Last rays on the cliff

This was taken a month or so ago at the climbing spot at the village of Sisljan, near Trieste, Italy. The climbing spot (or crag) isn't very large but it is right next to the sea, perfect for climbing in the late autumn, winter or early spring. 

On belay

I don't even remember when I took this - it was taken on film, probably a couple of years ago. I had the photograph in my dia-projector for ages and didn't bother with it because the scan quality was so bad. I took some time to fix it and it came out pretty good. I'm still in love with the colors of Fuji's Velvia film :-)

Anyhow, this is at Napoleonica (as is this ship, this sunset and this castle), where Blaž was belaying a climber in the late afternoon sunshine on a winter day.

The view

Taken below the Grossglockner, facing south-east (that's the Stuedl Hut below on the right). This is very close to the spot which I took this photo two years ago (though this older photo is facing south).

Sundown on the Croda da Lago

The last rays of sun illuminate the Croda da Lago, one of the Italian Dolomites. The photo was taken about a week ago, when we spent some time climbing in the Dolomites around Cortina D'Ampezzo. This was taken from the Cinque Torri as we were finishing for the day.

Satisfaction

Satisfied after a day of climbing in the sunshine.

Equipment

Maja showing off some climbing equipment at the Lim Bay. There's nothing better than leaving a cold, grey Ljubljana and going climbing down by the sea where it's nice and warm.

Reflections of climbing

Taken in Vipava this weekend in the beautiful, warm sunshine.

Dry tooling in Vipava

Blaž and Anton dry tooling in Vipava, Slovenia. I spent the entire four or five hours filming, then another six hours putting it all together. Dry tooling is climbing with ice tools (ice axes and usually crampons) on dry rock, usually as a part of ice climbing when the ice runs out, though in the past few years it has become a sport in its own right.

Climbing in Arco 2011

A video I made from photographs and video clips taken during our recent stay in Arco. The video was made with Apple's iMovie software and all of the photos and video clips were recorded with a small Panasonic camera. Making video is actually quite fun, though there's so much to learn. I think you can expect to see more such videos in the future ;)

As for the climbing, this was during the holidays before the first of May. We spent about a week near Arco, where we've been a few times (see here and here). It's a great place with lots of rock all around, a friendly atmosphere, and around four or five hours from Ljubljana.
 

Vipera berus

I went trad climbing today to the little-known Slovenian mountain called Kogel, and during the walk to the wall we ran into this fellow, the common European Adder (locally known as a Gad). I've seen snakes before in the wild, even poisonous ones, but this one is the biggest so far (as well as the closest). We estimate that it was around 60 cm long, though his hiss was surprisingly loud (you could hear it clearly from about 10 meters away).

Last climb of the day

 

Blaž climbing in Verdon - this was taken right around sunset, which is why the colours are so warm and inviting. It's moments like these that make climbing so rewarding. I can't wait for some sunshine so we can hop down to the seaside and climb on rock again. Spending all winter climbing on artificial walls gets boring pretty quickly.

Oh, and the photo was taken on film with my old Konica.

Edit: you've probably noticed the large size of the photo... Blogger has increased the maximum size of the photos and I'm trying it out. I like it so far - comments are welcome!

Boulder time!

Taken this summer in the Trenta valley, in an area with quite a few boulders. Climbing boulders is much different than climbing regular walls - but no less fun.

Above the valley

I think this photograph was taken in Osp or Vipava, I'm not sure, since they are very similar (and not too far apart). Both are well-known climbing areas, though they are usually too hot in the summer.

Deep Water Solo

This is Cuban kid climbing from the water at the Malecon in Havana. Malecon is in my opinion one of the nices parts of Havana, because Cubans are there mostly because of themselves, not because of turism. Malecon is a few kilometers long road next to the sea and at the evening people like to gather there, just everybody, young and old. During the day families stay there like being on vacation (and the problem is that the Cubans are on vacation all the time:) and children jump in the water all day. If you jump you must get out also and at some high parts there is no other way than this kid is taking:) City with around million inhabitants right next to this water, garbage at the bottom of the sea right under you, but most of the time this water is crystal clear. So I also took a swim. No turist close to me I was feeling like a cuban child:) and met some of the most unspoilt people there. Taken with the telelens...

Climbing silhouette

Another shot of Barbara. I took this a few days ago at Ljubljana's Roman Wall. This wall dates to the Roman times, though it's been renovated twice - once by the architect Jože Plečnik, and a second time in the early 90's. It is often used for recreational climbing, especially by students in Ljubljana. We went climbing in the late afternoon, and when the sun started to go down, the light became incredible. The photo below, of my sister, was taken maybe ten minutes before this one.

Bomb :)

A nice back portrait. This guy just must be feeling safe, he's smiling as you see. Lots of reasons for that kind of mood. If you keep reading this blog, you might also see the front portrait. Just kidding, I didn't really have the guts!

Taken in shadow, so the shutter time was quite slow for the telephoto lens I used, because the light was pretty weak.

Arco climbing - part 2

Barbara bouldering during our last day in Arco. Nataša and Uroš found a wonderful climbing area 5 minutes away from our camp. It had a bit of everything, though it was mostly short routes and boulders.

