Gym kids strike back

Yo people!
I am back from a short little trip with the Youth Climbing Team to Tuscany in Italy. We had a couple of days climbing and some good times with all the people in the now much younger team.
I think we decided for Tuscany so we could check out the supposed future destination which is closer to Slovenia than France or Italy and due to some praise of the place by none other than Klemen Bečan.
The decision had its downsides, though. Our house was booked some time in advance, so when the time came we still went there despite knowing the crags are mainly wet! Also, due to our main goal (Candalla Alta) being completely soaked, we had to opt for other crags. Somehow I wasn't that impressed, I mean, I love it when I go on a trip to some new crags and places that we haven't been to before, but those two were somewhat boring.

There are LOADS of chipped holds, even in places well unnecessary - routes are literally fabricated top to bottom. It's not like I'm seeing this kinds of stuff for the first time, but I think it kills the fun a bit. Considering the climbs were mostly well overhanging, a lot of routes consist of only jugs and endurance climbing.

It would be unfair to say this for all the routes though. Candalla Bassa has a good portion of less steep climbs in weird shaped rock which is fun to climb, the style is mostly endurance, and also a sick looking tufa spanning about 20 metres in length that I tried. The grade was 8a+, so looking at it I thought it could go onsight, but it turned out it was easy terrain all the way to the top crux which involved some killer dropknees and invisible little dusty holds - way too hard to figure out first go!
The upper section of this crag is a big overhang with some tufas where me and Domen managed to onsight an 8a+, and Domen also crushed an 8b left of it - also onsight, damn this guy is a beast! I felt the style suited me totally - roof climbing on positive holds, even so it took me quite a fight :D Respect to young Pehi for doing the 8a+ third go for his first of the grade!

The second day we chose to go to a local secret spot called Monzzone which is a huge grotta incut on a steep hill. On the right side, it's less overhanging and has some interesting looking tufas and routes up to 7c which are really nice. The main job for us though was the giant overhang in the middle - sadly the routes here were full of sika. Still, all of the guys had a go at an incredibly pumpy 8a which Domen and me did onsight (myself only by the skin of my teeth!). Later, Domen did an 8b+ redpoint that I got super close to, but pumped out just metres below the chain. Vezi and Tim impressed us with an 8b already in the dusk - venga!

On the third day, we felt like Candalla Alta might have dried up by then. so we made the half hour walk uphill to check it out. When we arrived, we found out water was still dripping from all the tufas, and additionally a storm just conjured up.
We were devastated - for once, the climbing looked amazing even from the bottom of the cliff. The sector has huge overhanging prows sticking out covered with tufas, full of routes in the eight grade which would probably be perfect for onsighting!

We had no choice but to retreat. Demoralised, we headed home and decided to stop in Verona to train in the King Rock gym to get our lactic acid fix. After all it was a good session, but Candalla Alta calls for a return visit, even if only for this one sector.

All in all it was a fun little trip, despite the weather I got in A LOT of pumpy climbing, so hopefully this will show in the future. There was a number of typical youth team twists and turns - running out of fuel in the highway, losing our way in the middle of rural Italy, but hey, whatever it is - it always works out somehow.

Big shoutout to the coaches syndicate and all the people on the team! Bring on summer climbing! I feel super psyched for some more rock (but have little motivation for indoor -.-).

Enjoy the photo selection from me, Jera and Borut.

Škofla in 8b+

thanks to Jera for this one

when things get hard, lunch is in order

GYM KIDS!!!

Today's update: I've been to Bohinjska Bela with Milan where I managed to tick probably my hardest ever 8a, Ekosistem. I was also about to do Ritem v zraku, 8a+ on my second go, but my foot slipped on some wet tufas :( 

The 8th grade route counter now stands at 97! Only three left till the magic number!

Competition season start... not?

Hello everyone,
some things worth mentioning have come up in the last week even though I've not been rock climbing since that killing spree day in Mišja Peč (hmm need more of that!).
So the coolest of them I think was my prom night despite being a little too formal and fancy and shit for the ordinary rock climbing dust-biting crag dog. I had to put on a suit and get all dressed up, and we danced, ate dinner&cake and drank champagne... but, it was a lot of fun. And we had a great party afterwards. I felt this os one of the things I shouldn't miss out on as it marks the nearing end of my high school years... keeping this fact in mind I think it's needless to say that there was some big words being said about what we are to turn into and how we are to become the foundations of our brighter tomorrow.
On my part, there was a lot of euphoria at the party and a continous wonder and praise to the beauty of my dancer. Here's a photo of us (shit resolution though, sorry)

 Good times!

Now the bad news is that I won't be taking part in the first European Youth Series comp this year in Edinburgh. This was the team coach's decision which is supposed to be based on last year's performance in the EYS. I will not go discussing the details here as I feel I have to obey the authority and also I think changing anything in this case is out of my reach.
What I am pissed about, and will say it is that I think it's very unfair, and I feel let down by the youth team, my motivation for any more comps has just dropped a considerable notch.

