subota, 1. studenoga 2014.

Prilep(ic)



Last week I was in Macedonia on a boulder trip in Prilep. I climbed 4 days in total, and I mostly sent 7b+ and 7c's on flash. I really like flashing boulders, it feels really good to do all the moves first time you try them.
Weather in Prilep was way colder than I expected, I had to wear jacket all the time while not climbing, but on the other hand the grip was extremely good.


First day, when we came pretty late, I climbed some 6c's and 7a's and I wasn' really amazed by Prilep, but next day after flashing Žolta zmija 7c  I was really thrilled and after each new boulder I liked Prilep more. I was prepared for the fact that Prilep has really sharp and skin-eating boulders, and first 2 days I was okay with skin, but 3rd day when I tried Velika Smetka 8a few times, it started to be painful. I realized I won't be able to do it with fingers in that condition, so I took 1 day rest to regenerate some skin, and it did pay off next day when I sent it ! I was happy I still have some skin after it so I went to climb a classic, Predator 7c+, and Zagrebački 7c just because it is Filip Pečenec's boulder. That was the most successful bouldering day for me.

Velika Smetka 8a
Predator 7c+
Zagrebacki 7c
All in all, I really liked Prilep, the scenery is wonderful while climbing, sleeping and food are really cheap and bouldering is awesome while you have skin. But even you don't, just tape and continue.
If I compare Magic Wood and Prilep, I'd say Magic Wood has better pure bouldering, but Prilep is better as a trip. You can be sure you won't have as much raining days as in Magic, and even if you have few, you don't need to sit in tent and wait for it to stop. You also don't need to cook your own food :D That's a real relief for me.
I will come back for sure, and I want to make new sector as there is a lot of potential still.

 Summary:
Day 1: easier routes up to 7a+
Day 2: Žolta zmija 7c (flash), Lost in paradise 7b+ (flash), Tup tup 7b+ (flash), Gladiator sit 7c+,
           Es tut mir gleich 7a+ (flash)
Day 3: Gotham city 7c (flash), some easier routes
Day 4: rest
Day 5: Velika Smetka 8a, Cocoon 7a (flash), Predator 7c+, Zagrebacki 7c, Dilajla 7b+


Animal transport in Macedonia
Split crew
Tobacoo fields around Prilep
Chess for relaxing




ponedjeljak, 20. listopada 2014.

Fothia Boulder Open



This weekend was the long awaited opening of new Fothia boulder gym, in which I train. Now it is more than 2 times bigger than before and it has many new holds and shapes. I'm syked to train there now :D

There was a competition to celebrate the opening, and we invited few Slovenians so it was pretty interesting. There were nice but pretty hard boulders in qualification. I was the only Croatian guy in the finals, together with Kruder, Bizjak, Pintar, Hribar and Zan Sudar, strong guys. When it became darker, spotlights were turned on and our DJ Sanjin was playing music, and everybody gathered to watch finals.

Slovenians told me to climb without a shirt like they did, but I rarely do that so I didn't want to, and they joked me about that. But after the first boulder, I was actually the only one to do it, so I told them it was because of shirt. I was surprised I was leading after first 3 boulders, it was really tense, but I didn't do last boulder and Kruder did, so I took 2nd place after Kruder, and Bizjak was 3rd.
After the competition we went into some nightlife and had good fun.

 I was really happy I can compete with such strong guys, and now I'm ready for new trainings in new gym.





srijeda, 20. kolovoza 2014.

Magic Wood and EYC Langenfeld



Hello everyone !
Welcome to the first post on my new blog.
I decided to open a blog so I can keep tracks of my climbing trips and competitions.


MAGIC WOOD

 Before EYC in Langenfeld I had plan to visit Magic Wood to make good training for boulder competitions. Group formed pretty quick, in which were Salih Mulaosmanovic, Arman Kovacevic, Stasa Gejo and her mother Vesna Pavlovic, Barbara Gilic and Frane Culic from Split, Vito Muzevic and me. We departed on 6.8. and it was pretty cool and fun drive, and we arrived to Magic at around 11 p.m. The camp was almost full, and we found last 4 places for our tents. 

