Random scramblings

Life really gets simple when the sole question is what rock to climb.
Even more so when the goal is just to go out and be challenged.
Numbers and grades have burdened my climbing character enough earlier.

This is not a cliche statement about enjoying climbing over chasing grades, 
I'm just psyched on how natural it has become to scale rock.

Few days ago I did a one-armer, I think this was my second time ever, with no specific training and after only climbing rock for months. Historical moment, indeed.

Pockety Frankenjura, best limestone slabs of the Slovenian Alps, some quality 3D tufa climbing in Osp, all mixed up. Tomorrow I'm off for the pinnacle of what mother Earth has molded, forged in millions of years deep beneath its crust. The granite life continues!

teamed up with mr. Kruder yesterday for an attempt in Last minute. It's massive, 6 long, varied pitches of unrelenting, hard climbing. we checked it out well and syked to get back on it. lots of pump and burning legs for one day!

Kruder on the first, bouldery 8a+ pitch. 7.45 AM, it felt unreal to be crimping that early

HA! So this is the secret to why he's so strong - but what's inside?

well, they say everything in our Alps is chossy.  (unfair tho because the route is tremendous!)

first blood on mountain climbing for me, with Janez being a great menthor. we eyed up this pretty pillar and did Cvetje v jeseni, 7b. The climbing was phenomenal.

cruxy in the start of the 7b pitch

rocking up the final bits of the hard pitch. the quality of rock, the climbing and the exposure make the killer approach worth it. Rock climbing is easy, but mountains are hard and demanding (paraphrased from Patxi Usobiaga). It was all bolted (though runout) so no pitons for me so far!

yes, yes, the summit! Quick now, I'm cold, let's get off this thing!

having fun on the radiator style, water carved easy lower pitches

feeling pretty beat up after my first climb in the Alps. That guy behind is smiling, he does a lot of it (but right now he is in Pakistan). Good luck dude!

spent two weeks in the Frankenjura with the youth team from PCL, and what a blast it was. Look out for the video series! Here I'm doing the uber-classic Sautanz (IX-).

feeling a bit dark and grainy in there but the route I'm doing is stunningly good, so much of fun movement packed into 10 metres of climbing. That is why I like Frankenjura so much. Spiderman (X-) in Grune Holle.

Osp from a month ago. There's always routes to be done in the cave... had a good onsight attempt in the new classic Helihopter v omaki (8b). It's really fun if you haven't done any steep tufa climbing in a while. But it gets old soon...

a visit to Osp. it's nice to see it in full green. had a fun time doing some multipitches and chilling by the fire with the PCL/DRPK crew. I'm going to miss you next year!

 Follow the epic:

Cadarese crack climbs

Me and Dave kicked off the preparations for our upcoming Yosemite trip. Essentially this will involve lots of planning, tactics, logistics. But the most important is for me to become familiar with the different climbing style that is characteristic of Yosemite.
Looking at the big picture, in the last years I've climbed a lot in Europe and got my climbing to a certain level, but the predominant style here - characterized by limestone - is only one part of what climbing has on offer for me and what I'm psyched for.

Cracks in granite, protected using gear (cams and nuts). We heard lots about Cadarese, a "crack climbing heaven" north of Milan in Italy. The photos looked crazy but I had no clue what to expect.
The ambiance is awesome, granite walls everywhere. The crag itself has such a unique configuration, the whole hill is very steep, almost vertical, but the walls come in ledges of different heights. This gives it a nice exposure.

the crag from the distance - there's sectors on top of each other

the van life! so goood

I understand now that being able to mix your climbing up and try different things every now and then is such a precious thing. When it seems all your climbing has narrowed down to one cliff, one route or one sequence of holds and that is all you can think of, launching into a different game is so refreshing.

