Peak of the career - Youth World Champion

In November 2016., I reached the pinnacle of my climbing career when I became World Youth Champion in Bouldering, at the world championship that took place in Guangzhou, China.

Quo Vadis, rare repeat!

There is one crag really close to my house, like 15 min away, which I haven't visited often.
But there is one harder route, Quo Vadis 8b/b+. It is really short (4 bolts) and powerful bouldery route. It has some hard crimping and clipping, and ends with nice dynamic move to good sloper.
 I tried it before a year or two, and couldn't really hold those small crimps good enough. But now it is just perfect for my current bouldery shape.

So I finally caught some time yesterday and decided to go give it a try.
I entered to figure out beta, and after I went down I wasn't even sure if I will be able to do it the way I imagined, because I didn't put much effort to finding proper foot position. In the meantime it got really cold, but at least friction was wonderful!

So I went for a try, and at one moment just let my legs swing while holding 2 small crimps, and it turned out to be viable beta for me! I fell a bit after because I didn't know where to clip from.
Then, next try, I just walked through it with that new fun beta. That was actually only 3rd repeat of this route!
It was set up by Marko Rožman in 2001, and repeated once more in 2003.
Now, 13 years later I added another repeat.
Sweet achievement :)


pics are from Luka Tambača

leg swing, I like it!

last hard move

Jurgovo and Angry birds

I wanted to visit boulder spot Jurgovo in Slovenia so Karlo and me invited some climbers from Zagreb, and I got surprised when we managed to gather 9 people to go there this weekend. My goal was to try and do Angry birds for which I heard lot of praises.

Jurgovo is small but offers some good boulders. 

First we went on Mona Liza  block where I did Čreva na plot 7B which at first didn't seem really nice, but it turned out to be quite interesting and fine boulder, but a bit hard for it's grade. I also did classic Mona Liza 7B+ there.

After that I did Johnny Cash 7B and very nice dyno Explosion time 7B.

I entered Reduktor 7C+ and Le belanca 8A which are both quite highbally so I didn't dare trying them with 3 small pads we had there.

At the end of the day on our way down we all went to Angry birds 7C+ so I can try it with enough crashpads. It is a slab leading into technical jump on the top edge of the boulder. I sent it after some jumping, and I must say this is one of the best boulders I climbed!

Real diamond.

Here's a short video of Angry birds, thanks Matija Baotić for filming and montage 

Summer full of competitions

It's been quite some time since last post, and in the meantime I was on a lot of competitions. In fact, most of this season is over for me,  only what's left is World youth championship in China in November and maybe WC Paris next month.

So big part of summer I spent around on competitions. I'd go to competition, return home for few days and then head for another one. I really like competitions, but in the end it left me quite tired now.

Oh, and I enrolled on college, University of Business and Economics in Zagreb :)

EYC Soure

First competition was in Portugal, which I was happy to visit as I was never there before. It was in May, and it was good to see where im standing at the moment after all the trainings. I did get into finals, but I didn't do well there and ended 7th. I was happy with finals for first competition though.

 WC Innsbruck

Next stop in May was Innsbruck, with whole croatian senior team going there. I absolutely love when we all go, it is always great fun and good mood when we are together.

 Boulders for my group were quite easy, which surprised me. I did 3 tops, and could easily have 4, but not even 5 was enough to get into finals, small number of tries was crucial. I ended in the middle, 63rd, which I was satisfied with, knowing I could do better easily. After the comp we went to Maltatal 1 day for bouldering, and I was reallyyyy close to do Wrestling with an aligator 8B, but rain started after 20 min of trying so we had to go. I'm just waiting to come back and do it.

EYC Graz

Graz was in the middle of June, and I had pretty high expectiations for this competition, as we trained in that gym alot and I knew almost all holds, which is always good. I started good, but there was one weird plate with top in the level of the feet which I just couldn't figure out how to do, so this time I ended outside the finals.

