It all started with Bill Bryson and his hilarious book A Walk in the Woods. If he, an unfit elderly author and his reportedly rotund childhood friend Katz could do it, so could we.

Except we didn’t do the AT as the Appalachian Trail is otherwise known. No, nope, not even close. Back in the summer we went for a section loosely based on the SPP & PKK making our way from Kope back to Maribor. A 41 kilometer, 18 hour ramble (spread comfortably over 3 days) on a wooded ridge line of Pohorje.

But we had two dogs and they didn’t.

The whole affair had a preamble a few weeks earlier with a short camping, hiking trip to the Bayern Wald NP and their animal park/zoo. As far as zoos are concerned it’s certainly unique in the way they try to give animals as much space as possible while giving the visitors the feeling of being among them in the wild. It’s a place where you’re not guaranteed to actually see anything. If the animals don’t want to show themselves you’re out of luck. But it’s still just and only a zoo.

To be totally honest I’ve been germinating the idea of crossing Pohorje for years now, just never came round to actually going through with it. Now I sometimes wish I never bothered. Months later and my knees are still feeling it when I walk downhill for longer periods. Don’t know what but something got a bit worn off and it’s not a pleasant pain. It does seem a bit odd that a relatively short and easy walk would have long lasting consequences. But on the other hand, at least I can still ski back down wherever and whenever I bother to walk uphill.

Another thing that turned out not to be a good idea was bringing dogs with us. While it was a pleasure to have them with us and they enjoyed the walk itself, they also went through two nights of being attacked and chewed by ants and there was nothing we could do to help them. Letting them inside the tent was not an option but they certainly didn’t get much sleep outside. As a consequence neither did we. They both pushed through it, suffering some bloody rashes from the bites and they slept for the next two or three days straight. Perhaps they should be carrying their own backpacks with food and a dedicated dog tent next time…

As far as the walk… it’s likely one of the more enjoyable hiking stretches in Slovenia. Constantly in the shade, soft ground to walk on, plenty of water around and enough resupply options to lighten the load to virtually zero or, if you so desire, easily very remote and self sustained. During the week you won’t see more than a handful of people a day.

Pohorje, Kope to Bolfenk

Phew… where do I begin? It’s funny how the previous post about Pirlitor & Kolašin got picked up by some French web climbing directory as the definitive guide. Funny because the one about Tenerife, with arguably more information about areas they don’t already have (and more general interest), only gets hits through Google.

Anyway, I’ve been avoiding it long enough so here goes the part two of our Balkan trip.

From Montenegro we crossed Kosovo from Peč in the west to Priština in the east then turned south towards the Serbian enclaves around Šarplanina. If ever I was shocked and disappointed at careless human attitude towards the environment it was at Brezovica ski resort. I’m sure it’s easy to ignore the mountain of trash under your feet when it’s covered by snow but once it melts… It was very obvious nobody ever bothers with any post season cleanup and painfully obvious nobody bothers to locate and use trash cans. Just throw away at earliest convenience, anything from cigarette butts to bottles and car parts. Everywhere! Disgusting.

But the mountain sure looked nice under some late spring snow and tickets are ridiculously cheap.

Matka

There are quite a few choices for sport climbing & bouldering in Macedonia (see guide) but I will dare say nothing comes close to the scenery of Matka. The beautiful river canyon just outside Skopje is hard to beat.

The guide should give you a good enough idea what to expect. From numerous multi pitch routes to a handful of medium difficulty singles on a decent, yet sometimes loose rock. The peculiar feature of climbing in Matka is the approach that involves a 1 minute boat ride across the river for which they will charge you 1€. (Un)fortunately there is no bridge and you are (technically) not allowed to cross over the hydro electric dam.

Once they steal your money for the crossing you’ve got a 20-30 minute steep uphill walk towards st.Nikola monastery where you are allowed to camp for free. Beautiful view, shade if necessary, toilet and drinking water is all you really need. The single pitch routes (all around 25-30m) are just 100m away (multi pitch routes start lower down the path) where we climbed Mary Jane (5a/6b) and either Big Mamma (6a) or Matuf Extrem (5a/6c). Can’t really tell which one it was as we didn’t have a topo and only found a name painted on the rock for Mary Jane.

Mary Jane is a puzzling route if I ever saw one. The guidebook says 5c however… up to the final 3 meters it’s a very comfortable 5a/b. But then there’s the crux from the last bolt to the anchor which is easily a 6b. I was seriously thinking of abandoning the attempt and leaving behind some gear but eventually got through it. It’s misleading for climbers who comfortably climb below grade 6 and I honestly can’t tell why they decided to stretch the route to a very uncharacteristic hard (and ultimately unsafe) finish.

