Keith Sharples Photography

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Keith Sharples Photography

I specialise in rock climbing, travel and adventure photography from the UK, Europe and beyond. For more, please visit www.keithsharplesphotography.co.uk

19/12/2025

Week #3 Datca: Meltemosore F8a and Black Hole Extension F8a
Meltemosore and Black Hole Extension are two more super long F8a at Can Baba.
Meltemosore starts up Meltem (F7b/b+) and then blasts off up the headwall taking a parallel line to that taken by Toprak. Meltemosore – like Toprak - is massively steep; a spanned-out section of tufa climbing above Meltem means this route has harder moves – fortunately, some better rests help keep the difficult in check.
Black Hole Extension, a.k.a. Fire in the Black Hole, is considerably less steep but still pretty much overhanging for the vast majority of the route. The first section, ie. Black Hole F7c+, is an oft-climbed pitch in its own right. Technical groove/wall climbing leads into steeper – read gently overhanging – climbing up to a massive black hole. The Extension pitch blasts off up ever steeping rock above for nearly another 20m or so; overall, Fire in the Black Hole F8a is another monster pitch.
Pix 1–3: A Russian climber punching out the hard moves on Meltemosore F8a – just above the Meltem F7b/+ lower-off
Pixs 4-5: Adam Lincoln fully ensconced in the meaty tufa section of Meltemosore
Pixs 6-8: Another Russian climber crushing Black Hole F7c+
Pixs 9-10: Alex Barrows on the upper section of Fire in the Black Hole F8a

09/12/2025

Week #3 Datca: Helmut and Katana F8a
Right in the back of the Can Baba cave is Helmut and Katana F8a; whilst it's another super steep route it's a bit different that many of the Can Baba F8a’s.
For starters, Helmut and Katana is shorter – although at 30m or so it hardly a short route. Secondly, a fairly spicy boulder kicks-off the main difficulties of the route. Once through that, H&K reverts much more to the classic Can Baba style – ie overhanging tufas all the way to the lower off.
It’s reckoned that anyone under 5’8” to 5’10” is gonna have a hard time on the initial boulder. Taller climbers can keep their feet lower on the set-up moves for this boulder; shorter climbers have no option but to build their feet as high as possible. Either way, the key to this boulder is getting the “out-of-reach” hanging tufa with the right hand whilst your left is jammed into something of a gnarly pocket. Those versed in modern comp-style blocs might wish to try a paddle move.
Once through the boulder, a long steady grind (c.F7c) leads to the lower off high in the roof above.
Pix 1: Pete Chadwick establishing himself on the tufa after the initial boulder
Pix 2-4: Pete, at a shade of 6 feet tall, kept his feet fairly low for the initial boulder.
Pix 5-8: Suitable rested thanks to a kneebar after the crux, Pete cracks-on up the overhanging tufa systems to the lower-off.

30/11/2025

Week #2 Datca: Toprak – another Can Baba classic
Toprak is another really popular super-long F8a in the cave at Can Baba.
Starting up Ruzgar, a tricky pocket/tufa F7b+, Toprak then blasts off into ever steeping tufa-rich rock above; 40m later you end up in a hole in the roof and clipping the lower off. Lowering off, you end up a good 12m if not 15m out from the start of the route; the takeaway is that with an average angle of somewhere between 20 to 25degs overhanging you need your steep rock game to be on point.
Conveniently, a kneebar rest at the top of Ruzgar enables a decent rest before the work of Toprak kicks-in. The 10m or so of climbing up to the mid-height point on the Toprak headwall involves numerous technical kneebars and tufa pinching. Again, another decent rest is possible – “riding” a short, fat tufa “dong” out right before the final section passing another hard section leads up to the lower-off. Featuring even more burly climbing, this last section of Toprak demands effort, concentration and determination.
Pix 1: Ella Russell ( captured in the thick of the headwall on Toprak (F8a).
Pix 2-4: Ella Russell starting her Toprak adventure by punching out a quick and efficient ascent of Ruzgar F7b+. The gnarly pocket moves at the start of this pitch frequently cause problems for many climbers – especially those not well-versed with such things and/or with fat fingers.
Pix 5-8: Suitably rested after Ruzgar, Ella kicks-off up the first half of headwall of Toprak with lots of techie kneebaring and tufa pinching. This section demands solid ex*****on.
Pix 9-10: Ella crusing the final section of Toprak like it was a walk-in-the-park; an inspirational send of a super impressive route that won’t out of place when lined up side-by-side amongst the best cave routes of its grade anywhere.

27/11/2025

Week #2 Datca: My Mediterranean Dream
The most popular/repeated routes F8a at Can Baba is Mediterranean Dream, c.30m of overhanging golden-coloured goodness on the right wall of the cave. After a brief inspection during my 2024 visit I decided to make MD one of my main goals for 2025. If you forgive the indulgence, I’ll share some details in case anyone is curious…
As much as possible my preparation for this trip – specifically the final couple of months before leaving - was targeted towards this route. As MD is a varied pitch, route specific training – such as tufa or bespoke boulder problems – weren’t a high priority in my mind; strength, strength/power endurance and general endurance were my focus instead. Bouts of finger boarding, bouldering, boulder triples/circuits as well as sessions doing general extended climbing at low intensity were slotted in between outdoor performance sessions whilst ‘working’ to complete a UK goal – an extended (40 move) boulder mag-lime traverse.
Long story short, once in Datca I jumped straight onto MD, broke it down into chunks, focused on each in turn and then linked them. Fairly quickly (for me), it all came together and I redpointed the route at my first proper attempt. As my main, and hardest goal for the year it was, I can say, particularly satisfying to get the tick – the first at the grade for me since 2018.
Now for the admissions! I’d be the first to agree that via the tall(er) person’s variant MD is definitely easier. Nor would I dispute that MD (using said method) is very soft for the grade; certainly compared to Peak standards. In short, MD not only suits my climbing style it’s a perfect soft holiday graded route!
Continued in comments…
Pix 1: Kevin Avery deploying the tall(er)-person’s beta on the initial boulder on the crucial headwall of Mediterranean Dream.
Pix 2-5: Kevin Avery pulling into and through the second headwall boulder.

23/11/2025

Week #1 Datca: Photo Dump
So, I'm back again at Datca for the last stop for the year; this year though, it’s hotter and drier than usual – by a quite some margin!
Can Baba, although not the only venue of interest, remains to main attraction from many/most. The slabs on the left of the cave have a number of easier pitches on generally pretty rough and textured rock but once in the cave proper the routes steepen up considerably and are liberally festooned with tufas. As with all tufa-rich routes, a high proficiency with kneebarring – and associated confidence in said technique - pays dividends.

Pix 1: Donie O’Sullivan taking a late-in-the-day burn on Medusa (F7b+). This gets steeper and steeper and keeps the crux for the pull-over back into the vertical rock above.
Pix 2: Alan Murray enters the steeper section on Black Hole (F7c+). The technical lower wall falls away to more meaty moves to finish in… the back hole! A second pitch extends the route upwards to around 55m pushing the grade up to F8a.
Pix 3-5: Solucan (F8a), a 45m single tufa, is one of the king lines of the crag. The climbing is sustained more than boulderery; overall, a high degree of fitness and resilience is needed – together, of course – with numerous knee-bars for both resting and progression.
Pixs 6-7: Deeper in the cave proper is Toprak (F8a), another king line of ever increasing steepness. Kneebar king, Alex Barrows, captured in his natural environment on the upper section of the route.

21/10/2025

Autumn is here it seems...

It's been a while since I posted but the autumnal scenes are just gorgeous and are getting better by the day...

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