June 29, 2015

There is no place like home

When the holidays arrive, we climbers often feel almost obliged to travel to some distant place in search for “the best” crag that ever existed. We sit in a car, drive as far as humanly possible in one push, climb a few routes, then reverse the driving torture, catch some sleep, and endure that cursed Monday totally wrecked at our jobs. Sometimes I wonder, why I just went to a place with 500 routes, only to climb 20 of those? Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against visiting places like Rodellar or Ceuse, but my point is that maybe sometimes it is possible to please climbing appetite at your doorstep – as good as in Spain or France.

Driven by the former “wise” philosophical discussion, the day before departure to our dream crag 500km away, Petra and I decided to head for the good old Buzet instead. Istria is slowly (or maybe not so slowly?) but surely becoming a world class climbing destination. There are numerous high quality crags, with different orientation, making it possible to climb all year long. Also, historic Istrian towns, like Grožnjan or Motovun, are absolutely charming way to spend rest days, or just to have a coffee between morning and afternoon climbing session. As an added value, there is a good chance to bump into old friends, which know all the beta, and will help you to send your project faster :).

Pengari sector – it doesn’t get much better than this!

Climbing-wise, I was feeling in a great shape. By some miracle, I could crank hard crux moves, while being totally pumped. I can’t remember the last time I had this quality – or when did I acquire it :). I managed two 8a routes 2.go in the same day (Too late and Šefka), which is my new personal highlight. Also, I onsighted absolutely phenomenal 7c+ called Skitalica, and a bunch of routes in 7a-7c region.

Enjoy few picture from our Istria trip, and see you at some (domestic) crag :).

Čepić, small shady canyon with excellent easy routes – except 7a where I couldn’t do the moves 🙂

The locals in Čepić, they were not interested in sharing the beta…

…but they were very interested in our climbing equipment – delicious they concluded

Buzet – one of the many Istrian towns build on top of the hill

Kamena vrata – nice crag 5min away from Buzet where Klemen Bečan recently added several hard routes up to 8b

Grožnjan – the city of artists

Almost every building in Grožnjan houses some art gallery

And each house has some artsy detail

May 5, 2015

BWSC 2015

Another round of speed climbing, along with climbing marathon and film festival, was underway last weekend in Paklenica in what was the 15th installment of Big Wall Speed Climbing Paklenica. Resting on the laureates of last years victory and record, we arrived in the canyon for the first time this season only one week before the competition, so we had no idea what results to expect. We also did not do any specific training before, as we realized we could not summon the motivation necessary for another go at the record after last years crusade.

Only arriving in Paklenica brought back some nice memories, of many training days and sometimes insane efforts to win (like doing 100 pull-ups before going climbing might have been). But insane efforts can also squeeze out willpower to repeat the same thing again – so both brothers turned to other projects (Jurica to hard sport climbing, and Perica to projects outside of climbing). But even without specific training, we decided to support the competition with a recreational effort.

Going at it in 2015

Our first go at the route surprised us a lot – we knew all the moves instantly (I really mean all the hand and foot placements and every quickdraw in the 160m route), like we were practicing the route a week before. But in our second try, we did realize that lack of specific training (or lack of any training in Perica’s case) brings it’s tolls with it, so we could not really expect anything close to the record braking 15 minutes and 16 seconds.

Come day of the competition, the conditions were nowhere near perfect – heavy rain all night made the route completely wet, and even doing the competition was in jeopardy. But, the route eventually dryed just enough for all of us to agree competing, but it was still really wet, with wet stripes all over the route, and even a small waterfall at one point before the crux.

Pevec in a completely wet crux

This all meant quite slower times than expected (we thought we might get around 20 minutes), but at the end managed to do 24:34, just 17 seconds slower than our victorious friends from Zagreb, Ivan Pevec and Siniša Škalec, who finished third last year, and decided to train a bit more this year. In the end, we were satisfied with our effort and speed given the current form, and also got our confidence up if we ever decide to attack the record again (as we see it is not that far out of reach).

We would like to thank our sponsor Bim Sport and Petzl for their continuous support – we promise a new first place soon!

