When I was looking for the best line in the Big cave of Osp and after trying to bolt it I got lost. Normally I observed the lines from the ground, than from the rope and than I start working from the top and finish by making beginning from the bottoms up. It sounds simple, but in this cave it's not. With so many big stalactites it's super easy to get lost and soon you don't know anymore where you are and where you wanna go.
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| Getting ready for the crux (and next 40 meters of the route) |
So a couple of years ago I bolted the upper part of the route between Bitka and Active and I knew it's amazing. Only big stalactites hanging out from the roof. Nothing hard but extremely fun to climb. Problem was just to find the perfect beginning. It could be the extension of Baram Baram 8a+ but the part between the end of first pitch and new route was not so nice. Too breaky and I would have to clean a lot just to connect these few meters. Next idea was to go up from Revolucija. Too may edges and the rope drag at the end would be unbearable. OK, lets try from Halupca. Same problem and also this route is hard enough by it self. Next line was Troja. This was the one. Perfect difficulties at the start, comfortable rest and than a crux. I just had to extend some quickdraws and the new line was ready. Finally after 5 years I found the beginning of the amazing end of the route.
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| Spiderman style rest |
Everyone knows Troja so I don't wanna describe it. At the top you have a comfortable no hand rest (Batman style) so you can get ready for the crux. It's a crazy boulder that you could normally see only on world cup competitions and some climbers would say "you can't find this in real rock" :). You are all stretched with feet on one side and with hands you are just leaning on the blank wall on the other side looking down with your back facing to the roof. In this position you traverse to the right to one krimper and than you have to swing out and do a move or two before you can put your feet back to the wall. And now you are ready for the crux. Long moves, feet above head, knee bar, heel hooks, toe hooks, some sniping and you finally get to the tufa where you can rest a bit. Now there it just around 10 more meters of 360° tufa climbing to the second anchor. And now finally the ending part of the route I was hoping I will climb one day. This was fun. Big stalactites you can sit on, lay on them, take a break, drink a coffee or just enjoy the view. It's like sitting at home on your couch so I decided to name the route Couch Surfing. Yes, it's only 7c the upper part alone but until second chain is a hard 8c and all together you have about 60 meters of a route to climb so I think it deserves to have another + next to the grade 8c.
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| The higher you go, the bigger the stalactites get |
Now I really don't have any more projects in the cave so I will have to move somewhere. HC, Pandora or maybe in Spain. We will see but definitely I'll visit this amazing cave of Osp again and enjoy this big long monster routes.
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| The cave is full so it's time to find new home |
