Climbing in Slovenia
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| Slovenian limestone |
Slovenia is a great country, the people are friendly, the food and wine are wonderful, it is small and the road infrastructure is excellent. Best of all most things you will need are good value for money. If you are interested in the climbing aspects of our trip have a look at this post, these are my observations. I will post seperately about the general travel.
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| Milking the goat for my breakfast cereal at our Air BnB in the hills above Vransko. The goat was good for about 2.5 litres and it was happy to just stand there but I was slow and it was a little stroppy towards the end of the process. |
Transport
A small car makes it easy to access the many small crags. However, cross border hire cars are expensive so, because we were flying out of Vienna we hired an Austrian car. Be carefull! Hire cars from outside of Slovenia need a "vignette" which is a pass for all the toll roads. Unlike Switzeralnd or Slovakia there are no toll booths and the signage for the vignette requirement is not obvious. I was fined 180 euros a couple kilometres past the border. The internet makes it appear that the lack of decent information at the border is deliberate and a bit of a scam.
Other than that, the roads are excellent and it only takes an easy 2-3 hours to cross the country but the toll road fine wasn't the warmest welcome to a new country.
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| Kotecnik provide a large number of routes on multiple crags. It was well shaded and cool which was good as Europe was in the midst of a heat wave. |
The 'all of Slovenia' Guide for rock climbing is out of print and difficult to find. There is going to be an update soon. There are newer guides for the Osp area and northern Istria which are readily available.
The guide is very neutral, there are some crags that are excellent and some areas that are seldom climbed choss heaps and the guide gives you very few hints on what is good or bad.
Some crags can be hard to find based on the guide and the accompanying sketches.
The walking times are for uber fit Slovenians alpinists. Add a little time if you have to negotiate with your 10 year old tabout a walk uphill!
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| Coiling the rope at Crini Kal just near the Italian border |
A 60m rope and 12 draws will get you up and down anything I encountered. Celje and Kranj both have a small selection of gear stores. They are the equal of the gear stores in Ljublijana which were a little disappointing compared to Slovakia and Czech Republic particularly given the predominance of mountain sports in Slovenia.
Rock
The rock at the crags is predominantly limestone but doesn’t have the goulettes and tufas that I am familiar with from other limestone crags in Thailand or Greece or France. I found the rock a little hard to read at first but, that said, it had been 12 months since I was last out climbing. An alternate reason may have been the fact that I was climbing poorly.
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| There are massive limestone karst systems in Slovenia which provides the limestone in the South. This is from Postojna caves between Ljubliana and Osp. |
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| Even trees on route to provide some shade at Kotecnik |
Routes
They are well bolted and at the areas I climbed they were predominantly glue-ins.
We were on a family holiday, touring and seeing the sights of Sloveina for a little over a week. Although Kate and Ada were very good about giving me the time to get several onsight leads in each day, I was still on a pretty short leash.
Our areas were selected based on where we were staying, routes in my range, ease of access and level areas at the base of the crag so Ada could amuse herself without undue risk. Other non-climbing activities in the adjacent area were a bonus and there were plenty of activities ranging from horse riding to just walking in the hills and swimming in the lakes.
Initially we stayed near Celje at a great Air BnB above the village of Vransko.
Nearby were the crags of Kotecnik, Vransko and Creta. Kotecnik was our first stop and is the most significant crag north of Ljubljana with over 350 routes spread over about 19 discreet crags. There was a decent uphill walk in which my 10 year old didn’t appreciate even though it was the shortest approach. The crag was well shaded and the base of the climbs was pleasant for kids to hang around. All the climbs were well bolted and the climbing was interesting. In hindsight, I should have returned instead of looking at other crags in the area.
Nearby were the crags of Kotecnik, Vransko and Creta. Kotecnik was our first stop and is the most significant crag north of Ljubljana with over 350 routes spread over about 19 discreet crags. There was a decent uphill walk in which my 10 year old didn’t appreciate even though it was the shortest approach. The crag was well shaded and the base of the climbs was pleasant for kids to hang around. All the climbs were well bolted and the climbing was interesting. In hindsight, I should have returned instead of looking at other crags in the area.
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| Ada, our crag buddy. She did a little climbing, took a few climbing photos (although none were nearly as good as her efforts in Oman) and was not happy about the hill up to Kotecnik. All smiles here though. |
Vransko was a small crag in the town of Vransko and was a great spot to stop off and give Ada a climb on a couple of routes. It was in a small park on the edge of town and had 16 easy routes. It was made particularly convenient as we were staying near the town and could drop off for a quick climb before heading back to our accommodation. It was great for kids.
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| Our Air BnB above Vransko, complete with kitchen garden for our use and lots of baby animals (destined for the pot) for Ada to play with. Her favourite spot in Slovenia. (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1199171?s=MM4P) |
Creta is a new crag with 100 routes but I found it hard to find. We wandered around struggling to relate the sketch to the ground. We eventually found a crag with some bolts but I couldn’t relate it to the basic sketches from the guide book. By this point in time, my travelling companions were losing their sense of humour so we called it quits without roping up.
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| Krvavec, before the rain set in. |
We were staying in the small village of Zasip near Bled and drove up the valley to Lake Bohinj when climbing. Although Lake Bled was great for running and walking, in hindsight staying at Lake Bohinj would have been better.
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| Kate and my morning run around Lake Bled before setting off for a climb. |
Dov was reputed to be family friendly and a 1.5 km walk along a bike path which was pleasant. Unfortunately, the crag was chossy, the routes uninspiring, the bottom of the routes had blackberries and it did not appear to have seen many recent ascents. Don’t bother!
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| Crni Kal. |
Bohinj Bellvue was few minutes away in the car and had easy access and some shaded climbing at different times of day. Unlike Pod Skalco, it was discreetly tucked away and there were good routes which made it the most popular climbing crag we had encountered in the area. It had about 55 short routes in th range of 5c to 7b spread over 6 crags.
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| Slightly overhung limestone with some funky holds at Crni Kal |
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| Feeding the ladies in Trieste. A wonderful slightly bohemian, slightly grungy, port town with few tourists. |
We loved Trieste and stayed for one night at a great boutique hotel which we organised at short notice. There were plenty of well-priced Air BnB options if you wanted a longer stay. The next best option would be to camp at Osp which had a well-appointed commercial camp ground.
Our hotel: http://www.alberonascosto.it/
In hindsight and if I was on a more serious climbing holiday I would go in the Spring or Autumn and stick to Osp either camping at Osp or in an Air BnB in Trieste.
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| Osp with its steep overhangs, the result of a collapsed karst. Too hard and too hot for this trip. |