This one I couldnt top

EYC Warsaw

Start of July, and its turn for Poland. I was excited to go there as it's new place for me. I went there with coach Lisica, and we had really nice experience in Warsaw. We had no car so we used public transport and we've seen a lot of the city, which I really like.
In the gym it was quite hot, luckily I'm used to it as it's the same in my home gym in the summer. Here it was interesting, 20 minutes before the end, there were 2 boulder in which I both did 3 tries already, everytime with different beta so I didn't know which one to use in next attempt. So I chose one for each problem, and managed to do them both in next try which put me into finals.
In the finals I slipped from 1 top, and placed 6th.

Warsaw is beautiful city

from the finals

handling the beta

European university games

Now this was amazing experience! 5 of us from University of Zagreb were stationed with all other athletes in ''competition village'' and it was so much fun. Competition lasted for 3 days, with boulder, lead and speed. Fun thing is that on the day of bouldering competition I also had to sign up for university. So I woke up early, and went to sign up which was at 9.00, finished with it around 11.00 and then headed to competition which started at 13.30. I arrived to competition as freshman of Economics.    :D

I had no idea how strong the competition will be, and I was surprised when I saw some of the well-known faces, such as Dmitry Sharafutdinov. It was easy to get into finals, but the finals were sooo exciting and close.  I did my best, managing to secure podium on the very last boulder, finishing 3rd! Only 1 attempt short of Dmitry who was 2nd, while Slovenian Zupan was first. As it was hot and lasted quite long, I ended up with pretty bad skin for next part of competition.
Next day, lead and speed. As I didn't train lead at all I wasn't surprised to end up withouth the finals, I think I was 14th. The problem was also that I had almost no skin on fingertips so I couldnt do more than 5 minutes of warmup on wall :(

And then speed, in which I decided to perfom despite my trainer telling me not to. But good thing that I did!
I had to tape almost all my fingertips, but it didn't matter that much in speed. I was surprised how I was decreasing my time with each run, which led me to another 3rd place in the end!
Unluckily, I missed taster in the battle for 2nd place, but that came back when I managed to win in battle for 3rd against Russian who had fastest time of the competition, as he slipped. That speed was really a blast!  When everything finished I was so broken, no skin, everything hurt me, but it was all worth it.
I didn't even think I will be able to compete for the podium, but ended with 2 medals. Great time here, looking forward to climbing on next games :)

Zagreb university team 

EYC Argentierre

After University games, I came home, had 2 hours to pack up , went to sleep, and in the morning I was already heading for France. I only hoped my skin will be back normal for this comp, and it was, but I could feel fatigue in muscles which was result of giving my best on University games. I had really bad start, got a bit nervous, and then rain stopped the competition. I relaxed in the meantime, and when we continued I was doing great. Sadly, I was 1 try short of the finals, finishing 11th.

junior team

EYCH Langenfeld

Came home for 2 days, and went to my last european youth competition. Familiar place, was here 2 times already and last year I did really good so I expected something similiar. But, boulders were really hard and I was climbing so strange, I don't even know what happened. I was only 30th, which left me disappointed, especially as it was my last such competition and I wanted to remember it as good one. Maybe I fell out of shape a bit, as my home gym is closed during summer so I had to patch my trainings in different ways. Now it's good thing there is some time before next competition, to calm down and get back in shape.

After competition I went with my familty to Zillertal where I had chance to boulder for 1 day only, as it started raining afterwards.
It was cool day tho, I didn't climb quite some time on granite and I was happy to feel it again.
I did 7B+,  7B+ on flash, 7C and 7C+/8A.




Soon the gym will open, and I'll be back to hardcore trainings again,
and I hope I'll be able to go on few boulder trips also

Another lead 8c and bouldering in Swiss

2 Weeks ago I was in Mišja peč after quite long time, and as I didn't have any project there to climb I went to try Talk is cheap! 8c. Slovenian youth team was climbing it and route seemed quite hard, I wasn't sure if I would be able to do the moves at all. They showed me beta and I was surprised how fast I did everything, in first try of the route I got all the moves. Route is hard first 4 bolts, then big rest and easier to the top, which I like. I did few tries in it that day but didn't send it.
When I returned few days later I did it in my first try of the day, all together in 5 tries! I didn't expect to do 8c that fast. Same day I sent Missing link 8b+ which I tried last year and didn't climb it for some time now.    That is my best score for now -  8b+ and 8c in a day.