Cracks in granite, protected using gear (cams and nuts). We heard lots about Cadarese, a "crack climbing heaven" north of Milan in Italy. The photos looked crazy but I had no clue what to expect.
How do I finger-jam? What size of cams do I need? How to protect this and can I run it out? It's been an intense four days of learning where every route required lots of focus. But I liked it, the focus has been on other things than usual and this meant you can let the climbing itself come naturally, like it has been wired in the brain over the years.

Dave warming up on a cool layback flake - the start with shuffling the big nr. 5 cam was scary for me!

fist-knee jam on this one, it was harder than it looked. grade: 6c

my other favourite of the routes we did. A stemming corner that took a lot of smearing footwork. Protected using the crack inside the dihedral. Technique: when your back already hurts bad, push even harder. oh yeah, grade: 7a

Dave on an easy warm-up

"The Doors" is the most famous route of the place, the reason why we knew about Cadarese. It also represented the most striking case in the bolting controversy that sparked up in the local community a few years ago. Naturally it was a clash of two ethics - the people who bolted it probably simply didn't climb on cams before. Seeing how cool it is to climb lines like "The Doors" in a purest way with the extra spice from placing protecion makes it obvious for me - thank god they removed the bolts.


The doors - Cadarese from RAGNI DI LECCO on Vimeo.


Although it looked intimidating and big, maybe too big - we had to get on it. Climbing it was one of the best climbs of my life - it's just one of those rare gems every climber dreams of. It doesn't just look good in the pictures - the whole line is perfect from bottom to top.
Essentially it climbs like a sport route - there's enough footholds and breaks in the crack so you don't need to finger-jam all the time - so I laybacked a lot. This increased my chance of success, but still - after first trying it, it felt like a monster. I worked it on top rope once more and even just the climbing felt about a french 8a+. Placing cams makes it super pumpy. The protection is all bomber, generally I've been told a well placed cam in such granite will sustain any fall. I've fallen a few times on my gear in other routes as well and it felt okay - so not too scary to put you off committing to the moves.

Dave on The Doors

the rack you need - in the end, we used a few pieces less...

Yesterday was our fourth day on and only somehow we decided to give "The Doors" another, slightly desperate shot. As soon as I took off, I felt the soreness of three consecutive days of jamming all my body parts. I climbed slow, always recovering and trying to keep it under control. I didn't believe I could do it, but I kept inching up while lactate dammed up in my arms and threatened to put me in coma.
I remember the surreal feeling of fiddling in the last small cam, arms totally swollen, with a faint hope of sending it appearing in the back of my mind. I launched for the last crux, a tricky dihedral with sidepulls and undercuts with bad feet. It went by the slightest margin and I stood on top, feeling lucky to be alive and making actual sense of things.

me on the ascent - so happy to have finally cracked into the trad game

Feelin incredibly beat up but content for working towards our goal, we returned home. The lines we didn't do call for a return visit.
Big thanks to Dave for being my crack climbing menthor and having the patience while I desperately tried to figure out the finger-jam. I'm beyond psyched for what's to come!

Lost in a sea of gray

So here is what we climbed last week.
The stop in Oltre Finale was a welcome detour that let us get some climbing done and wait out the rain in nice company. I see now a visit here was long overdue, it's a sport climber heaven and basically just a great destination for a week's holiday. Take Mišja Peč, select the best 50 climbs from 6th to 8th grade, add only a moderate amount of polish (most of the stuff was bolted post 2000) and you get an average crag in the valley. Plus it's scattered around, you can get shady or sunny sectors with various route lenghts, there's not much chipping... It's also very tourist friendly, there's lots of places to stay. We were sorted anyway with our friends booking one of the cosiest flats I've slept in. Ahh the luxuries of being in the know of right people :D thanks guys!

it's nice there!

strong men!