At night we got two visits from a rescue helicopter. A larger group of hikers were obviously lost or stuck within earshot of the monastery. We could just make out their voices but there was no way they could come down directly from where they were. The helicopter crew took quite some time to reach them as the winds were strong and possibly quite turbulent as they were coming in towards the ridge and it wasn’t any easier on the second trip.

Towards Albania

From Skopje we drove south towards Prilep (didn’t get a chance to go bouldering but it’s beautiful) and Bitola. For a while we even entertained the idea to drive to Albania via Greece but ultimately decided the detour wouldn’t be worth it as we were getting a bit tired of driving already. So onwards over Galičica NP and through Ohrid we went and into a curious little village of Vevčani which I highly recommend. The architecture is just crazy and a beautiful contrast to the surrounding villages of ugly Albanian style monstrosities. The springs coming out of a cave, running down next to paths are a nice addition as well.

Crossing into Albania wasn’t really as much of a shock as people will have you believe and the notorious roads were anything but a disaster. Perfectly normal, perfectly OK. We’ve certainly seen much worse previously in Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo. What was interesting though is the Albanian obsession with cleaning cars and their way of advertising the car wash “industry”. Set up a hose on a stand next to the road and just let it run all day, spraying anything that drives by. When you see the first one it draws momentary attention. When you see 20 in a row within 1 kilometer it becomes ridiculous. The amount of water wasted is mind boggling.

Bovilla

Sport climbing in Albania is limited to two or three areas near Tirana and only one of them has a published topo. If you need more info go to Climbing Albania page on Facebook and ask. There’s even a few helpful videos to get you started.

Since the Geoquest topo for the routes around Bovilla reservoir is from 2010 there have been a few changes since and you might want to get some local help. The rock itself is perfect limestone, the views over the reservoir (drinking water!) are excellent and you can go for a refreshing swim in the canyon below the dam.

There are a few peculiar features of course. The first is the road up past the quarry which could, to put it mildly, use some care and attention. The second is the strange idea of spray painting the bolts in Lake View Sector. Who came up with that stupidity remains unknown. Although, it does make it much easier to find the routes as the large red circles are visible from far away.

We climbed John’s Idee (5a/4c), Bohrlaub (5a) and Variante (5b) then abseiled down the wall on Toprope for practice as the sun was coming down. All in all it’s a beautiful area with almost unlimited potential for short and long routes of all difficulties. Hopefully it eventually develops into something big. It certainly deserves it. Ceuse, Verdon and Paklenica can’t touch it :)

back north

Albania was notable for another reason, I finally got to see a proper tourist scam. The first time was entirely our fault and I had a feeling it would happen before it ever did. We were only in the country for a short while and had no local currency. It was lunch time and we didn’t drive past any cash machines so we went into a restaurant where they happily agreed we can pay in Euros. I expected an unfavourable exchange rate, I was just wondering how bad it was going to be. Turns out we gave them almost a 100% tip but as it was still very reasonable I didn’t really care.

The second time was coming down to civilisation from Bovilla. Our car was dirty and the roadside lavazh signs were everywhere so we decided to try if they’re any good. As we stopped at the first decent looking one Jonna stepped out to inquire about the price while I stayed in the car. They didn’t speak any English so they quickly gathered a larger group to crowdsource some words together. She had a piece of paper and a pencil so they could write down the amount. I can’t remember exactly but let’s presume it was 200lek which is just over one Euro. We agreed but when she tried to pay with notes they tried to convince us that the 200 is actually worth only 20. That you have to subtract zeros from the note to get the actual value. Now, since I still remember the late 80s in Yugoslavia and the inflation, where you did actually have to add/subtract zeros from banknotes (they didn’t bother to print new ones to keep up with the fluctuations), I gave it about 2 extra seconds of consideration before telling her to get in and we drove off.

We then stopped at the next one, 100m down the road where we quickly got some help from a guy who spoke perfect English. We chatted while the car was being washed (with so much water pressure I was afraid the paint would come off), and all along we actually thought he was the owner of the business and even tried to pay him in the end. In total contrast with the group earlier he simply said he’s there because his own car is being cleaned on the other side of the wall. Oh, and he confirmed that you don’t actually have to subtract any zeros :)

Slideshow part 1 – Macedonia

Slideshow part 2 – Albania

Considering Montenegro has mountain in its name there are surprisingly few options for rock climbing on bolted routes. Things just haven’t developed that far yet. Which in a way is a very good thing. Just means that if you’re more serious about climbing, rather than having it as a sideshow distraction, you should do it the trad way. In that case you’ve got nothing to worry about.

