With the beautiful river Cetina coming into the Adriatic sea and surrounded by miles and miles of perfect limestone of all sizes and shapes, it is hard not to get inspired in Omiš. We spent two weeks there in mid-June, with the first week spent working from home, followed by a week of only climbing and being a tourist in Omiš.
The trip was kind of a climbing renaissance to both Ana and me – we did not have a proper climbing trip in over 3 years, and I did not have a climbing trip where I was not at least 10 kilos overweight for more than 6 years. We cannot brag about being in super good shape, but we were certainly super motivated and ready to climb a lot. And it turned out motivation is by far the most powerful asset in climbing.
On Top of Secret of Cetina (6b+) with Viktor.
Road cragging
One of the best things in Omiš is being able to park your car 5 meters away from the climbing sectors. There is a good number of sectors where you can do just that, with routes ranging from 4a to 8b. It is refreshing when you can give your project a try in a 3 hours window you might have between meetings. Back in Zagreb, 3 hours is barely enough for a proper gym session.
The three best routes I would recommend here are:
- Droga (7b): amazing tufa climbing with a nice and slightly scary top-out.
- Satarluk (7a): interesting 3D climbing with a technical crux that will make or break the climb for you!
- Linea (6b): intriguing and interesting 6b that will require a lot more effort from you than the grade suggests.
Secret of Cetina MP
Secret of Cetina (6b+, 300m) is probably the best multi-pitch route in Omiš, but I wouldn’t know it as it’s the only one I climbed. I first tried the route more than 10 years ago, and a fall in the crux section of 6b+ on low-angle slab climbing left a vivid memory of the overall route difficulty. I teamed up with the always-motivated Viktor for a 7am ascent before the sun hits the wall at around 11am. The climb turned out easy this time and nothing was scary about it. I guess I can say there is at least a little bit of progress that happened with my climbing in the last 10 years!
The real secret of this route is the magical 4th 6b+ pitch, where the slab crux follows into 20 meters of climbing on brown crystals that look like they will break if you even touch them too hard. What you need to do is put your full weight on them for half of the pitch length, and balance your way through in movement resembling a well practiced choreographed dance. The gift of the day came when Viktor’s kids Jakov and Nika came with a drone and got some amazing footage of us and Omiš surroundings.
Naklice are the best
Our initial idea was to spend a week in Omiš, and follow-up with a week of traveling around the south of Croatia. One day in Naklice was enough for us to decide to spend the traveling week in Omiš, resting just enough to perform well in Naklice. If your level is 7a to 7b+ and you like overhanging 3D climbing, there is no better sector than this. Routes are short (12-18m), overhanging, bouldery, characterized with a flowy and creative climbing you will not be able to get enough of.
Routes I would recommend here? Literally all of them. Every single route on this wall is great, with some like Kor (7a+) or Raumerovo Zlato (7b) making it 5+ stars. If you are nitpicky, the only bad thing about Naklice is having to walk 30mins to the rock in the mid-afternoon heat. But I have the perfect solution for this problem:
Heat-protection from the umbrella worked a lot better than expected!
Where is the secret?
All the things you can do around Omiš might not be a secret, but what they could mean to you in different stages of life and career certainly were to me. The secret was how easy it is to go climbing when you are living in a place like Omiš with climbing walls all around – you can literally be out of the house and in a route in less than 5 minutes.
I always had the belief that if you really want something, you need to do it regardless of circumstances. While I still believe this, I have found that altering circumstances in your favor helps a great deal in achieving your goals! Being motivated is great, but being motivated in the right circumstances is so much better.
My tick-list:
- Raumerovo zlato (7b) FL, Naklice
- Gatski san, (7b RP) 2nd go, Naklice
- Droga (7b), Visoke Pole
- Aminokiseline (7a+ hard), Naklice
- Kor (7a+) 2nd go, Naklice
- Trnoružica (7a) OS, Visoke Pole
- Satarluk (7a) OS, Vojan
- Porodica Zlikovsky (7a) OS, Mila Gojsalić
- Pajumba dum (7a) FL, Naklice
- Osmi mart (7a) 2nd go, Naklice
- Secret of Cetina (6b+, 300m), with pitches: 5c, 6b+, 6a, 6b+, 5a, 5c, 5c.
Ana Pavic tick list:
- Satarluk (7a) RP
- Pajumba dum (7a) RP
- Čunga lungs (6c) FL
- Šut (6c) FL
- Žaba samoubica (6b) OS
P.S. Ana Pavić had her moment of glory when she flashed the route Šut (6c). While the grade is not that high, an interesting fact is that literally all of the 7b-climbing guys there went for the flash or onsight after her, and all fell in the crux (including me, twice!). I am pretty sure all of us underestimated the route after seeing her succeed and we got our very appropriate ass-whooping after these assumptions. Thanks for leveling us to the ground Ana!
Enjoy the photos!
More great views from top of Secret of Cetina (6b+, 300m) with Viktor:
Levatić Climbing 