On one hand, I am being told how much potential I keep, how I should keep training (well, training for comps) and competing despite the overwhelming amount of strong climbers on my team - and thus maybe leaving out things I desire just as much. Then on the other hand, I don't even get a chance to prove myself. If it was some other time I would maybe accept this without a fuss, but this year I really feel I've put in a lot of work at the gym and also that I am fucking strong (even though I have sent less hard stuff outdoors - in terms of sheer numbers only).
I think what this is leading up to is that at the end of summer, after I'm done with my matura exam, I'm packing my bags and leaving for some distant place with a lot of rocks where things will make better sense.


Anyway, things are looking as promising as always in general. This weekend, it's time for the our own Boulder World Cup in Log-Dragomer. A lot of my friends are competing here and I really, really hope they crush it! I might get a day out on rocks, too!
And also, in regard to the above ranting, even the Youth Climbing team is not as bad as I said - we're going for a short three day rock climbing trip to Tuscany! Wheeooo! Psyched!

Stay tuned for an update on all that! PEACE

p.s. and my brother is coming home for a short while next Wednesday! Should be fun!

Easter egg hunt in Mišja Peč

Yo people,
I was out in Mišja Peč yesterday, I've done a couple of routes and thought I should write a post! Also, my sister, I think she might actually be getting keen on some rock climbing again!
When we were warming up, I got her on this superb 7a called Jumbo which we both really enjoyed and she almost did it. Afterwards, I had a warm up go on Tekila, an 8a I tried a few weeks ago but messed up the crux, but didn't really care. I was saving my power for the goal - Nočna kronika, an awesome 8b in the center part of Mišja with a quite bouldery crux (actually, two cruxes and a rest between). This time, I fired it off first go, which was fourth in total. Not bad! Since I was feeling strong, I thought maybe today was the the day to finally do Pikova dama, another majestic 8b that has resisted my attempts for some time now (I will not even say how it's become just a question of luck and mental war - I could have easily sent it earlier). I climbed up to the final move with little trouble, but kinda pumped out - the top is a real heartbreaker, for me the definite crux, it involves some super small crimps on a very exposed slab.
I didn't really care though - I suppose I'll get it when the planets align or whatever :)

We still had some time left, so I tried Caffe Expresso, an 8a+ just left of Nočna Kronika with a really hard, intense start (maybe the first ten metres or so) which is followed by an easygoing line of jugs up to the top. I quickly came off in the first try, but I did check out the moves and all, then took a bit of rest. After some time, I focused up, went mad and crushed it!
I'm pretty psyched about yesterday - besides the sends, we had a fun day. There was a lot of people (haven't seen the place so crowded in some time), a lot of friends and perfect conditions for climbing, it was cloudy with a bit of wind, not cold though.

The lame thing though is the parking issue the villagers of Osp sparked up. The usual parking spot in Mišja Peč is now closed due to the locals angry with people who are illegaly camping around the crag. I hope this will soon get settled, myself I'm unhappy with the parking becoming closed but I understand the dissatisfaction, I actually find the situation bad as well. The people camping below the crag and in the parking are leaving thrash and toilet paper around the place and it's really uncool.

So, we have to keep this mind: take the thrash with you and respect the local ethics of climbing and access. Rock is finite, let's keep access infinite!

Peace out to y'all, thanks to Matic Obid for the tape, big ups to Vezi&Škofla, we'll be back :)

Ondra storms Slovenia

Adam Ondra has done it again! Yet another time, the climbing world has been left in awe admiring the climbing of who is (I think this is quite fair to say) the best sport climber in the world!
Yesterday, Ondra was the main star of the sixth International Mountain Film Festival Domžale and the slovenian climbing scene flocked to see the new feature-length film (starring Adam Ondra alone) and listen to his lecture. What we saw was a true testament to the progression of sport climbing and the embodiment of dedication, total comittment and unstoppable hard work (of course coupled with amazing talent).

First off, the film (The Wizard's Apprentice) is awesome. I don't think it would be appeal to a non-climber, but such is the case of almost any climbing movie. For anybody who's had a few days of rock climbing, it's almost a must-see. It will definitely open your eyes to how much has been done in the last ten years, where Adam Ondra has taken our sport and how far away from the actual limit (if there is any) we might be. Just consider that Adam Ondra has had an almost linear curve of progression ever since he started climbing, and he doesn't seem to be slowing down, either. Not that he would like to, anyway. This guy breathes, speaks, lives climbing.

