Most of the climbing “scene” in Macedonia atthis moment is concentrated in the capital, Skopje, and manyforeign climbers passing through the country mostly stay there, so Ishould first mention the local climbing area in Skopje, called Matka.
Matka is a canyon on the river Treska situated only 30 minutes drivefrom Skopje. This is a very special place where in the pastthere were thriving orthodox monasteries and the silent prayers ofthe monks enchanted the entire area with eternal peace. Now there isonly one working monastery, but the churches dotted everywhere aroundstill spread the calming vibration throughout the area.
The artificial lake on the river with a hut on its bank inspiremany people to visit the place regularly – just to sit and enjoy theafternoon after work or the weekend with their family and friends.The river is famous for its kayaking course where European or worldchampionships are held. Also, because of the limestone character ofthe area there are many unusual caves can be found that are subject ofresearch by local and international speleology teams, not to mentionthe great possibilities for hiking... But for me the most importantthing is the rock jutting upwards about 200 metres high. Therock is limestone and very unstable and fragile, yet this is where weall made our first steps in the climbing world and it is very dear tous. There are many routes of four or five pitches and a also fewsport-climbing playgrounds, the closest of which is very near to thehut (which is only 10 minutes walk from the parking lot); the rest arenot so very far from the hut either.
We visit the place at least every weekend; often it happens thatwe come almost every day of the week. The routes are, as I said, 4-5pitches long, with grades from III up to VII- (and up to VIII for thesport climbing routes).
Other areas that we visit for rock climbing in Macedonia are DemirKapija that has a limestone rock about 300 meters high and SoulunskaGlava that has a big amphitheather that in its middle section reaches aheight of 600 meters. The exit is on the top of 2538m high Jakupica,making the climbing a real mountain adventure. Due tothe long approach and exit route, the remoteness and unstablecharacter of the rock (limestone, again) this face is notfrequently climbed and has many possibilities for new routes.
The whole climbing “scene” in the coutnry is in a period of“awakening”and the local climbers are working on the revival of these and otherareas: for example, Ostra Karpa, with its granite rock and the frozenwaterfalls in the very scenic mountains in thewestern part of the country…. I will soon write about some of theseplaces; we allhope that very soon they will be put on the “must-do” listof all climbers visiting this part of Europe.