Il Maratoneta

Today I fulfilled my dream of sending Il Maratoneta, the legendary 8b+ in Paklenica!
It was bolted by Maurizio "Manolo" Zanolla in 1987, and in 28 years this is 6th send of this route, and 2nd croatian send after Ivan Lisica.

The name origin: Manolo was running a lot and on one run from Trieste to Paklenica he bolted the route and made few tries. He took rest and ran to Split and back, and after coming back he sent the Maratoneta. What a story!

It is amazing how he caught eye on this perfect piece of rock. Since I was a kid I have passed by Maratoneta many times and I always thought it has no holds, that only some superhuman could do it. When I was closer to climbing that grade I went in it once and I liked her from start.
The route is just perfect, 15 metres long, located on the back side of a fallen block and isolated from other routes. It's overhanging and seeks precise and sometimes long moves on really small crimps. All of the holds are on such perfect places like it's some artist's work. Every move is beautiful and I really enjoyed climbing it every time.
The only problem is it is extremely sharp, and I could do max 4 tries per day as my fingers would scream after that. But that gives some sort of charm to it, you come and you give it your everything if you want to do it. I often had to ignore the sharpness and do every move with max power, which was hard sometimes. Although Maratoneta is graded 8b+, it's very old grade and I'd say it could be harder, but anyway Maratoneta isn't climbed for it's grade but for it's status.

I wanted to do it before my 18th birthday and this was probably the last weekend to achieve that. Yesterday route was a bit wet but I still had few good tries. Today my first try resulted in falling at the very end of the hard moves. After that try my fingers were really damaged so I wanted to stop for that day because the pain was big. But thanks to Pevec, Čorko, Škalec and my father persuading me, I gave it one more try.
And that was the try I needed! Real battle with pain and pump, resulting in a send.
Now that I sent it I'm really happy to finally accomplish one of my dreams, but at the same time I'm a bit sad because I won't be trying Maratoneta anymore and I enjoyed every move in it. It's just the best route I know.

Chironico 2015

Just came back from awesome trip in Chironico.
The trip was great. Best group of people and nice weather. We hit 5 days of perfect weather for climbing with rain starting just as we were going home.
I was excited to be on a boulder trip again. To put crash pad on the back and head into the forest, then seeing granite boulders with magnesium on it, just priceless.

I had in mind to try and send something harder than 8a.
First day I was getting used to rock and sent one-mover 7c Doctor brusch and some easier boulders. I tried grande classic Boogalagga, which is really awesome but I couldn't do first move. Later I saw videos but we didn't come back there to try new beta.

Second day sent 7c Kiss me, also with one hard move. At the end of the day we went to try Doctor Pinch 8a+ in guidebook. I sent it after some tries but it seems most people downgrade it to 7c+, though it didn't feel easy for me.

Third day we were in US 101 sector, the best in my opinion. Lots of harder boulders, but there is quite a bit walking from one boulder to the other. There I sent classic 8a Arete with the pocket in few tries which felt easy for me. It's longer boulder on endurance, really really beautiful.
Just as we were watching 8b Kleinfisch kleinfisch and figuring out how it should be climbed, some guy came to us and showed us good beta for it. I tried it and I felt it is possible for me. I adapted beta a bit, and next 2 climbing days spent mostly trying that 8b. I had few close tries, but in the end lack of skin on fingers and scratched knee resulted in no send.
So I ended trip with not so many ascents, but I'm not really sad as I think I have that 8b next time I come there, and I proved to myself it is possible for me to do 8b boulder.

On rest day we visited Cresciano just to check it out because we didn't have guidebook for it. We agreed it looks great because there are a lot more boulders on smaller space and we said we are definitely coming back there.

At the end,I gotta say I was suprised how light but still not so small is the new crash pad MiniDo from Cassin that I took to try it out.


Summary of ascents in Chironico:
day 1: 6b+ mp3 *flash*,  6b+ Offene ture ,  7c Doctor brusch *flash*, 7a Los cursos *flash*
day 2: 6b+ Pansen *flash*, 7a+ Palma tina,  7c Kiss me,   6c+ Opus day *flash*,  7c+ Doctor pinch
day3:  7a+ Nanosecondo sit *flash*,  8a Arete with the pocket
day4: rest
day5: 7b Walking in the desert *flash*,  / trying 8b
day6:  /trying 8b /
          

Doctor pinch 7c+

big crazy tree

Arete with the pocket 8a

Walking in the desert 7b

Opus day 6c+

BLOK League finals

Yesterdays I was on last round of BLOK league in Zagreb. I feel really strong after power trainings. Six best climbers were in finals, and I was the only one to flash all 3 problems and placed 1st. That made me overall winner of this season.

Today I'm going for Chironico with awesome crew from Zagreb, and I'm hoping for successful trip with some hard boulder sendings.

NLP League #1 Ljubljana

This weekend Krešo Morić, Tomislav Šproh, Eduard Tudor ( the best driver ) and I visited NLP boulder league in Slovenia.

There were 36 boulder problems in boulder center Stena, and 8 of them were qualifying boulders for the finals. It was boulder jam system with 8 hours to climb boulders. I really liked the qualifying boulders, and I did them all. Among 8 finalists were Krešo and me.
Finals were climbed on a new system for me, elimination. 3 problems and everyone has 3 tries for every problem and you can look each other. After each problem 2 last climbers were eliminated. I really like the thrill of that system. In first boulder after 2 tries I was the last because I couldn't pass the crux, and I was a bit worried. But in last try I changed my beta and made it to the top. Oh what excitement! Finally, I made it to last 4 climbers on last boulder and placed 3rd at the end, and Krešo was 7th.
After the competition we went on a dinner, ordering venison goulash. It was really fantastic after almost all day of climbing. We are looking forward for next NLP competition.

Winter holidays

So these winter holidays I spent mostly climbing as usual, and some skiing after long time.
I was on a 9 day climbing trip in Spain with my dad, Filip Pečenec, Jani Zoraj and her mom.

We had in plan to escape cold weather in Croatia and go on some sunny and warm place like Spain. But weather wasn't as we expected. Most of the time it was cold, around 2 degrees, with foggy weather in the valley where most of the best crags were located. We didn't even climb in Oliana, the best crag there, because when we came whole rock was covered in fog and it was really cold.
But the climbing spot that delighted us was Santa Linya. A big open cave where it was so warm that we could climb in short sleeves, and that was the reason we came to Spain.

I climbed mostly on sight and 2nd go. I sent few 8a+'s 2nd go, few 7c+'s and 7c's on sight and some more easier routes on sight. I have to mention that Jani sent her first 8a on the trip, and now she is the youngest Croatian climber with that grade.
I wasn't really satisfied with the trip, as I didnt expect such cold weather.

After the trip I took around 12 days rest, and few days spent skiing with friends. And I have to say it was warmer on skiing than in Spain climbing.

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

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.