Next morning when I got out of tent I realised where I actually am, in Magic Wood, bouldering heaven. I was really syked to go climb some boulders. When we went into the forest, I just wanted to climb climb and climb. We warmed up in Madame Etoile 6b+, really nice traverse. Then I sent some 7a, and after that we went to beach to climb Grit de luxe 7b which I flashed. That route is awesome! 
Grit de luxe 7b
Frane in Grit de luxe
After it, I flashed Dropzone 7a and sent 7c Hohenzone in first try, but I climbed Dropzone which is part of it so its not real flash. Both are nice crimpy boulders. Salih told me that there is one 7c nearby which is on crimps and I should try flashing it. And so we went to Schneebrett , Barbara explained me the beta and I was syked for the flash. It has one long move that I made and after that 3 small crimps but I didn't want to fall on them, so I crimped them hard and there I was, mantling out my first 7c flash before I realised it. It was really nice end of the first day in Magic :)

Schneebrett 7c
Flashing Schneebrett 7c

2. day I flashed Wildfire 6c, and sent Smeagol 7b which felt pretty hard. I was trying Supernova 7c which I felt 10 days after in my left leg and left arm because of constant heel hook and compression. I also tried some 8a's, and Foxy dyno where I was really close to do it.

Foxy dyno


Supernova 7c
 3. day it was raining all day. It's so boring in camp when it is raining, so most of the day we were eating or in the village on the wi-fi. I wanted to have rest day anyway because my biceps hurted a lot after Supernova.

4. day rain again :( But it stopped around noon and we went into the forest to find some dry boulders. I sent Dinos dont dyno's 7b/+ and flashed Intermezzo 7b+ (in guidebook 7c but everyone say it isn't). 
5. day raaain again, so we went to Chur for indoor boulder training.

Last day it was raining half of the day , and when it stopped I was trying Octopussy 8a , it went pretty good and I believe I have it next time I come there.


Wood chopping in camp, or at least trying to...



Magic Wood really fulfilled my expectations. I would like to come back any time.

In the evening we packed up and went to Zillertal. I don't know why, but probably to escape the bad weather and find some drier boulders.



SLEEPING IN THE BARN

We had in mind we will sleep in some free camp in Ginzling we heard of, but we came in the village at 12p.m. and we couldn't find the camp in the night, so we didnt know what to do now. My father sent me address of climbing legend Gerhard Hörhager, who bolted Moskito 8b in Paklenica, which I sent last summer and is one of my favorite routes I've climbed. He has some sort of climbing farm where you can sleep, so we wanted to sleep there. At around 1 a.m. we came to his house and called him on phone but he was probably sleeping so he didn't answer. We tried to find doorbell on his house, but he didn't have any. Oh man I can imagine how we looked like some burglars going around the house in the middle of the night with headlamps haha. As we couldn't contact him and it was already really late, we decided to put few tents in front of his barn and sleep there.

Imagine his face when he saw tents in front of his house next morning :P  But he understood us and offered us to train on his boulder because it was raining everywhere. What a legend!
Yeah, the boulder is in the barn
For the next night he also offered us to sleep in the barn, there were some matress in there and it was the most comfortable night on the trip.

EYC LANGENFELD

 

After that night I have left the group and my father came to pick me up to go to EYC. I have came 1 day before to see groups who were competing on first day. On last EYC in Argentiere I didn't climb good and I was 30th but now when I saw the boulder problems I was really excited to climb on them because they looked just as I like, and I knew it will be better. And it was good indeed, I climbed pretty good and got 6 tops out of 8,  and was really close to have 7. I ended 12. and with one more top I would be 6th and go to finals. Anyways, I was satisfied, but now I know I can do better! Next time I hope for finals.

 MY FIRST 8A

On the way home I stopped at Felbertauern to climb some more boulders as they were on our way.
I wanted to try some 8a because I didn't have enough time in Magic to sent one, so I warmed up in some easier boulders and found Schluck du Bruder 8a that I liked. It's nice traverse on slopy holds, looking similiar to Supernova, which I tried in Magic so I got the feeling for that style of boulders. It was going really good, and I sent it in about 45 minutes of trying. My hardest boulder for now :)
 
Schluck du Bruder 8a
 
 

 This was a really good trip for me,  experienced Magic Wood at last, and pushed my bouldering limits.

Until next time, bye :D