spionin Posted February 4, 2010 Posted February 4, 2010 Trip: slovenia - logarska dolina - ojstrica and zahodni breg areas Date: 2/2/2010 Trip Report: on monday i flew into venice (cheaper than ljubljana), took a train east, and at 18:30 was picked up by steve's friend silvij. we got to maribor 2,5 hours later, and after a quick dinner of bread, cheese, and olives i proceeded to pass out. at 6:45 a.m. we were off to go climbing! about a week before i arrived, there was a cold snap and falls formed up nicely, but then 2 days prior there was a significant snowfall, and the avy danger flew up. so we are stuck with cragging for now. we picked up boris strmšek, peter ferk, and maja lobnik (voted this year's top female alpinist in slovenia), and went to logarska dolina (logar valley), about 2 hours driving from maribor. after a 20-min approach we climbed the first pitch of Slap pod Susičo (this pitch was maybe wi3/3-), rapped down and hiked another 15 min up to the 4-pitch Slap pod Tunelom (wi3/4, according to guidebook "zimski vzponi" by gregor kresal). the name of the route means "route under the tunnel", and indeed the walk off looked like this the conditions were great, so of course we decided to come back the following day. after climbing we stopped by everyone's friend andrej's house to pick up some free firewood for silvij's wood stove. then we went to a pub for a few beers, and enjoyed some roadside snow sculptures. starbux mermaid, anyone? day 2. we went up to logarska again and climbed the 3-pitch route Čaša. the book rates is at wi6,x, but we were the 3rd party on it that day, and it would be unfair to understimate the chopping work they did for us, although it is stout. i've never climbed anything rated 6, so it's hard for me to say, but swinging into plastic, pre-screwed, and pre-shelved pillar on top rope made for an really enjoyable climb. silvij, who is credited with the 2nd ascent of this route, also said that he liked it much more than the first time he climbed it. while climbing p2 i saw two people come up to the climb. we hung out with one of them the previous day over beers. he asked me to throw some ice at the opposite wall to "scare the goat". ok... i did. then i went on climbing. as soon as i cleared the crux of the pitch, he yelled up "ok. now vee shoot". BOOM. a mountain goat crashed down the ground from the wall opposing me. wow. FF>> we found out later that apparently this goat was trapped on a ledge and couldn't move up all day. lack of reaction while throwing ice confirmed that she was sick. so they fetched a local with a boom stick and took her down. two people approaching the goat (next to the rock, upper left) after the climb we went over to the restaurant/hostel owned by lavro's family, and had some homemade blueberry brandy (boroničke), beer, coffee, and delicious noodle soup. amazing, thanks! ok, two more weeks of this Approach Notes: huge thanks to people who've been helping me since i started planning this trip last june, and been insanely generous with advice and answering my emails, sharing places to stay, rides, food, drinks, beta; loaning equipment, guidebooks, friends, cars, climbing partners, and just being awesome and climbing with me!! (in random order) - silvij morojna, rok roškar, steve house, jasna and andrej pecjak, maja lobnik, boris strmšek, roger strong, dušan golubič, lavro govc, and others. Quote
RokIzGud Posted February 4, 2010 Posted February 4, 2010 Looks like you had a great time! Thanks for sharing! Quote
t_rutl Posted February 4, 2010 Posted February 4, 2010 atta girl V! been wondering how the trip was goin! Quote
Pete_H Posted February 4, 2010 Posted February 4, 2010 Awesome report. Slovenia looks like an amazing place, even though I can't pronounce any of the names. Thanks! Quote
spionin Posted February 5, 2010 Author Posted February 5, 2010 thanks all! this is an awesome place. i should clarify that i didn't know anyone here before, and it's just from emailing with people that we have made some plans and just went along. i'm super impressed with the welcome and the openness and generousity. very happy. this is the second time this season that i totally lucked out with just meeting people online, taking a chance, and climbing (thanks dave and troy for starting off my season!) did you get to eat any of that goat? no, it was sick. i actually asked the shooters later if they were going to do anything with it. the best was hiking down the blood-stained trail later. love the goat incident! yeah- the goat's enjoying more attention than the routes! i just want to clarify that it was shot NOT because it couldn't climb M6. baa Quote
BigSky Posted February 5, 2010 Posted February 5, 2010 Thanks for the TR; it's always fun to see what's going on in different places. Quote
ken4ord Posted February 6, 2010 Posted February 6, 2010 That looks great, 2 weeks hell yeah enjoy! Quote
cbcbd Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 Missed this report... What can I say, the goat story is pretty cool, but the ice does look cool too. Good food, drinks, friendly folks, flying goats, and climbing - sounds like a perfect trip! Quote
crackers Posted February 24, 2010 Posted February 24, 2010 thanks all! this is an awesome place. i should clarify that i didn't know anyone here before, and it's just from emailing with people that we have made some plans and just went along. i'm super impressed with the welcome and the openness and generousity. very happy. this is the second time this season that i totally lucked out with just meeting people online, taking a chance, and climbing (thanks dave and troy for starting off my season!) that's my experience with slovenia as well. it's my favorite place. Quote
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