When going sport climbing to new crags lately I've been chasing that first 8b onsight. It's a matter of trying lots of different ones, getting lucky with the pick and also getting lucky in that particular moment. They don't come easy though. Where are those soft ones now??
I've had a good try in one 8b but eventually settled with an 8a+ and an 8a while getting massively pumped on every route I did. It's been a while since I've climbed lots of long routes onsight and one definitely needs to get into shape for it. Training only on the campus board obviously takes you the other way. It was tempting to stay for longer and try more of the endless list of routes here, but we made the decision and bounced to Verdon.

planning, sorting gear, and some staple food of "clochard grimpeurs"

We were an un-even team of a sport climber with a great appetite for hard routes and a mountain climber with not so much cragging experience. Thus we compromised between shorter, up to 150 meter and easier multipitches that Eva lead and harder, old-school single pitches accessible via rappel that I was getting on, with Eva following with a jumar.

"but what if we cannot climb up this thing?"

It was great nonetheless. I set up belays and carried water when Eva went and lead "Saut d'homme" for her first 6a multipitch climb with great, committed climbing between fairly spaced bolts. For me it was a valuable learning experience too, I learnt some rope manouvering from her (us free climbers are just so ignorantly unexperienced for such big walls) and got accustomed to the big air. I was forced to revise my big-wall skills and scouted the terrain for some future trips here. The list of routes I want to do kept growing as I flicked through the guidebook. I am coming next year to spend a few weeks to cover every inch of that wall!

corner stemming on "Saut d'homme", a 1970 classic. A bit polished but great nonetheless. We didn't bring any gear and this was one of the few easier-grade climbs that are entirely bolted.

summit smile the previous day after "Dalles grises" an easy intro climb

One time I was going to try "Haute tension" 7c, a J-B Tribout testpiece. My abseil rope was too short to reach the anchor though. It was late and nobody else was on the cliffs any longer. A strong wind picked up just before and I knew now why everyone was gone. I hung there with a terrible runny nose, slightly anxiously sorting out my prussik ropes to reascend, I must have looked quite miserable. I've had a similar experience back in 2008 when we climbed in the Verdon for the first time with my brother and I dropped my belay device halfway up the wall. I did feel more confident now, but I can't say it didn't go with a bit of that cold sweat. Always a lesson learnt!

I tried "Pol pot", a long 7c+ famously onsighted by Jerry Moffat more than 30 years ago. It probably sounds stupid but I think due to that I was a bit nervous, I wanted it for myself too. Also due to the exposure I was a bit gripped and hands were sweating more than I'd like them. It's pumpy climbing, long lock-offs on gouttes d'eau (pockets that gush water when it seeps) and technical and tricky to read (I didn't try to work out the moves on rappel). Climbing inefficiently, I pumped out right at the top. Don't know if I'd claim the ascent anyway since you're always rappeling down the same routes? It's dangerous today with that many climbing purists/trolls out there in the internets. Still an amazing pitch, that part of the wall is so reminiscent of Ceuse... immaculate bulletproof limestone everywhere... and all that air! Man... I dream of going back. Hopefully a weekend escape to the mini-Verdon of Paklenica will sort me out for a while :) till then, youtube.

Last but not least. I got to lay my hands on a piece of climbing history. Destined to become the world's first 8c (felt like that) then downgraded to 8b+, no matter the grade today it is still prized as a major route. Doing it in one day was an ambitious call (I lacked beta, my knee sucked too), but I had a blast anyway. It's inspiring to imagine how far ahead of time mr. Tribout was back then. Such a crazy steep climb. And all those underclings... I'll be back one day to climb it. Here's a video of a french friend doing it.

LES SPECIALISTES!

...and the ambiance

'Ljubljana sucks' selfie

Anyway... onto the next, thanks for reading, stay psyched people!