Medalists from the competition:
MEN – route BWSC (Big Wall Speed Climbing, 6c+/160m)
1. Ivan Pevec/Siniša Škalec HR 24:17
2. Jurica Levatić/Perica Levatić HR 24:34
3. Luka Mudronja/Luka Trumbić HR 40:00

WOMEN – route Karamara Sweet Temptations (6a+/110m)
1. Sunčica Hrašćanec/Inga Patarčić HR 15:58
2. Maja Rakić/Lada Lukinić HR 22:16
3. Charlotte Durif/Jerca Miklič FR/SLO 28:44

In other events, Paklenica was this year visited by teams from Spain, France and Ukraine, and the best thing was that all nationalities won at least one medal. You can read more about foreign efforts in spanish climbing magazine Desnvel article: http://www.desnivel.com/escalada-roca/sc/jesus-ibarz-con-alvaro-lafuente-y-juana-gonzalez-con-arnau-julia-ganan-el-paklenica-2015-international-climbers-meeting

Our shout-out also goes to Siniša Mataić and his great animated movie Off Belay, where we won the best movie award.

You can check the gallery of the competition from the excellent Luka Tambača here:

P.S. on the fun note, here is how friends cheered for out-of-shape me this year:

February 23, 2015

Marjetica

Hi fellow readers of levaticbros! After a long silence, we finally have some news to share with you. This weekend I climbed Marjetica (8b/b+) in Mišja peč! I’m very happy about this one, since I didn’t do a route this hard in a while. Also, I’m super syked to try harder start of Marjetica which bumps the grade to a holy grail number of 8c 🙂

Entering the crux of Marjetica. Photo: Stefano Staffetta

From the beginning of the Mišja peč season in November, I started trying Marjetica seriously. With each visit, I was making good progress, however, this came to a sudden stop in a form of loud cracking sound from my knee. Diagnosis: dislocated knee-cap. Luckily nothing was broken, but climbing was out of the question for a while. On the positive side, this happened right before Christmas, so I could enjoy vacations in peace, without the usual itchy climbers’ fingers. Fast forward one month, and I was back on rock – of course without even thinking about knee-drops. It still took some time for Marjetica to happen – doing the upper crux when climbing from the bottom was harder than I thought. Lesson learned: no matter how easy the moves feel, doing them pumped is different story. Lesson two learned: get some endurance!

There is a good month of training left before the after-work season of climbing starts, and I’m keen to make it count. It is really surprising what one month of hard, thought-out training can do – check this for inspiration: https://fullpsycheahead.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/the-return-of-the-masochist/

Thank you for reading,

Cheers,
Jurica

November 28, 2014

Siurana

Siurana is a piece of climbers’ heaven in the heart of Catalonia in Spain. I briefly visited it few years ago, and was completely blown away by the place. That time, we also visited other major crags in Spain, like Rodellar and Margalef, but Siurana, with its magical atmosphere and rich climbing history, left the biggest impression on me. Yes, I have an itch for places from old climbing movies and consider that the early Masters of Stone series are the best climbing movies ever made :). This time we decided to devote the entire trip just to Siurana. My girlfriend Petra, and I teamed up with the crew from Zagreb: Pavao, Nikola, Sven, Ana and Ljubo – the psyche machine, for a two weeks of climbing.

The village of Siurana sits on top of the cliff, surrounded by endless amount of yellow and gray rock.

The climbing in Siurana is more on the old school side: technical routes on gentle overhangs mainly with crimps and pockets. More than 60 sectors scattered around and 1000+ of routes, can keep you busy for years (or lifetime if you surname is not Ondra). Today, you can often encounter a phrase ‘Spanish grades’, but the locals are vigorously guarding Siurana from soft grades. The grades are not super stiff like in Buoux, but you will rarely find an easy tick, and if you do, it will likely be downgraded in the next guidebook issue.

Anabolica, one of the most classical 8a’s in Siurana.

We ended by taking just 2 rest days on the entire trip. This was not optimal for climbing performance, but the psyche was too high for sitting in the camp. I climbed around 45 routes up to 8a, with several 7c onsights. My Siurana highlights are: Antuan Pirulero (8a, 2. go), Skateboy (7c+), Pequeño saltamontes (7c+), Solos a solas (7c, OS), Boys don’t cry (7c, OS), Der palo torete (7c), Malcarat (7c). We also visited nearby climbing area Montsant, where I onsighted amazing 50 meter long 7c called Kamaleon.

