A visit from Quebec

Hey,
the past two weeks have been a great time! We hosted a visitor at our flat. Julien is a friend of mine that I met three years ago while climbing in Ceuse. We had a memorable day trying the beautiful classic 'Face de rat' and enjoying the Ceuse lifestyle.
I was super psyched to have him over in Slovenia! It's not only Osp and Mišja Peč for hard climbing here, as long as you're psyched you can get a total bang out of the local crags.
The guy is strong and I wanted to show him the best of our summer crags. We visited Bohinjska Bela, Kanjon and Sopota, Kotečnik, Čreta, Warmbad... and got some good sending done :)

coffee culture at the crag :)

It was a great time staying in Ljubljana, sometimes mellow, sometimes super exciting. I still had to pass some exams and it was cool to have a motivated partner for an afternoon session. We had some cool weekend warrior sessions after my exams (which went well, too!), a few nights out in Metelkova to celebrate and a few proper, full-on days of climbing which leave you totally wrecked in the evening and that I was lacking so much. Last Sunday was the culmination of the good energy and we had a smashing day in Kotečnik.

It was a nice transition from the stressing year at uni to a long summer vacation :) Now Julien is setting off for the next leg of his trip and I'm packing up for a two weeks' stay in Fontainebleau with kids from PCL.


On Sunday we felt it was high time we finish our projects in Kotečnik. I was getting at Iluzija, the 8c testpiece which is hands down one of the coolest hard routes I've ever been on. I have already had some very close attempts and it seemed to be turning into a mini epic. Sometimes bad conditions, sometimes wrong beta - it was quite at my limit so things had to align to make it happen.
Julien chose to work on Umazana igra, the amazing 8b+. He had it worked out well and Sunday seemed like the day to send.

It was cool to feel the real psyche again... Some days before at the crag I was kinda mellow, just doing some climbing and not really focusing on the sending. On Sunday it felt different. There was no distraction.
Julien literally cruised Umazana igra on his first go of the day. On top of that, he scored a rare onsight of Specialist za življenje, 8a+ and we both did Firmament, 8b at the end of the day.
Before that, I finished my struggle with Iluzija. I messed up the first two attempts despite feeling good, I felt I can do it even in the third attempt but it was going to be a close call for sure. It's these situations that make it really exciting... knowing you can still do it but it will take an extra amount of concentration and determination. There was a great atmosphere and friends cheering and I felt so psyched at the crux! It's just one of those best moments to experience.

ILUZIJA!!! so syked

Julien crushing Umazana igra. thanks to Luka Tambača for the amazing photos

It was great to have a psyched visitor. The motivation kinda passes on to others... Also, out of the people I've climbed with, Julien is the guy with the highest ratio in hard climbing/laidback approach ^^ climbing with and meeting people helps you see certain things from a different perspective and I got lots of inspiration and ideas both in the climbing and general aspect.
So, a la prochaine, we're ready to kick off for another adventure, let's see what happens :)

good life in LJ