katja vidmar

Refreshing new place is what I really needed and Silvretta sounded perfect. After weeks of bad forecasts and changing our minds whether to go or not, we were finally there.

We were staying at the camp ground by the lake. The lady who owns it was shocked when we arrived in the evening and didn't know where to put us. I think there was more than enough place for us considering how crowded Magic Wood usually is in this time of the year. Gašper and I, we have the smallest tent you can have for two people, the smallest by far in the whole camp ground and the next day it was us who had to move because we were supposed to be the ones making things crowded for our neighbour. I thought that was a bit funny.

Postcard from Sivretta (photo: G)

The setting between the mountains is mind-blowing. The fresh air feels nice even though I kind of felt the lack of oxygen in it, walking up to the highest sectors.

I didn't have any plans about what I wanted to do. First, I wanted to escape the impossible heat back home. Second, I really needed to go somewhere. It's been a while since our last trip and I kind of lost the psyche to train or climb or to do anything really. And third, the place seemed highly appealing watching the videos and pictures on the internet.

Too young to die 6B, good warm up high ball (photo: G)

So those few days in Silvretta were a true refreshment! We wanted to climb a lot but the sharpness of the rock shredded our skin pretty quickly. The next day we decided to go check out the place called Tumpen which was supposed to be like a little Magic Wood. And it's totally true. The rock, the woods and the style of climbing resembles quite a lot.

On the way back we stopped in Imst to watch the World Cup finals which was part of the plan for the day. We didn't want to be hungry during the finals so we stopped at the first place we saw - Bosna Burger :) where we had the worst burgers ever. Luckily I wasn't hungry enough so I avoided the whole thing. Gašper said it was just as sharp as the rock in Silvretta because the bread was so hard and that he felt like he had just flashed a 7C boulder problem when he finally finished eating. The finals were pretty cool to watch. We were waiting for Mina Markovič who performed as last and finished strong with 2nd place. Go Mina!!!

The original crew got bigger day by day. First it was just our car with Gašper&I and Boško&Urša. Then Mojca and Brecelj came and after them our friends from Croatia and my Moon team mates Sandra and Lija. Then we also met Thomasina on the parking lot and spent a cool day climbing all together.

Gašper in his project: British Airways

For me, this trip was more about exploring a new place than sending. The day before our last climbing day I was reading an interview with Shauna Coxsey in a Climb magazine and she said something like: Let's try really hard today. And I thought OK, when was the last time I tried really really hard? I couldn't tell and I decided that the next day I will try really really hard no matter what. I was very tired when I came all the way up to the last sectors but finished the day trying really really hard in my project from the first day Niviuk, which I didn't do at the end but I was happy with my climbing. Anyway Silvretta isn't that far for us so the next time we'll be there it will be a sending trip.