Percona's team spends most of their working life inside distributed systems — on-call rotations, production incidents, Kubernetes clusters at 2 a.m. When their annual gathering landed in Antalya, they decided that what followed the meeting should be as far from a screen as possible. They reached out to us. We took them to Geyikbayiri.
Geyikbayiri is a sport-climbing area in the Taurus mountains, about 30 kilometres from Antalya city centre. The rock is featured and technical, the approaches are uneven, and the routes span a wide range — from comfortable warmups that ease people into the movement to sequences that genuinely demand focus and problem-solving. For a group of people who spend their days debugging distributed systems, that turned out to be a comfortable fit. The mental engagement is not so different. The consequences are just more immediate.
The Percona day started early and ran hard. Climbing in the morning, lunch at a private estate, an afternoon trek to Trebenna — a Roman and Lycian ruin site cut into the hillside above the valley — and a farewell dinner in the evening. The logistics were ours to handle. All the Perconians had to do was show up.
In practice, that means a lot of invisible preparation. Custom itinerary built around the group's experience levels. Routes chosen for mixed ability — accessible enough that no one was left at the base, technical enough that no one was bored. Pre-trip communication with gear checklists and a custom packing list sent to each participant ahead of the trip. Everyone arrived prepared and with the right kit.
Six certified guides were on the rock — including a female guide, which several participants mentioned specifically. For those who found the environment a bit unfamiliar, having a woman on the team made the day feel more accessible. Full event liability coverage, guide professional liability, and participant briefings before the first route: the invisible infrastructure that lets everyone else relax and actually climb.
For a group of people who spend their days debugging distributed systems, sport climbing turned out to be a comfortable fit.
After lunch, the group hiked up to Trebenna — ruins of a Lycian and Roman settlement embedded in the hillside above the valley. It is not a difficult trail, but it is a proper one: uneven ground, a real ascent, views that open up as you climb.
For some, Trebenna was not enough. After the trek was done, a handful of Perconians decided to push further and hike up an additional peak. Nobody asked them to. Nobody stopped them either.
At some point during the trip, a Percona team member produced a handmade banner. It read: Stupid Shit. It was not on the agenda. By the end of the evening, it had become the de facto motto of the whole adventure.
We had it printed on the jerseys.
"Do More Stupid Shit" — Perconians Go Peaks. Geyikbayiri, Turkey. April 2026.
The jerseys were made by a local factory in the Antalya region that produces technical uniforms for professional climbing teams — proper moisture-wicking fabric, the same construction used for competition-grade gear. The Perconians wore them on the rock. The motto has since appeared in company Slack channels, which we are choosing to take as a compliment.
"Geeks Go Peaks team, thank you so much for organizing this for us — it was perfect."
Peter Farkas
CEO, Percona
"Together with Geeks Go Peaks we spent an amazing day climbing and hiking in Geyikbayiri near Antalya. Calling it 'just a team-building activity' is like saying nothing — it was outstanding."
Radosław Szulgo
Senior Product Manager, Percona
"Thank you for such a wonderful day. I truly enjoyed every moment — the great company, the laughs, and the memories we created. It meant a lot to me."
Vadym Yalovets
Software Engineer, Percona
"Thank you very much, Percona and Geeks Go Peaks, for organizing this. It was a wonderful experience."
Sveta Smirnova
Principal Support Engineering Coordinator, Percona
"Thank you for an amazing day — I enjoyed every moment of it."
Eleonora Zinchenko
DevOps/QA Engineer, Percona
"It was a wonderful day and an awesome experience. Thanks for organizing this."
Varun Nagaraju
Software Engineer, Percona
Geeks Go Peaks designs these experiences for companies in the technology sector. Our community is built from founders, engineers, product managers, and the people who work alongside them — which means we understand the audience. People in tech will immediately spot the difference between something genuine and something assembled from an event-planning template, and they do not find the latter very interesting.
The format we ran for Percona — a single full day of climbing combined with a trek and a dinner — is a starting point rather than a fixed product. We also run multi-day corporate adventures, including via ferrata, alpine mountaineering, sailing, and combinations of the above. The itinerary is built around the group, not the other way around.
The best corporate adventures are ones where the company becomes the story. The people are the main heroes.
If your team is gathering somewhere and you want the optional day after the meeting to be worth talking about, get in touch.
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