The pilgrimage to Verdon

It all began a few weeks ago with a familiar popping sound, one that's never indicated any good. We were in Kotečnik and I was trying Botulin, rocking high up on a heelhook when suddenly it happened in my right knee. Burning pain and a sketchy feeling in the knee put me out of climbing for a while. I was feeling a bit lost. I was feeling in a great shape to climb on whatever and now any twisting of my right knee hurt bad. Maybe thirty years ago dropping knees was really considered a girl thing, but it's not so anymore (not that I'm a climber that would really excel at it - so I didn't lose all hope, I thought maybe just campus with one foot). A friend of mine had this happen some time ago and claimed climbing without dropknees was not possible. Anyway I was a bit gutted.
Two weeks later, the holiday was coming up and word on everyone's lips was where to go climbing. Weather looked bad all over Europe, our long-planned Verdon trip had failed and my leg still hurt anyway.
In a desperate wish to not stay at home, go somewhere new and still get some climbing done, I'd come upon this idealistic sounding idea.

all time inspiration: Patrick Edlinger on 'Take it or leave it'

Deep down inside my climbers soul I am a fan of the old-school: the golden age of French limestone, the birth of modern sport climbing. The time when overhanging roofs still looked futuristic and climbers wore lycra, all skinny and sleek like their guru Patrick Edlinger.  Old climbing mags make my imagination run wild and I've studied Jerry Moffat's 'Revelations' down to the very last detail. Let's hitchhike to Verdon!
Eva was the perfect partner in crime for this. 24 hours later we stood at the end of Tržaška beginning our pilgrimage. I wanted it to feel like back then, when there was no internet, information on climbing spots was scarce and only spread through the mags and word of mouth. Besides, I've always liked travelling via hitchhiking for I deeply believe in solidarity between people and how we need to work on keeping this spirit alive. So here's how we did it. 900 kilometres, plenty of un-planned detours and plan-B's but always with one goal in mind. I'd packed my climbing and camping equipment and I felt care-free, as long as I end up seeing that magnificent sight of the gorge opening up in front of you as you walk up 'La belvedere de La Carelle'.

the mission. Bologna was a bit of a detour, but we got to meet the horse dentist guy this way

The hitch there was happening steadily but at no significant speed. We had to change many rides as most people could only take us maybe a 100 kilometres. The language barrier is a real problem for me in Italy, even though I've now improved a 1000% since the last time hitching through Italy, I mostly rely on mimics and giving some French or English words an Italian-sounding accent and hoping it will work. Speaking the language is the key, this way the ride can be an experience instead of just travel. Usually though, you will get rides with people more interesting in particular and they will speak another language. We got one with a French guy living in Italy working as a dentist for horses (!) and had an intense debate on politics, economy and life in general. While this is generally a topic reserved for evening beers when everyone feels a little smarter than usual, it's just exciting to hear different opinions from different people. And he even changed his course so he could take us further down our path! Legend.

one of the most random meetings ever. Big ups you!

It was getting late though and we weren't advancing as we hoped for. In essence hitching is a game of lucky coincidences, while the hiker tries to increase the chance of it happening. Well, we could have expected this or something similar given the amount of Slovenian people heading to climb in Oltre Finale (Albenga). Somewhere around Alessandria in a petrol station, a car pulled over with the best crew of friends. A few hitches later and we ourselves made it to Albenga and thus ended up in an unexpectedly cosy night for a hitchhiker.

we are not wet, smelly and dirty! something wrong?

This then turned into a few days since the climbing here was that good. However, Tuesday afternoon we paced ourselves up again. After getting benighted and forced to camp somewhere in the French hillsides, only kilometres away from Verdon, we reached our destination on Wednesday morning and finally got to feel all that glorious air beneath!

the French countryside north of Nice

the 'falaise de l'Escales' - dreamt of seeing this for long enough

What we climbed, how I got scared while dangling above the void with vultures looking upon and how the infamous 'Verdon manouever' and prussik-climbing came in handy is another story. I also got to satisfy my 'climbing history-geek' side with trying one of the J-B Tribout classic from year 87' and I am so psyched on this. More on that some other time.

