Climbing in Paklenica, Croatia

-NW Face Anica Kuk                   

As we had guessed, at around 7-8 am climbers were getting an early start on the big routes of Anica Kuk, which rises up around 350 meters in its middle section. We pitched our tent in one of the camps (in the only remaining place left) and we bought the local guidebook and started looking up at the many different routes from the parking lot. There were so many climbers; I had the impression that when I was up there I would turn and have a look around and always find someone climbing beside me. Even small children in groups of 5-6 were making their first climbing moves under their instructor's eye. It was just climbing, climbing and climbing...

Since both of us are interested in climbing long routes we  immediately started looking at the routes of Anica Kuk's North-West Face. That day we decided to go on a route that was a "must" in the guidebook - Mosoraski. The guidebook told us that this 350 metre climb was the best introduction for the rock and for the height as it was one of the longest climbs but not very hard. Luckily, there were not many parties in front of us, so following only a party of two we were enjoying the view of the whole area. It is something that I could never describe.

The rock was fairly solid (in comparison to the limestone that we have in Macedonia) and only the friction moves were a little strange at the beginning (at first it was like there was no friction) but I sort of got used to it after a while. The crux of the route is rated V; it was OK, an easy V. It is situated in the last rope-length and it was a little exposed at that height but with a few moves we were out of it and enjoying the scene of the setting sun over the Adriatic.

The next day we went on the North Face of the same area where the shorter routes are located. The route that we wanted to climb was named Ljubljanski, it is 250 meters long and being a Slovenian route (like most of the routes there) we expected something more serious then the day before. The crux was rated VI+ and it was in the V/VI region for most of the time. It was a demanding route and it was a very fulfilling feeling when we finished it. When we came down it was still around noon - still time to to do another one so we picked up the short route called Zgreseni in the Stub area. This is a route that goes diagonally up to the right following a crack with a crux of VI- and it is about 150 meters long. The crux is with a bigger distance between the bolts - it is a strange move that demands hand strength and I realized that you just have to move through it quickly instead of trying to find some easier way out of the problem using your mind. This route is called Zgreseni which means Mistaken - it was named because a party that wanted to do a repeat climb of the real route (that is few meters on the left and also follows a crack but goes much higher), but they made a wrong choice of a crack and thus ended up being the first party to climb this route.

At the end of it we went to a place where we could watch the routes on the NW wall; we wanted to go on the Velebiteski route the next day. It is also a famous one - but hard. Sustained difficulties with a crux of VII- on a 350m high route - the description inspired us the moment when we read it. The next morning when we arrived there was a group of 4 Czech climbers about 5 meters to the right from our route. When we opened the guide book and started talking about the route they realized that they were not on the route they wanted to be. So the leading climber came down and asked if they could go ahead  in front of us. We agreed, thinking they would move quickly. They started climbing; they had one climber (the best one among them) leading the route, the second climber following up securing both the first one who would continue and the third one who was starting up towards him - an incredibly slow method. This was something I've never seen before. At any one time this group was taking 3 pitches of the route. Sasko and I looked at each other and couldn't believe it; we decided we had to pass this Czech train. The Czechs accepted this readily enough, realizing that otherwise no-one would be able to climb that route that day. So climbing on a difficult terrain and almost moving together with climbers, we were ahead of them after the fifth or sixth pitch. The route is situated almost in the middle of the big wall and it is very exposed, especially on the slabs on the upper half. Very hard and strenuous. The moves were very demanding and we were happy to be out of it.

However, with all the hard work done, I lost my concentration for a second as I was releasing the rope out of the belay device - I dropped the device instead of the rope and I could only watch as it hit the wall below me a few times and disappeared. When I came to my partner I told him I had two pieces of news: some good news and some bad news. The good news: we had passed the hardest pitches in the route and we had only 2-3 pitches of III/IV grade ahead. The bad news: I lost the belay-device. To be honest, it is not something that bad (only if you have to rappel down - but even then) because you can belay by other means; I just wanted to share the joke because we had been having a good climb and I was feeling really satisfied at that moment. Once out of the route, we remained on the top for a while, partaking of the water and fruit that we had brought in our backpacks.

The next day was our last day there and we wanted to climb something long again (but easy) so we went on the first route that was made on this wall - a route called Brahmov. This route is fairly easy with only one pitch that is with a crux of VI- (or IV with A1) but long about 300 meters. When we came to the stance at the beginning of that hard pitch which is somewhere in the middle after a longer traverse to it we thought that we had the right line to follow, but what hung us was something that didn't look VI-. Sasko suggested that maybe we had to go a little more to the right but there were no pitons or bolts over there so we stayed there; it was hard and we had a problem moving through it even using the IV, A1 variation. When we were out of this pitch we saw that it was from the other route and we indeed had to move more to the right, but again we were on easy ground so it was fine. On the top we savoured the mountaintop view of the Adriatic for the last time and went down. When we came down we looked in the guidebook and we sow that that pitch was from (I don't remember the name) another route, which was 2 grades harder. We had a good laugh about this and we started getting ready for home.

Second time I went there with my dear friends Mukul from Israel, Dusan from Slovakia and Ekalabhya from Macedonia (with whom I climbed on Frendo few days before). It was October and we met in Vienna, Austria on the two concerts that Sri Chinmoy gave there on his European tour 2004. Sri Chinmoy that year also gave concerts in Prague and Budapest. These concerts certainly refilled our batteries after the arduous climb in the Alps. Sri Chinmoy played numerous instruments the sound of which still echo inside me even now as I am writing this text a few months later. Inspiring moments like these awaken a sense of fulfillment in my heart and keep me in a spiritual mood that is as hard to explain as it is hard to explain why we climb. I always remember this poem by Sri Chinmoy:

This was first time that this group had gone climbing together on some long routes so we did not experiment much with new routes - we tried the easy (longer) route called Nosorog, but then we did Mosoroski and Zgreseni which I knew from my previous visit. The rest of the time we had a lot of sport climbing which was Dusan's specialty where he was trying some hard moves also.

Paklenica is a place where you can climb in whatever condition you are in because of the wide choice of routes - long and short routes, a wide range of technical difficulties, most of the routes are bolted, and it's in a scenic area so close to the sea... It is a place that I would certainly recommend for rest after some hard climbing on alpine-style faces - in the pleasant atmosphere I easily forgot the promise I gave myself in the Alps, hanging on some wall hundreds of metres over ground, that I would never do something this crazy again.....