Touchstone athlete and renown global rock climbing super star, Ethan Pringle just returned from an exciting trip to Turkey.
After spending the holidays in Norway with friends, Pringle headed to Antalya, Turkey, to climb on the limestone crags of Geyikbayiri for three weeks with his girlfriend, Trine Hollerude-Odden. Daniel Woods, Emily Harrington, Sam Elias and other members of the North Face crew had traveled to the area and made a video series of the area. Pringle had seen the amazing climbing in the area. “It was steep limestone sport climbing with tufas and pockets. Some cracks too.” said Pringle. “It’s world class. It’s on par with Kalymnos.”
For visiting climbers there are a few different campsites with the main campground being Josito, which has a large restaurant. Pringle and Trine stayed at theClimber’s Garden up the hill. “I’d highly recommend it if you want a little more quiet and peaceful experience.”
Pringle climbed well there, onsighting a handful of steep limestone routes rated 5.13c and 5.13d. Pringle also managed to onsight Olympos Games, a 5.14a.
Pringle stated modestly that though the climbing was super fun, it wasn’t difficult. “It’s not really conducive to super hard climbing because the holds there are really good and it’s not that steep. “ Still the country has an unbelievable amount of climbing. “Turkey is a huge country covered in limestone mountains. There’s tons of potential there.”
Besides the great climbing, Pringle took a trip to a Turkish bath house in Antalya. In the summer the citty swells to 15 million, a vast increase from the normal 2 million that live in the sprawled out Turkish city the rest of the year. Pringle, his lady friend, and another couple checked out a Hamam, one of the spas in the city. A huge ogre gave Pringle a quick deep tissue massage while he sat on a hot stone. “It was pretty painful while it was happening but afterwards it felt amazing. We rinsed off with cold water, which felt really good.”
Pringle returned to the US a couple of weeks ago. He climbed at Ironworks, Mission Cliffs, and then took his new found fitness to Jailhouse, where he sent Motherlode, a 5.14a, on his second try. Pringle plans on taking some time to climb in Bishop in the coming month. He also plans on eating a lot more ice cream, a passion he discovered on his latest trip to Bishop.
