dirt road. There is snow lying above 2300, especially on north facing slopes (the descent). And if we try and fail its a huge climb to have made and then a very long way round on big roads with over 2000m of descent that we will need to regain.

We vote, and both wish to give it a try even if we fail.

And so it is that today we set off at 7.40 for the final 500m of climb, not knowing if we will soon be returning. The dirt starts earlier than marked and we are soon at the inactive start of the tunnel. The road is steep. A little pushing is required and then we climb quickly and steadily. The snow on this side is confined to the track edge, plus there are encouraging marks of car and tractor tyres. We are not the only ones up here this spring.

At 9am we are on the top. The view is amazing. And so is the snow.Читать далее