MontenegroClimbing.net is definitely the first place you should check out, whichever way you swing. However, to find some more useful topos, head over to Geoquest Verlag and do some searching for the relevant PDF file. Those Germans developed and equipped several very nice routes around Gusinje (Prokletije mountains on the border with Albania) and Kolašin.

Pirlitor

Curiously there’s no information online about a nice little spot called Pirlitor, high above Tara Canyon in Durmitor national park. We stumbled on a poster describing the access and route topos outside of tourist info in Žabljak. It turned out to be a very welcome find and a fabulous place to camp for the night. Just don’t drive all the way if you don’t have a 4×4.

Access navigation is straightforward. From Žabljak drive towards ĐurÄ‘evića Tara and turn left on a gravel road after about 8km (there is a sign). Follow the signs from there and park the car when you get to the pass from where you first see the wall 200m away (see photo below for the reverse view). Do not make the mistake of driving down to the wall in a regular road car. Unless they fixed the bumpy road (unlikely) you will get stuck trying to get back up (likely). Just below the top there’s a steep section where your wheels will most likely spin without traction on loose gravel and at best there’s going to be a hail of stones flying around while you go nowhere, further damaging the road. At worst you break the car.

We (should probably write I) learned the hard way. I gave up after several unsuccessful attempts with increasing run up speeds (and trying not to feel sorry for abusing the car), which at best got me perhaps one meter farther than first time. We unloaded most of the heavy items from the car, I made another fast run as high as possible where we changed places and I then pushed as hard as I could which eventually made the difference and we were free. Will. Not. Repeat.

Anyway…there are currently two walls to be climbed in Pirlitor. From the looks of things the Italian team that developed the area did it within the past couple of years. There’s still some clearing to be done and loads of potential for new routes around.

The west wall is the harder of the two with 14 routes from 5b/c to 7b+. We didn’t spend much time on Durmitor in general and only climbed two routes, Il cetriolo and Red Berries (both 5b/c). I remember the odd loose rock section but were otherwise OK.

East wall is entirely for beginners, tourist day trips or climbing schools with 6 routes in 3-4 range. It won’t entertain you for long but it’s good for practice or just warming up. We climbed Adrenalina (4) and Mamma Mia (4+) for a photo op.

Kolašin

Kolašin is a short drive north from Podgorica and the climbing area is just outside town on the left side of the road towards Bjelasica. You can’t really miss the parking spot and the topo poster. Sector one is just across the river and the larger Scorpion wall is 10-15min uphill and to the right.

Altogether there are just over 30 routes of which we did 3. Worn out under unrelenting sun we gave up quite soon. After a hard meeting with the wall coming down from Dancing with Šega I really didn’t feel like doing more. The guidebook might lead you to believe there are a bunch of routes graded 4 and 5 but neither of the 3 we did came even close to that. Pop stone is supposed to be 4+, we’d give it a 5b. Dancing with Šega and Dancing with cetka are graded at 5- but they deserve a 6b and 6a+ respectively. Quite a difference, especially for those climbing on the lower end of the scale. Another problem with both of these is the very probable huge swing right into the opposing wall after you unclip the final quickdraw while clearing the route on the way down. At least I couldn’t figure it out and it ended quite painfully after losing my grip and eventually footing.

Gusinje

Gusinje is in a lovely area close to Plav on the Albanian border in Prokletije mountains. There are several independent sectors in two neighbouring valleys for you to explore. As we spent our night in Grbaja valley we climbed on a few boulders and one larger monolith called Domačin (sector 6 in Geoquest topo) with several easier warm up routes in the 4 range.

We then moved to Ali Pašini izvori (Ali Paša springs) in the valley closer to Gusinje with the much larger choice of routes of very varied characters. We started with sector Platten in two beautiful routes Scheherezade (5c) and Fairytale of friction (6a). We then moved to Central sector and routes Kosovonaut (6a+/c) and Das Mädchen m.d. rauen Händen (5b+/c). Kosovonaut was falling apart at the slightest touch and I was very happy to be doing it on top rope. I also believe it’s significantly harder than the topo makes it seem. Judging by how many holds came off in my attempt alone it must be vastly different than when it was conceived.

Slideshow part 1 – Durmitor

Slideshow part 2 – Kolašin, Prokletije & Kosovo