Climbing in Croatia Oct 2022

Day 0

After our sea kayaking trip we drove North to Starigrad and the Paklenica National Park. We arrived in the afternoon and met Johannes and Marie at our Air BnB. The plan was to climb for a week in the national park.

Day 1

We drove the few km to the park entrance and up the small road into the big ravine at the Southern end of the park. We had chosen a multipitch route that was supposed to be easy and well bolted. It was, I think, the North West face of Kuk od Skradelin and was four pitches, 4a, 4b+, 4a, 3. Johannes and Marie climbed together and Ari and I formed the second rope team. I lead the first two pitches and Ari the following one. After the first pitch the route splits into two parallel routes and Johannes and Marie climbed on the right hand side and I lead the pitch on the left. It certainly didn’t feel like a 4b+, it felt much easier. The rock was grippy and there were plenty of large hand holds. The distance between bolts was fairly large but the route was so easy it wasn’t an issue.

Ari wanted a piece of the leading action and took over on the 4a pitch, weaving her way up the rock in search of bolts. We could hear and occasionally see Johannes and Marie. I lead the last grade 3 pitch, finding the others at the top of the route already ready to descend. I set up the anchor and belayed Ari and then we began to walk down off the back of the rock. We picked our way down through large boulders and over smaller patches of scree passing through a huge rock arch plastered with difficult climbing routes.

We finished with a couple of sport climbs down in the ravine. The rock was sometimes very polished and the grades felt harder than they should be. Then it was back down to the coast and to a restaurant for dinner. We all ordered fish that arrived one one large platter served with potatoes, spinach, and plenty of garlic.

Day 2

For a change of scene we headed up into the hills at the edge of the park instead of into the gorge. The road wound its way steeply up and we got a good view down to the sea. Brendan and I had been here once before during a successful attempt to enter the national park by the back door. We parked and followed a small rocky track through the sparse trees. There were a number of steel rope bridges slung between the rocks and a ferrata route joining them up. We got ready to do another multipitch route. Another easy one. The peak/name in the book was Ercegov vrh and the route was Via Christa (4a, 4a, 3) –> 100m. I started off first with Ari, leading the 4a. It felt very much not like a 4a, I thought, more like a 3 something. I got to the top of the pitch, I thought, and as there was only one bolt, I set up a sling through a large hole in the rock. Ari started up climbing past me to the left and up a steeper section which could more believably be called 4a.

Johannes arrived at the anchor but by then I’d spotted the real anchor a little further to the left and he set up there instead. I continued climbing up and past Ari. The views around the hills were very nice and as we got higher we could see out towards the ocean. It was a little cooler up in the hills but still comfortably warm. October seems like a pretty good time to climb in Croatia. There was another anchor in the middle of my pitch which made me wonder whether Ari should have climbed further. I reached the top of the peak more-or-less and set up using a sports climbing anchor with an abseil ring. I left the last few metres as I was running short of rope and the rope drag was becoming considerable. In total there had been four anchors along the way, which doesn’t really match up with the route description.

Ari climbed up to me and I belayed her the few metres over to the top-top and she set up a make shift anchor next to a broken statue of the Virgin Mary. I climbed over to her and we sat and waited for the others. We had a very good view out to the ocean now being higher than anything between us and the sea below.

Later, we all abseiled on my half ropes and found our way back to the car for a very late lunch. Ari and I swapped to via ferrata gear and went back to investigate while Johannes and Marie tried a hard sport route. The via ferrata seemed fairly dubious and we bailed at the largest bridge as we didn’t trust the safety of the whole thing. It looked like everything had been abandoned at some point.

Day 3

We’d planned another multipitch and drove back into the park and parked in the usual place, a couple of kilometres up the road from the entrance. The route was popular and there were already a number of people on it when we arrived. We waited before starting but progress was slow so we decided to try climbing something else instead. We spent what must have been a couple of hours hunting for the start before we gave up and did some sport climbing instead. We were a little further away from the main climbing area and the rock was no longer polished. The climbing was interesting and we did a few nice routes before I lost motivation. We finished early for the day and drove back to the apartment and the stray cats. There was a fireplace arrangement outside and we BBQed vegies and some meat for dinner. It was a nice evening and even the mosquitos left us more or less alone.

Day 4

We returned to the park in the morning and started up the multipitch we’d intended to do yesterday. The climb was named Nosorog and was a six pitch route, 4c obligatory (4a, 4a, 4b, 4a, 4c, 2). The rock range was named Kukovi ispod Vlake, whatever that means. I lead the first pitch and Ari climbed up and continued past me as Johannes began climbing with Marie below. The bolts were fairly sparse but both the first two pitches were easy. I lead the third pitch climbing further and further away from the last bolt. We had cams and nuts too and I placed cams whenever I could to protect the route a little better. Despite this the run out to the last piece of gear was much greater than I’d have liked. I was happy to find the anchor and belayed Ari up. She continued climbing and I made room for Johannes on the side of the rock when he arrived.

Ari’s pitch was unusual. It went up a little and then along, through a break in the rock and then we climbed down to the anchor. I took over and lead the following 4c. It was probably a little better bolted than the previous pitch I’d climbed but I still put in pro where I could. It felt very high looking back down to Ari belaying on the rocky ridge below. I belayed again and Ari climbed up and continued along the grade 2 final pitch. After some time she belayed me up to a make shift anchor after not finding any bolts. We spent probably 1.5 hours trying to work out what to do. The guide book showed the route continuing somehow and exiting onto the scree. I could see cairns marking a dodgy looking exposed route to the right. Ari belayed me and I went and checked it out but decided we didn’t want to do it without rope. The Slovenian team behind us laughed as they scrambled along it quite happy with the exposure.

Instead, I set up an anchor from where I was and belayed Ari, Johannes, and Marie back down to an anchor I’d spotted earlier on the side of the ridge. An Austrian couple had disappeared off there so it seemed like a good place to go. We set up at the anchor tying my half ropes together for 60 m of abseiling. Johannes went off first expecting to have to find an anchor half way down but instead made it all the way to the ground. It wasn’t long until we were on the ground and after getting the rope stuck briefly while trying to pull it down we started scrambling back down the scree to the road below.