Albania Climbing Festival

Albania was on my wish list of climbing destinations for a long time and the climbing festival was the perfect excuse to go there. 

Most active climber in Albania :)

First day I visited Bovilla, area 20 minutes from Tirana. You park on a lake and first sectors start already at the parking. Many of them are still without routes but when they will be bolted it will be a cool area with a nice view. Anyway I still had enough routes and it was a great climbing day.

Empty boltles walls

Just one of many walls

Tufas everywhere

View from the inside

Second stop was Brar. Few kilometers of driving on dirt road brings you to another canyon where you can see many rocks and possibilities for climbing. But you have to continue driving and finally you see big and long overhanging wall with a lot of tufas just above the road. Park here and for warm up climb up the protection fence to reach the first routes. No, there are no routes there yet. Why? If you continue walking up you can find even better lines already bolted and there is space for many more to be done. Definitely the place where I would like to return with my drill and bolt something new.

Warming up

There is also easier way up but why not here?

Last area on the festival was at Gjipe beach. This is the place where every climber should go for holiday. Nice sandy beaches with routes 5 meters from the sea (just enough not to get wet when you belay). There is also a canyon with walls facing east and west so you can basically climb all day and deeper you go, better it looks. Since there is not enough routes there yet, I made 2 new ones and next time I'll make some more of them.

Perfect touristic place

If somehow it get's too hot over the day there is also option of Deep Water Bouldering on a nice smooth sloppy rock but unfortunately there is not much easier staff. Anyway it's still fun to try to get out of water and...

Canyon with a pit stop before you enter

In the end I had a great experience and I enjoyed climbing there with local climbers, it was very fun and definitely I'll go back as soon as possible. 

Next time... I'll add some more routes