Location: North 41.08065, East 033.81241 (GPS on the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 2
Climbed July 23. 2016.
Information:
How to get there:
This mountain is located north in Turkey. First locate Hwy. D765 from Cankiri north to
Kastamonu. After passing the town of Ilgaz, this road climbs across Ilgaz mountain pass,
elevation 1875 meter. It may be that this Hwy. will run through a tunnel in the future,
this description must then be slightly changed, but one may still use the tunnel if coming
from south to north, however, the turn-off will than be quite soon after you exit the tunnel.
Descending from the pass (going north), note the exit to the Ilgaz Dagi Milli Park, a portal on
a road that forks left. Drive 10 kilometer downhill on D765 from that fork. You will then enter
the tiny community of Catören. Continue 350 meter after passing the sign for Catören.
Turn righ onto a very small road that immediately crosses a small bridge. This location is
N41.14343, E033.77980, elevation about 1170 meter.
Measure from this point (km 0.0).
You should now basically follow the dirt road that looks best and that also follows the creek
in the main valley. A normal car should be able to drive this road (with care!), reasonable
clearance makes life a bit easier. Details as follows:
At kilometer 2.5, go straight (left fork), then at 2.8, again straight (right fork). Go right and
climb out of the valley at kilometer 4.7.
(If you get to a narrow canyon, you have driven too far, go back searching for a good quality dirt road that
forks sharply left.)
The road now climbs steeply with several sharp curves.
There are two forks, at the first fork, the left side is just a more gentle climb as the roads
merge again on top of the hill. In the next fork, keep left (uphill). You will eventually leave
the forest and arrive at a small plateau with open grass. Pass a shepherds quarter and drive to
the slope of the mountain. An old road forks left, going uphill, park here at kilometer 10.4, location
N41.09185, E033.80592, elevation about 1980 meter. This is a good trailhead.
Route description:
From the trailhead, continue on foot along the somewhat overgrown, small road that gently climbs going
left when facing the mountain. Stay on this road until it exits into a large open area where you see
the big gully coming down, uphill and ahead. Leave the road and do an ascending traverse in order to
enter the gully just below the rock outcrop on its right hand side. Stay on grass and avoid the patches
of talus / scree.
When you ascend the gully beyond the rock, you will almost immediately
reach the entrance to a nice bowl.
Cross into it and ascend an easy grass slope at the upper end, this will take you to a broad
shallow saddle between the two summits. Ascend right and arrive
at the very flat summit plateau.
There are two spots not very far apart that compete for being highest.
Comments:
I had just visited the higher neighbor Ilgaz Daglari, first by foot, then by
car. Driving back down the valley, I was looking for a possible access road to a trailhead for this
neighbor peak. A promising road that forked left turned out to deliver. I was parked at a new trailhead
shortly before noon. Leaving at 1200, this climb turned out to be quite easy. The route I picked was
nice and quickly got me to the summit, almost 600 meter vertical in less than one hour is quite good.
I was on the summit at 1255. The clouds had cleared, giving
me a good view back to Ilgaz.
I looked back down to the trailhead, then noticed a
Turkish summit flag,
then had a good look across to the ski area
where Heidi was making a day hike. I could see our hotel,
the only one open now in the summer season.
I left at 1310 and returned to my car at 1350. This would be my last mountain trip in Turkey in
this summer vacation trip. Tomorrow we would drive back to Istanbul.
Kucukhacet Tepe as seen from the road to Ilgaz Daglari.
The highest peak is to the right, the route up to and into the basin
between the two summits is easy to see.