Talk is cheap!

 This is now my 3rd 8c, because after doing this route I had finally something to compare The Time to, which I FA'd and now I think it is also 8c. They are both similiar in the way that they have short hard sequence, and both fit me well. Still, I'm waiting for some repeats on The Time to confirm the grade.
2 days after and I was already on the way to Cresciano and Chironico to do some bouldering!

Chironico and Cresciano 2016.

 This time Split (Nikola Kramarić and Luka Kivela) and Zagreb ( Karlo Čubrić and me) teamed up for the trip. We had 5 bouldering days.
As always when going bouldering, I was happy to feel the granite and send some classics!
We started searching accomodation too late, and as a result we didn't have comfy stay as before. Rooms didn't have kitchen and dishes, but we quickly adapted and bought paper plates, forks and knives and cooked on gas. It was cool to find solutions for what we needed. Also I was happy that my bad Deutsch finally served me in communication, I managed to ask : Ist this Preis nur fur Schlaffen oder mit Fruhstuck? :D
Weather was kind of too warm, we expected much colder weather. Still, climbing was on the level and I'm happy with my sends.
 I took new Ocun Oxi climbing shoes with me to try them,  and they showed extremely good on boulders so I climbed whole trip in them.

First day Chironico, started off with 7B+ flash and then sending roof beast Willenberg dach 8A. A roof with big holds, but it needs quite some power. For the end of the day went to flash Vitruvian man 7C, but I accidentally did it with chipped hold for foot, so I went for 2nd go.

Second day we went to Cresciano and headed for La Boule 8A, a real classic. There I flashed La boulette 7B which is really nice, and started trying La Boule. It seemed quite hard, a lot of tension and small crimps which hurt for skin. But I liked it very much. After trying the moves I went for the try, I didn't expect to climb it in that try as I barely managed to pull off moves alone, but in a big fight I managed to do it. I was sooo happy, my dearest send ever.

La boule 8A

 On 3rd day I took rest to prepare for last 3 days.

Fourth day we were shortly in Cresciano where I did XP 7C, and then to Chironico where I finally did Worthless everything 7C+ thanks to the new beta from Nikola. This boulder I was trying last 2 trips and couldn't do it. After it I also did Tricky 8A, which now seemed pretty easy with right beta.

XP 7C and new Ocun Oxi

Day 5 going to new sector in Chironico where I flashed The pocket problem 7C+ , which is my hardest flash for now.  Congratulations to Karlo who also did it and pushed his limit!
A long beauty Second life 8A+ caught my eye and I went to try it. It looks so good, alone on the block, and has some more than 15 moves. Sadly, I fell few times at the end because it just squeezed power from my arms. This will probably be first thing to send next time. Next I wanted to try Boogalaga 8B, but I still wasn't strong enough for it. :(

Last day was real rampage for me. First I did Serre moi fort 8A which I like really much, so good moves. Shortly after it I sent Le vent nous portera 8A, reachy dynamic line with move which takes away feet quite high, exciting to climb. Then I flashed The real shield 7C, one hard move for start then easy to the top. Next I flashed Brechstange 7C,  which has 2 moves on crimps. I felt so solid in it. After it, when night already fell and we climbed with 2 headlamps, I did Salut a toit 7C+ on second go.

Le vent nous portera 8A

Almost all of the routes I did are real classics and amazing lines. I could climb them over and over again.  I'm satisfied with my score, 5 8A's in 5 days and enough 7C's, mostly on flash.

Now training for competitions, and perhaps another boulder trip if I will have time.

All the boulders I did in those 5 days :
7B+ Party boosten (flash)
8A Willenberg dach
7C Vitruvian man
8A La boule
7B La boulette (flash)
7B+ Voci dalla cantina (flash)
7C   XP
7C+ Worthless everything
8A Tricky
7C+ The pocket problem (flash)
8A Serre moi fort
8A Le vent nous portera
7C The real shield (flash)
7C Brechstange (flash)
7C+ Salut a toit