Monday, March 9, 2015

Bouldering in the west

The short weekend trip to the west of the country was one of the best spontaneous ideas lately. Two days of sampling the bouldering in this region. The scene is small but lively, the locals active and enthusiastic.

Limestone bouldering is soo funny and different. Different friction, types of holds, holds everywhere actually - there's always something to grab, depending on your fingerstrength. Trnow with its river polished blocs is actually surprisingly smooth and monolythic and thus really, really cool.

Big thanks to Karin and Tjaša for being our guides and letting us stay at their place :)
also shoutout to fellow blogger Ajdbloc for the endless syke on developing and giving the scene a character. I've always been watching clips of new FA's, wondering a bit if I'll ever get to climb on them. Now it was so cool to touch and climb those rocks we've heard about :)
Boštjan Weingerl is the man-machine behind most of the hard FA's in Trnow land. In his blog there's also a topo containing the basic must-do list.

For the local record, let me comment on the grades - I've felt everything to be a grade easier than given. We probably chose the best days to climb there, most of the stuff was put up in the summer when I imagine friction must SUCK compared to today. Today was actually really good. Plus, the style suits me - lots of compression stuff. And I wore great shoes that made heelhooking feel great.
onwards amongst the trees. most of the boulders here appeared only after an earthquake about 10 yrs ago
Polog warm up slab
Bor on El Paso (7B?)

Tjaša on the small-but-tricky Sitko Nalič :)

Polog, frozen in time

Soča and its blocs

me on Sršenov ples 7B+?

rasta man on the attack. Črnica 6c, tricky one

Dave trying The Shield (7B+?)
Tjaša on The shield

Fear of forest, exposed and exciting

Grahu showing some hooking skills on Sladica 6B+

me on Neon forest 7C, pure gold


Boulders climbed:
Trnovo ob Soči
Javelina assis
The Shield
Neon forest
T-Bone overdose
Sršenov ples
Sladica
Črnica
Fear of forest

Polog
Maroko
Berlin
Tokio
El Paso
Tomi boy
+some others

percentage of time with no phone reception: 50%
average sleep statistics: 10 hrs per night
other activities: attempting playing hacky sack, using a hand-driven lift to cross the river
weather: always sunny
stress level: none

Ain't no better thing than some fresh bouldering to re-learn heelhooking, appreciate rock in all its subtle detail, have fun and enjoy life. We'll be back for sure *****

ghetto footage deserves a ghetto vid. actually it's my computer that won't take any more complex video editing :(