 He's unstoppable. And the way he looks at his own climbing and improving should be a big point to consider for all of us, mere mortals. He's never looking for excuses, inflated grades, easy ticks, peer acclaim... Brave and humble has become the synoym, but in Ondra's case you will see it is completely justified. What drives Adam Ondra is simply the will to go harder, bigger, further.
All of this became obvious in the lecture he gave after the screening of the movie. His show was not the best I'd seen though, I guess he hasn't done much of it yet - well, in no way I'm going to say that he should stick to the climbing alone! It's just that for those who follow climbing news websites, a lot of what he said was not new, or revealing. I was kinda hoping he would clear up some other things, there's a lot of stuff he could go about, not only showing us his hardest ascents (well, some of them - he has a big selection to choose from). I suppose he's not so much of a showman as some other people are, but hey - do you need that if you're already known for being the best? I think the best moment of the lecture was actually at the start, when he came up to the stage said hello, told us he'd been to Kotečnik and that he'd onsighted Iluzija, 8c. You can tell people were left speechless.
 That's a bit like Jerry Moffat onsighting the hardest french routes, or winning a game of chess versus Garry Kasparov in three moves.

In any case, it was very good having Adam Ondra in Slovenia again (note that he's probably the guy with most hard ascents in our crags), it was most inspirational and psyching, one simply cannot believe how good at climbing he is. I mean, it's like, you know that he's super good, and every couple of weeks you hear of another 8c+ onsight he'd done, but hearing all that packed in 3 hours along with some superb footage in the movie... yeah... AMAZING.

Go watch the movie people, you will not regret. And get off your bum and go TRAINING! There's so much of room for improvement still left in everyone of us. Your hardest redpoint grade is just a number, nothing else. Go out there and rip it!

Meanwhile, to me the best vid of AO on the net. MUST SEE!

BD athlete Adam Ondra onsights Mind Control (8c+), Oliana, Spain from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.


It's looking promising for some rocks this weekend, LET'S GO!

Fresh stuff

What is going on with Pinticlimbs? Where is the once so hot and popular blog gone to? Is the blog you happily subscribed to turned into another semi-abandoned web space where every second posts starts with "sorry about the lack of updates..."? What's up with the guy that's been doing 8c's all around? Who is this Pinti dude anyway?

This next post might not answer all of the above questions, but the fact is I haven't written much in the past weeks (you know it's bad when your non-climber girlfriend urges you to get on it!). Contrary to what it may seem, there's been A LOT of climbing going down the past weeks, pretty much every day - as long as you count gym training as climbing. I do, myself, as my training can be really sick sometimes, especially lately when we've grown a bit stronger and are now doing some REALLY hard stuff at our wall (all thanks to our coach Roman - I have a blogpost on that in mind, so stay tuned).
But actually, I have been pretty busy with other things, so I didn't have much time for any rock climbing. The good news is my school is coming along just about perfect, and it looks promising about the driver's licence (yay :D)!
The two things worth mentioning at this point are the NLP bouldering league that went down on 10th of March, and hitting Bitnje with my sis' the other day.

I managed to claim victory at the 3rd round of NLP in a notably weakened competition (the senior team was cranking hard in Fontainebleau - oh my GAWD finally some problems I could do!). However, it was not easy - Gregor Vezonik was a tough opponent, and the other guys were strong as well! It was the first time I managed all the problems in qualifiers, and then I beat Gregor by just a move, so it was a bit of a cheap victory, but I was quite psyched nonetheless. I heard round 4 is on April the 15th - I think that's the day after my prom night, so I will see about attending it, haha :D

So as I said, I went to Bitnje last Sunday, I actually managed to persuade my sister to go climbing with me! She'd been hesistant to come along with me as her rock climbing level has gone down a bit in the past years, but I was keen to take her to some crags (I hope she will still be up for it!). Bitnje is a smaller crag in the north-west region of Slovenia, I love it, the style is very sustained in a slightly overhanging wall with an odd tufa and typical Slovenian limestone... The crag has about 10 routes in the range of 8a-8b so it's well worth a visit, although there's no harder stuff (but some projects!).

I sent two 8a routes I had tried two years before, both are absolutely brilliant and were pure joy to climb. I did a half-onsight of Che Guevara, 8a and did Silent Alarm, 8a second go that day. It's been a while since I've clipped quickdraws, and so it was even more of a pleasure, I felt pretty strong so I was going up those routes flawlessly and yeah... you know... the feeling of sending, being in control, it's so good! Should get on some harder stuff next time I go rock climbing (it's looking promising this weekend - PSYCHED!).

Some photos of NLP, it was a great event! See more here, thanks to the people who took them.

Gregor trying hard

HA! So here we go with another blog written! Want to write more in the future (note to self: ALWAYS bring a camera)! Thanks for reading people, drop me a line in comments section if you feel like it!

We need some fresh sh*t!

I say, bolt this sh*t mate!

One more from the UK times!

