October’s Paklenica smells. It may not be the smell of spring flowers, but unlike the sun-scorched holiday land, the gorge smells of plants and something else… It’s hard to say. Adventure.
The trip promised to be interesting from the very beginning. Despite the first difficulties in completing the line-up, or rather a strong rotation of people willing to take part in this trip, we hit the trip with a five-man squad. Agnieszka from Warsaw, Marcin from Opole, Adrian from the Nowy Sącz area, who in a way was also represented by me and Mateusz from Lublin… A total of two people from the Lublin Boiler Room, which I consider to be a mitigating circumstance of calling this trip almost a boiler room… With a pinch of salt, of course. The plan was simple. The boys were out of course and needed a strong spin and a revision of technical issues. Aga, a graduate of my course, is at the stage of gaining experience and is struggling with more and more difficult paths… She needed a lot of practice in what we would call combat conditions, in the rock. Mateusz, the beginning of the planned Spain… And all of them together, a test of head and body and trying something new.
There were a lot of novelties. When it comes to sports, Paklenica may not be as spectacular as Turkey or the south of Italy, but it has a large number of routes with difficulties of 4 – 7 on the French scale and a lot of multi-pitch climbing. However, it is ideal as a region to expand or accumulate experience after the course. From the very first moment we were driving hard with coke, attacking the road on the way. Day after day, the difficulty of the routes increased, and the repetition of technical issues, plus constant work on the technique, caused the level of the boys to jump from threes to fives in just the first three days. Already in the middle of the trip, Adrian and Marcin gained enough self-confidence that they attacked and worked out the roads, having no mercy for everything that could be found in this area. In the end, they managed to mow a few 5c’s, which I’m very happy about. Of course, Agnieszka and Mateusz in the team didn’t linger either and there were a lot of nice roads… It was nice to see them gain fluidity and confidence, and fall prey to longer and more difficult positions. Aga ran for 5c without much trouble and made nice attempts on Zeus for 6b. Of course, you could get the impression of whatever, 5s or sixes. But believe me, Paklenica verifies a lot when it comes to pricing… already after 4c you have to climb solidly, fives are very often serious vertical routes and some long 6b, in Poland she would have a light hand 6b+ or 6c. Even the shorter, boulder-like ones can also surprise you a lot. All the more reason to appreciate Matthew’s passage in this context.
Our popular Trapez in a beautiful style “flashed” the Zumbul road for 7b.
Day after day, we busily spent our time on countless roads, wandering from one Paklenic classic to another. Of course, however, man does not live by climbing alone. On a rest day I decided to take the team to the Vaganac sector near the main gorge. There was a surprise waiting for everyone there. 40 meters above the ground, in beautiful natural surroundings, stretched between two rock tops, a rope bridge, part of the via ferrata existing in this place. Believe me, the team’s expressions are priceless. The question is, is it necessary? And the answer; yes, you don’t have that in Poland and where to polish your psyche and resistance to exposure if not here… The task turned out to be not trivial. The bridge, like a stubborn steed, tried to escape from under his feet… The fight took a lot of time, but in the end everyone broke through and everyone found themselves on the other side, happy to have overcome this thing in themselves… and moving another boundary that binds people.
It was also necessary to break through on the multi-pitch. After practicing one dry, we went to Vaganac to practice in practice. The route made by both my teams ended with descents. The next day was spent on more difficult proposals at the Hrama… Time passed quickly and we soon set off on our way back.
In the photo, the multi-pitch performed by Adrian and Marcin… It wasn’t without its adventures. The boys had a downhill run through an improvised stand, while Mateusz and Aga were already doing the downhill in the dark.
For my part, I will remember this trip very fondly. A great team not only created a great atmosphere for spending time and rest, but also made it possible to achieve sports goals. Both to myself and to me. As part of the work on various routes by the participants of this trip, I managed to lead a lot of these routes, as part of the work on the road, hanging pins, sometimes taking off the pins, a rest day or simply in the so-called “Rest”. Meantime. This resulted in some nice transitions. Among other things, they fell;
Żuja 7b+ RP in the Donja Rupa sector,
Rock and Roll Dream 7b+ Onsight on Gradić Kuk in the Vaganac sector.
However, I am most happy that I managed to improve my personal best in the onsight style. Funky Shit on Hrama with a valuation of 7c+/8a conducted on the last day. Being in Paklenica before, I always kept her in the queue of those roads that I would like to give a chance to “onsajt” when she is in top form. The last period, an injury, verified many plans and even though I think that I am far from being in good shape, I decided to give this road a chance. An hour and a half of warm-up, visualizing movements, planning sequences, going from stone to stone and watching from below what could be useful during the fight. Part of the plan worked perfectly. However, a large part of the script invented for this path failed, which led to a real test of character at the end of the road… As a result of the bulging, I almost gave up. A dripstone found on the road helped, under which I wedged my foot so that it pressed my hand against the rounded handle. After a while, the circulation in the other hand returned and finally, with a loud scream, I managed to climb up and after a few more movements I clipped into the position. It seemed before the interlude that the grips are a bit better and you can simply “run” it more or less, but a lot of steps have already been slipped over the years, and some good grips turned out to be not very good for my current level. We had to spend a lot of time on foot work and positioning myself for the next interceptions. The quick lead gave me a lot of satisfaction, double when I saw on the 8a.nu how few onsights there are on this road. Or even triple, because there are rumors that it was the first 8a that Adam Ondra led in his life…. RP style. Well. As you can see, you can feel like a young Ondra for a short while, even at the age of 45. 😉 And although the master is unsurpassed, even such ordinary dreams come true when you really want to… 😉
The photo shows the rest of Funky Shit for 7c+/8a. The road is one of the two greatest classics of Hram. Agnieszka’s photo will be a nice souvenir for me from this exhausting climb…
Taking advantage of the opportunity; I would like to thank my pupils and at the same time my companions on this trip. Agnieszka Wardzińska, Marcin Śleziona, Mateusz Koszowski and Adrian Witek.
Jarosław Nowak (KW Kotłownia)
