Author: Klemen Vodlan

On 2nd and 3rd of September first World Cup in lead climbing will be held in Koper, Slovenia, Istria. On a brand new wall in Koper lead competitors from all over the world will compete in Friday's qualifications at 9AM and semifinals at 8PM in the evening and Saturday's final's at 8PM in the evening. After the finals there will be a party and a

PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE WHO LOVES OUR NATURAL CLIMBING WALLS To boil this letter down to bullet points for people skimming: - Our natural climbing walls in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia are getting chipped, drilled, and glued to death - It’s not a few routes, or a few holds, it is substantial manufacturing - Reports from locals are of entire crags put up with heavy fabrication - We want

Latest climbing news come from Baratro and the big cave of Osp. We have already reported about Luca Bacer's first ascent of L'ammazzasogni (8c) in Baratro a week ago. Besides that Jernej Kruder flashed short, powerful and as usual for Baratro totally artificial Corrida (8a+). Jaka Šprah redpointed probably the easiest 8b over there, Masochismo and the amazing power endurance fest La peste nera (8b+).

Matjaž Zorko climbed Water world (9a) in the big cave of Osp. This is his second 9a after already succeeding in Halupca 1979 (9a) in the same crag in January this year. He needed about twenty tries to clip the anchor of this 55 meters long very overhanging route. The route counts now at least 10 repeats and is tagged as one of the best

Probably because of really dry winter and mining for Second track Divača - Koper railway line with 7 tunnels and 3 viaducts many holds got broken in routes in Mišja peč and in the cave of Osp. There is a hold or tufa missing or it just got a bit smaller. All the routes were reclimbed, all are now harder but still probably in the same

Only 14 years old Pepa Šindel from Czech republic did the first repeat of The end (8c+) in Medveja. This mega route was bolted by Andrea Polo and first ascended on the start of this year by Domen Škofic. This pure power endurance challenge was first time repeated for Easter holidays by young Pepa Šindel. Pepa Šindel already last year redpointed Happy birthday (8b) in the

The weather in the last days has been great. Sun, some wind, some clouds make conditions for climbing just prime. Eastern is almost here and climbers are having fun all around Istria already. As usual, the most of the hardest climbing news from Istria come from Mišja peč. Over there, Jakob Bizjak climbed Konec MIRa (8c/c+) in the right part of Mišja peč called "hladilnik" or freezer

After totally dry winter this year, with no rain for months, for climbers unfortunately some rain fell in the last days. Now some tufas might drip and there is a lake in the Osp cave. But, at least the nature and plants are grateful. Now while resting in between climbing in Istria, you can easily pick up wild grown asparagus everywhere around. Hint, they are

The weather forecast for Istria for the weekend and the next days as well looks amazing. So hopefully, see you at the crag somewhere. Check the weather forecast here! Last week we have noticed ascents in climbing areas all around Istria. In Croatia, in Medveja, more precisely in sector Mali Jože, Robert Buh onsighted Giber (8a) and flashed Tequila (8a), while Jaka Šprah onsighted Total extrem

Photo @ Sunset in Istria This year is one of the best winters for climbing in Istria as far as we remember. Almost no rain, so everything is dry all the time. Of course, climbers are everywhere around using prime conditions to climb. Hardest route climbed in the last weeks was the powerful classic Missing link (8b+) in Mišja peč which was done by Andraž Gregorčič and