Karayalak Towers · Aladağlar · Turkey
Read the cautionsEasy to bailBolting confidence: medium
Often named as the best route in the massif: seven even pitches of 6a to 6b+ that move from delicate slabs and giant flutings through a steep, rough wall to mountain-style ground at the top. The 6b pitches are no harder than the 6a ones, but the bolts are far enough apart to keep you thinking.
Fully bolted with a clear abseil descent, but the bolts are spaced, cams cannot supplement them, and documentation is limited to one site.
The route
Freedom takes the south-west face of the Karayalak Towers in seven pitches. The grades are 6a, 6a+, 6b+, 6b, 6a+, 6a, 6b, and two independent parties say the 6b pitches feel no harder than the 6a ones. The style changes as you climb: thin, balancy slab and huge flutings low down, a steeper and more abrasive wall in the middle, and blockier mountain terrain for the last two pitches. It is fully bolted but not closely, so you need to be steady at 6a+ above your last bolt, and cams will not help.
The climbing
| Pitch | Grade | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 6a | 45 m | A thin, even slab where you hold very little and trust small footholds. The bolts are just far enough apart to make it a test of nerve. |
| P2 | 6a+ | 40 m | Perhaps the hardest move of the route: a precise position low down, then a flight up giant flutings and a final traverse on tiny ledges. |
| P3 | 6b+ | 30 m | Steeper and more abrasive rock, sustained without an extreme move. Better to climb than it looks. |
| P4 | 6b | 20 m | Short, on superbly sculpted rock. |
| P5 | 6a+ | 40 m | More fine rock, with a technical traverse. |
| P6 | 6a | 30 m | Mountain-style ground with compact walls of rough rock between; watch for a few loose blocks. |
| P7 | 6b | 30 m | A precise move at the start, then the final pillar. Some blocks to treat with care. |
Getting there
The camptocamp pages give only the last leg: drive the track past the Sokullupınar camp and take the right-hand branch to the car park at the Kazacık camp. In May 2025 a party in a small hire car stopped short of the first car park because of a muddy section and walked 30 minutes to the second. Reports mention staying at the Aladağlar campsite, whose owner Recep İnce equipped these routes and hands out topos.
From the car park at the Kazacık camp take the good cairned path up the valley until you are level with the wall, then go up the scree by sight to its foot. There are three routes; Freedom is the middle one. One party left the car park at 8:40 and started climbing at 9:30; another calls the approach quick and easy.
Loading map
The point marks the crag, not the exact start of the route.
Point from camptocamp waypoint 1051924
Contains the route point. Opens in most mapping apps and GPS watches.
Points are compiled from published sources, with the precision stated above. They were not surveyed on the ground: check them against a current topo.
Coordinates: 37.81441, 35.12141 (crag)
Getting down
Five abseils: R7 to R5 (55 m), R5 to R4, R4 to R2, R2 to R1, R1 to the ground. Camptocamp specifies 2×60 m ropes. A September 2025 party wrote that the five abseils 'go quickly with 50 m', which does not square with the 55 m first abseil; take 60 m ropes.
Retreat
Easy to bail
The route is descended by five abseils from its bolted belays, so retreat from any belay is the normal manoeuvre. Pitch 2 ends with a traverse and pitch 5 includes one, so abseil stance to stance on those sections.
Safety
Sun and weather
South-west facing on towers whose top is given as 2575 m. An early October party started in mist wearing down jackets and belay gloves, with ice at one belay, and finished in T-shirts; a mid-September party climbed in T-shirts all day. Very rough rock.
Sun on the wall · SW-facing
Working out the sunlit hours for this month.
Sun on the wallDaylight, wall in shade● Usual season
Estimated from the wall's aspect only. Ignores surrounding terrain, gullies and the wall's exact shape. Clock times are in your device's time zone, for the 15th of each month.
Climate figures for Aladağlar are not available yet
What to carry
Quickdraws (number not published) and 2×60 m ropes. Leave the cams behind: camptocamp says there is rarely anywhere to place them. Helmet.
Derived from the route data; check it against a current topo
From climbers
Reader reports are not being collected yet. Until they are, check a current topo and the local club or guidebook publisher for recent changes to Freedom.
Worth knowing
Open questions
Provenance
Same area
Turkey · Aladağlar
Five pitches on very rough red and grey limestone ten minutes from the car park, with long 5c to 6a+ pitches on knobs and water-worn flutings. The only hard climbing is one physical 7a move on the last pitch, which can be aided. Recommended locally as the route to do on this wall.
7a5 pitches245 m
Read the cautions
Around 6b+ · about 7 pitches
Italy · Sardinia
A sea-level start reached by abseil, then seven short pitches up the seaward face of Pedra Longa. The third pitch is a wildly exposed traverse above a line of roofs; two easy pitches on rock that needs care lead to a technical 6b and 6b+ finish on grey slab.
6b+7 pitches175 m
Italy · Bolzano & South Tyrol
Steep crack, corner and chimney climbing on porphyry, fully bolted in the middle of a trad crag. Sustained at 6a to 6b with a technical 6b+ first pitch. It stays in the shade until mid-afternoon, which makes it a summer option.
6b+7 pitches190 m
Spain · Riglos & Agüero (Mallos)
A recent, closely bolted line on the Mallo Frechín and a good way to get to know Riglos without being frightened. A stiff 6b+ second pitch that many find nearer 6c, then steep, sustained 6a and 6a+ over a succession of bulges on unpolished rock. You can abseil off from the top.
6b+7 pitches190 m
Spain · Montanejos
Seven varied pitches in two halves split by a big ledge: vertical walls and cracks below, then an overhanging red wall and a traverse on a carpet of sharp little spikes beneath giant roofs. In the sun from the morning, unpolished, with an easy walk down.
6b+7 pitches170 m
Compiled from published sources and last verified October 2026. Bolts, anchors and access change. Climbing is dangerous and you are responsible for your own decisions: check a current topo and read the disclaimer.