In 1989, she enlisted in a four-year course for mountaineering during her university time at the Middle East Technical University. She made the first female ascent of the north face of Mount Büyük Demirkazık (3,756 m) in Turkey in 1995. She climbed Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) in the Caucasus in 1996 and in the same year climbed Khan Tengri (7,010 m) in the Tian Shan range, a height record at the time for a Turkish woman. In 1997, she climbed Mount Damavand (5,610 m), the highest peak in Iran.