More from Podrta gora...

Sometimes we're a bit obsessed with conditions. There's not many days in the year when it's impossible to  complain. Some days are just perfect. Like last Sunday on Podrta gora with Gašper, Šeli & Kete. The air was cold & dry. We got to climb in the shade & rest on the sun. We had a beautiful view & the psyche was high & there were FA's & old projects done & some drama & we'll be back for some more...soon!

Fresh crimpy stuff:
- Man with the Iron Fish 7A (FA: Gašper),
- Man with the Iron Fist 7B (FA: Šeli), the right version.

Vitovlje - Neverland

Winter time...

Krvoses 1

Krvoses 2

First day of 2013 - Podrta gora

Roxy & Gašper posing on Volcano Sideways


Many faces of B.I.G ....

Tina on Volcano Sideways

Climbing or sleeping? Can't decide...

Happy holidays!!!

Tekc Fargo session with Roxy

Tekc Fargo session from Gašper Bratina on Vimeo.

Women&FA's&other stuff

I guess you noticed the new outfit of my blog. It was about time to make some changes and now the motivation to write something is back (lately, I've been pretty lazy for it).

The weather is shit. Perfect time to do some fingerboard training, running, pull ups and other stuff that makes you fit. Last weekend I went to Podrta gora (a talus spot nearby) together with Gašper. It was pretty wet so we did a lot of searching (walking), found new blocks, built some landings and worked on a hard project before the dark . In one word, we did some hard work. I was crushed at the end of the day.

A while ago I read an article Women in Climbing on Jamie Emerson's blog: B3bouldering. It's an interesting discussion about where women's climbing is today if we compare it to men's.

This chapter is interesting and it made me think:
'' Women are not the ones hiking to the boulders with rope, harness and wire brush to clean and climb the newest boulders. This is one obvious niche that has yet to be filled in the growth of our sport. The argument could be made that only a small percentage of the total number of men that climb develop new problems, and if more females did climb, the number of female developers would increase. Conversely, almost no women have done any significant first ascents of classic problems at the best climbing areas.''

Here is how I see the developing and first ascents: I like the searching and all the work that comes with it. But to be honest. I'm just a follower. I join the group of guys, we do all the work together and sometimes it happens that I'm the first one to climb the new line. If it wasn't for Gašper I would never get the idea to go searching for new blocs by myself, but I'm always happy to come along. I don't know why that is. In my head, I'm still lost in all the existing problems I want to do and I'm usually not the first one to encourage everybody to do some searching&cleaning. But at the end, all the best and most exciting climbing days around home (if I don't count trips) happened when we did some FA's. Maybe it's just a matter of time when  girls will go out and climb some future classics. We'll see...

World Cup Kranj

The competition season is officially over. I ended mine in April with the only competition I went to. But for everyone else, it was only the beginning  The last time I competed in Lead was in Kranj 2007, so I kind of forgotten how it is to climb those routes.

This year I got an opportunity to try them. I didn't compete but  the route setters asked me if I was willing to demonstrate the qualification round. The day before everything started I tried the routes. I knew it's going to be hard for me. I don't do any indoor training lately and the sport climbing I do here and there it's just not enough to have any endurance needed for those routes. Even if it's only the qualifiers. It was pretty hard and I got super pumped. If I wanted to compete again one day I would really have to train seriously for it.

The next day it was interesting to watch how the girls climbed the routes I demonstrated. The top girls were shaking off on the last holds which were really small. I knew before that there are no jugs but it's different if you try something and you fight and then someone goes and just cruises it. It was interesting to have a little pick view from behind the scenes and how the route setting and the whole organization works.

Mina in the finals. (photo: sliovenia climbing team)

The finals were great to watch. I'm always nervous when my team mates climb especially when it's my sister. The route setting was interesting and super hard for men and women and the home crowd went crazy when Maja and Mina were climbing. Congrats to all the winners!

Mina, Momoka and Maja on the podium (photo: slovenia climbing team)