Finally, the trip back was memorable in its own right, too. We escaped the rain in Verdon and were travelling fast, until it all came to a stop in Antibes. One more benightment and our morale was low. Next morning we were saved by a Serbian truck driver who was going all the way to Sežana. It was a pleasant, whole day ride and we experienced that true Serbian hospitaility even despite being crammed with all our stuff into a cabin of a truck. Chit-chatting on everything from world war 2 history to Novak Đokovič and vegan diets the day melted into a swirl of passing cars and smelly, tourist filled Autogrills as we travelled along with 25 tons of other lemons. We made it back home! I ticked one of my climber's life goals: the pilgrimage to Verdon :)

life gave us lemons

Revolution in Bitnje

It's been almost a month since the last post here. I have been busy doing the uni work, some training, going out to climb on random days, night routesetting and family visits. Motivation for climbing has been high as usual but with no specific focus.

I'd got tired of Mišja Peč and getting stuck into projects that feel so desperately close to my limit and where potential success seems to have turned from a real possibilty to a somewhat abstract term one cannot really imagine. Hmmm... get to the chains without falling, well it's really that simple, except in our own minds.

The arrival of spring weather and summer daylight time freshened things up a bit. Afternoon, post-work sessions and warmer temps... Bitnje was a crag high on everybody's list. It is due time for it to get a mention in this blog. The good old Bitnje, the staple of hard climbing in the area, with its less-than-perfect, often dusty, "še-kr-goveja" endurance routes. They often also contain a considerable boulder section to bump the grade, with a typical characteristic being crimps, two-finger pockets and smearing on bad, often crumbly footholds in only a slightly overhanging wall. Reminsicent of the previous generation of climbers here is the ocassional chipped hold. However, they have also left us with a few unclimbed routes. Those who have completed the inauguration with climbing all the existant hard routes are now standing up to the challenge. Whatever, just to keep us psyched :)

my bro sporting the new Hirundos and enjoying the sun

I set to work on one of the projects. Yesterday was going to be my fourth day on it. I had already come painfully close on Wednesday. I could feel an amazing progression compared to last year. Awesome, something to make some sense of all those campus board sessions, after all. Yet, it seemed like the sending vibe has eluded me lately. I wondered how much longer it will take and cursed my lack of focus on attempts or holds crumbling off.

The route is about 30 meters long, after an easy start you climb a technical slab with cool moves for a 7a intro. It then steepens up and after 10 moves you get to a poor shake-out before another 15 moves that take you to the chain. The climbing is all long lock-offs on small holds and poor feet with one strikingly hard move that kept spitting me off.
Everything aligned yesterday. Weather was great, it was cold and there was some wind. We had a great crew and we all felt like this could be it. Janez climbed another project just earlier and other routes were going down, too

I remember exactly how it happened. I climbed up to the crux section casually like always, not struggling with any of the moves and thus having lots of spare focus to fight the mental battle and mantra-ing myself to power. Contrary to the previous try, this time I cared a bit less whether or not I was actually going to do it. I took the crux hold, started setting up for the move, then took an extra breath and spent an additional milisecond working my feet around. The world slowed down and I saw my hand hitting the next hold perfectly. A few more powerscreams and seconds later I was on top!

few days ago on the "Rigor mortis" project, i'm right up at the top of the wall

Sends of the day include (yes, conditions were truly amazing):
Rigor mortis 8c FA by me
Eleganca ježa 8b+ FA by Janez Miklavčič
Jera je bunka... 8a was done by Luki, Kern, Damjan
Che Guevara was done by Žiga Oražem and Mitja Predikaka

Johnny after completing his project. 3 years after first trying it, man you deserved it yesterday! "Eleganca ježa", a future endurance classic :)

Credits are due to Miha Kajzelj for bolting this route. Without the hard work of the equippers, none of this would be possible. I have yet to talk to him about naming the route but for now I've come up with this. 

Along with the new routes from Mitja Peternelj, Bitnje is turning into a big crag with many hard routes on offer that will keep even the new generations busy... for a season, maybe. But that's how it goes, the level keeps increasing and today's hardest route might be only a warm up for the prodigy kid of tomorrow. The thrill of clipping the chains, however, will always be there.

selfie with Ajda. the ex-gym kids turned rock climbers! more of this please!

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 :(