When we arrived in Chironico, we still had several hours of day left (the sun does not set here until 8:30-9). We had a list of must hits for Steve and we tried to follow them as best as possible. We started with Doctor Med Dent, which really only had one problem for Steve (Dr med dent) and a couple of mediocre problems for me, and then continued on to another area that was in town. We had trouble finding the parking that Scott had described but we decided to just park in the center lot where the local folks parked their camper vehicles (there were three campers already parked there).
The walk was short but finding all the boulders was a bit of a mission. We had taken pics of Scott’s guidebook with his favorites marked but actually finding them was another story. The first boulder we found was Borderline, which Steve completed easily. The boulder also had a super fun problem on the left for me. We headed toward the other problems that Scott had starred, like Tomahawk and Freak brothers. There was also a great face problem for me in the Freak Brothers sector that I worked on endlessly. Though I did not send that day, I did send the next! Unfortunately, Steve could not get Freak brothers during our visit (the only problem that he got on that he didn’t send); we will be back when he is feeling stronger.
We found the camping that Scott and Kaddi had described to us but when we arrived, there were already two other campers there and it was a pretty small area…we didn’t want to block them or invade their space. Luckily, while we were trying to figure out our next steps, the other campers returned from their bouldering sessions. We quickly became fast friends with Simon & Mikaela and Adam & Michelle (all from England) and Adam & Michelle’s dog (for the life of me, I can’t remember it’s name!). We figured out a good parking situation and chatted the night away.
After lounging around a bit in the morning, we borrowed Adam and Michelle guide and headed up to the sectors that were close by. We weren’t ready to climb yet but we wanted to do a bit of exploring. These were the sectors close to the water, where the holds were a bit nicer on the tips. Did I mention that after climbing on Sandstone for several weeks, the granite was a bit of a shock on the skin? There were some great climbs and we definitely wanted to return to these areas later. When we returned, Adam & Michelle invited us to climb with them in another area near the town that we had not seen yet and then return to the Freak Brothers area, because we both had some unfinished business there. Overall, it was a good day; good climbing, beautiful scenery and great company. With Adam and Michelle’s lead, we camped in another area, which was actually on the way to Slovenia, our next destination. We are hoping to meet up with them again in Magic Wood on our way back up…they, too, are traveling and climbing for an extended length of time.
The next morning we made our way to Osp, Slovenia, a small town with exceptional limestone climbing and a chill camping spot, camp Vovk. We spent one day climbing in Osp. Never made it to Misja Pec (known as one of the best crags in Slovenia) and a ten minute drive from Osp. We did not feel quite in shape for the demanding limestone route reading that we experienced in Osp, let alone the more difficult Misja Pec! Due to the warm weather, we did the requisite morning and evening climbing sess’s. Though we saw many a folk climbing in the hot sun on that glassy, slimy limestone; I have no idea how they held on, but they seemed to enjoy it. I, on the other hand, cursed and swore at that slippery limestone, having trouble holding on in the SHADE! We knew that this was the same type of rock we were going to find at Hvar, so it was a good place to prepare. The climbing in Osp was quite nice but we may want to hit Misja Pec on our way back, once we both have our endurance and have truly grocked the limestone rock…
-C
seek drive climb 