Welcome back to the second part of our Arco climbing trip! I don't plan on writing much, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Carabiners are one of the most important pieces of safety equipment in climbing. I was hanging of this shiny nice one while photographing from the wall :)


Nataša in the middle of a route that many of us
would consider hard. She, on the other hand, took some
time off to pose for a couple of photos.
The same route as above, this time on the way down. Yes, those
really are some amazing rock walls in the background.


Life in Italy is just so relaxed. I caught this lady chatting with some neighbor during one of our walks around the lovely little town of Arco.


Mmmm the food in Italy is wonderful. Twice, we bought fish
from the local store (they were half the price we would have paid
in Slovenia) and roasted them on a barbecue at the camp. In the background,
you'll notice some wonderful local wine - again, criminally cheap.


Tadej reaches for a small crack to hold on to. This particular wall was
one big slab with very little to hold on to - just some cracks here and there,
footwork and technique ruled the day.


A minute later, he's gathering rope to clip in. I imagine
it must taste like chicken.


These are my magical climbing shoes which climb by themselves.
If anyone from Rock Pillars ever reads this, the original photo
is on sale ;-)


One last view from atop the wall. Beautiful, I know.

Arco climbing - part 1

Uroš climbing some vertical rock.

Warning: Long post ahead. Feel free to skip the text and to just check out the photos. As always, you can click on a photo to bring up a larger version.

As I wrote a couple of days ago, I was away in Italy climbing for five days. Put simply, it was brilliant. But let's not get carried away and go back to the beginning. Four of us (Barbara, Tadej, Blaž and I) left on Wednesday morning from Ljubljana (I was doing the driving), heading towards Trieste. Nataša and Uroš would join us a day and a half later. We stayed on the highway until Treviso, close to Venice. I planned on leaving the highway there for a few reasons. One, the traffic by Venice, Padova and Verona is just murder, two, highway driving is boring and three, the local roads towards Trento are to-die-for beautiful (at least according to my dad, who's been in these parts many times).

So we leave the highway behind, my passengers weren't very excited at first. But as we approached the foothills of the Dolomite Alps, things became very beautiful very fast. We stopped for a beer close to Levico, then continued on to Trento. I'm not kidding, this area really is breathtaking. And the roads! Italians not only know how to drive, they know how to build sports cars and roads for sports cars. Imagine a narrow highway with fast curves surrounded by mountains in every direction. Seriously, these roads were made for Maserati's. Not Ferrari's, not Lamborghini's, this is pure Maserati territory. If you have to ask why, forget it, you wouldn't understand. I got pulled over by the Carabinieri at one point, but it was just a regular inspection, we chatted for 5 minutes on how beautiful the mountains were and they wished us a safe trip.

The view from our campsite towards the north - towards Trento.

We soon go to Arco, our destination, a town on the northern edge of the Lago di Garda. A small town well known for adventure sports. The campsite was compromised of 50% mountain bikers (with serious bikes, I'm talking 2000 Euro Cannondales, Specialized, etc.), 30% climbers with the remaining 20% made up of surfers and hikers.We were pleasantly surprised with the native Italians and their excellent English and German - though I prefer the Italian myself :-)

Where shall we climb tomorrow?

This really was heaven on Earth. When we asked the receptionist at the camp if there were any climbing stores in town, he replied with (and please, imagine a heavy Italian accent): Yeeess, there are seven. Seriously, what more do you need?

So we spent the next four days climbing every day, always somewhere new. There's all kinds of different rock for all tastes. Easy grades, hard grades, slabs, friction climbing, overhangs, you name it. And now for some more photos (there will be more in part two, which will come in the next two days, I promise).

Barbara looking like a glamour queen on the rock face. I took this by climbing up, tying
in and waiting for her to climb up after me. Photographing from the bottom up doesn't give
a nice perspective - basically, the higher up you are, the better the photos.

Two minutes later, she had reached the top and was on her way down. Well done :-)

The view was just fantastic pretty much everywhere we went. Driving to
various climbing areas, we'd usually go through a small village or two
and at least one olive field.

This dude doesn't need any rope, free solo all the way!

Nataša was by far the best climber among us. She
somehow made everything look easy.

Tadej learned an integral part of sports climbing - clipping in with quickdraw
carabiners. This was during our last day - every day we were more tired,
but every day we climbed better.

And Barbara spent the last half hour hanging around on some
boulders. Closer to the ground but no easier than normal climbing,
bouldering as it's called has its charms.

Well, that's all for today, but as I mentined, part two is coming up with more pictures soon! I had two cameras with me, but we spent so much time climbing, I didn't take a single photo with the second one - the one with film. Oh well, next time.

Vertical limit

Yesterday we went climbing to Vransko, which is a village covered with free wireless internet and where you can find beautiful rocks just near the village. You can park practically under the wall if you want, so there is no walking to the "crime scene", which is why fathers and mothers who are climbers like this place as well. In front of the wall there is beautiful green grass when you can rest and the routes are quite easy. The hardest one is marked 6a, so Grega mostly went just straight up.

From the wall

Yesterday we were climbing at the Casa Cadorna wall which stands above the Doberdo lake. From the wall (the picture was taken from the ground), the lake looked just magnificent yesterday, especially because of the fog, which gives it some mysterious looks, mixed with the strong bright reflection of the sun. Blacks are also pushed up a little from the raw file.