Thanks a lot to Ethan for getting this vid!
This was my hardest E grade I did while over in Britain! Maybe you can't regard it as a proper trad route though, since it's actually a highball boulder (approximated to V6 higball in the guide - so Fb7a+). Luckily we stacked up about 10 pads below so it made comitting to the last moves a bit easier! Still didn't want to come off at the end :)
We had a great day out that day, we went to this smaller spot called Ina's Rock (Churnet area) with the intention to get on this one boulder/route, and the one left of it which is an even more intimidating line, called Cornelius and weighing a solid E8! That one was also done by Ed, Adam Bailes and a very strong dude called Dave Mason, he came along with us and it was quite inspiring to watch!

Ahh! What a great trip it was! Shout out to the Sheffield crew! PEACE!

How I went to the UK

I'm sat at home with this mug in front of me, with a load of memories from the latest trip waiting to be written down. Where to begin? I wish I was back there and still had a week left... It's amazing how things sometimes just take you on a full scale, completely blow your mind... Honestly, I love Britain, for long I've been fascinated by many things British: the climbing, people, the culture (I guess it has to do with most of us speaking English), so I really felt like going there once. I spent a week staying at my friends the Hamers, actually, there was a lot of people coming together for some climbing in the Peak District. A big part of the Ceuse 2k11 crew made it out: Ed and Sam, Ethan, Luke, Ted, Kitty... it was really nice to see all of them! A big shoutout to everyone, and especially to Ed, Sam and Denise for the amazing hospitality and making us feel like at home (and the hat, too!).

cracks & hats

I got to see the Stanage Plantation, we had a great day out even though it was really windy. It was great to see Ed crush the mega-classic, Brad Pit, 7c+ (with the help of my shoe, ha :D)! I tried it but saw no success, but I can say those blocks are world class and climbing on gritstone is great... the rock is something I'd never seen before, it's all black in colour, I guess it's some kind of sandstone but with very big crystals which make for awesome friction (seriously, it feels like sanding paper!). Unique to Britain haha!

Sam getting super close on Brad Pit... get it next time dude!

Since I mainly climb routes when I go outdoors, I was psyched to see Raven Tor, home of some very famous routes (even world's first 8c+, Ben Moon's Hubble). It's one of the few limestone crags of Britain, and I suppose it's quite old-school by now. Really, one can see why the Mecca of today's sport climbing is the almighty Spain (I wonder if they'd even bolt this piece of rock if it was in Catalunya?), but still, this place has history. A big, long and well earned history. Sadly, it was wet from the rain of the previous day (something that you're likely to have to put up with when in the UK), so we sacked the idea and spent the day eating fish and chips AND also doing some hardcore training on Ed and Sam's board (basically a small overhung wall in their garage, very fun stuff actually).

the WET Raven Tor... on this wall, there's Mecca, Hubble, Revelations, Mutation, Evolution, The Prow...

I was told I was lucky with the weather, frankly, I couldn't complain even by the euro standards: we only had one day of proper rain, and even that day turned out great with a BIG session at the famous Sheffield gym (the successor of The schoolroom?), The Climbing Works. The gym is really big and also it has a massive campus board! Proper British style!

word up

Probably one of the coolest days for me though was when I first tried trad climbing (yeah, the proper one... placing friends and nuts and wires and all that). Since I had absolutely no clue about how it's done I took it easy at first, doing some HVSs, which would probably be about... maybe F5a or something? Towards the end of the day I was getting on some harder stuff and managed to do E1 and E2! The climbing was still in the F6 range, but it took a lot more focus to find the protection... and somehow I didn't really want to fall, even though I was... quite sure about my placements :D
For some reason that I can't explain I really liked this sort of climbing, placing your own protection puts the whole thing into a different aspect and you may find routes that would have been piss if bolted very intimidating and challenging! In fact, I took to it so much that I'd have loved to go back, but it was already my last day in Sheffield so now I'm only left with a small taste of it and some amazing psyche to try some proper hard shit! Also I feel like I could much harder stuff so I'm curious to find out how hard I could go! And also see some other grit crags, the one we went to is a smaller one called Lawrencefield and we actually got here because Millstone (a bigger one, where Master's Edge is) was super windy.

Luke on an E2. The climbing must be only about 6a or 6b, but the line was great.

Ted on an E2

So I had to leave my friends but the trip was still not over, I met up with my brother who is on a student exchange in Cranfield, just north of London... I haven't seen him for a while so we thought a day out in London would be a good one! We're both quite into science and stuff so going to London, the Science Museum was an obvious choice! We got lost strolling through endless halls and I loved it, especially with a detailed insight into the exhibits provided by the upcoming great engineer by my side! BIG UPS BRO!!

All in all it was a great holiday, it was great so see all those people again, shout out to y'all! Cheers to Ethan and Kitty for the pics! See you soon I hope!
PEACE