Nice interior decorations in Bar Siurana 🙂 As always, thanks to Bim sport d.o.o. and Petzl for support.

It’s been three weeks since we are back, and I’m finally starting to recover from the post-rock-trip depression :). We flew from golden Catalonian sun directly to the season of endless rain and fog in Slovenia. Sometimes you get a desire to drop the job and spend few months dirtbagging under the cliff. It amazed me how many people are actually doing exactly that. We meet numerous people from all over the world who are traveling for months just visiting top climbing venues. Climbers are really innovative when it comes to traveling cheaply and fitting jobs around climbing. I met a guy who is doing (a part of) his PhD in Siurana! Well, it’s time to start ‘innovating’ :).

Thank you for visiting Levaticbros! Until next time, Jurica.

Photo gallery from Spain:

La Rambla (9a+) in the mighty El Pati sector

Another beautiful sector in Siurana

Mal carat (7c)

Siurana village, with legendary refugio Ciriac Bonet

Petra enjoying technical slabs in Siurana

La Morera de Montsant

The cliffs in Montsant are huge!

In front of Kamaleon – amazing 50m long 7c in Montsant

Rest day in Tarragona

Tarragona Cathedral, dating from 12th centurary

In Tarragona, eating paella is a must!

Bar Siurana

Getting ready for the last day, last try in Anabolica (8a)

The crux move in Anabolica, unfortunately I fell past the crux.

October 13, 2014

The first 50

Few days ago I climbed a route named Independence (8a+) in a small crag Preddvor near Ljubljana. According to my 8a.nu profile, this is my 50th route in the 8th grade! I’m mathematician, so I should know that numbers ending with zero are equally (non)interesting as the ones which don’t end with zero, but nevertheless, it’s nice to achieve such milestone.

I will post the list of routes below if somebody is interested. When going through the routes in my head, I still remember most of the moves on every single one. Once a geek, always a geek :).

A route which is not on the list, but I hope it will be one day – Chuck Norris (8?). It’s the only one missing from my Pokojec tick-list. Initially graded 8a+ by Čorko – it took me 3 years to do the moves. Foto: L. Tambača

P.S. Careful reader might notice that the other counterpart of the Levatić bros is missing in the last few posts. Well, Perica was preparing like a mad man for the BWSC this year, and he burned all the gas in the tank of motivation. But, he is back on track now, psyched & training hard. So, stay tuned for the new adventures from the Levatić bros. We have a couple of (crazy) ideas emerging in our minds, now all we need is a firm rakija-driven hand shake to start bringing them to life.

The list:

2007

1. Rosna Ljubičica (8a), Pokojec, 5.7.2007.
2. Guernica (8a), Kotečnik, 7.7.2007.

2008

3. Urbanova (8a), Mišja peč, 16.3.2008.
4. Mala sirena (8a/a+), Pokojec, 10.5.2008.
5. Kill Bill (8b), Pokojec, 11.9.2008.
6. Samsara (8a), Mišja peč, 7.12.2008.

2009

7. Giljotina (8a), Mišja peč, 23.1.2009.
8. Čao bejbe (8a), Mišja peč, 22.3.2009.
9. Every hole is a good hole (8a/a+), Kalnik, 6.6.2009.
10. Hooker (8a+), Golobove pečine, 12.7.2009.
11. Genom (8a), Vela stiniva, 24.7.2009.
12. Jurek&Maca (8a), Vranja peć, 5.8.2009.
13. Zagorski tarzan (8a+), Pokojec, 3.9.2009.

2010

14. Mjesečina (8a+), Pokojec, 9.5.2010.
15. Rumpel štilski (8a), Pokojec, 7.7.2010.
16. Bruchheinzi (8a), Peggauer wand, 13.10.2010.
17. Oxa (8a), Pokojec, 30.10.2010.

2011

18. Mrtvaški ples (8b), Mišja peč, 30.1.2011.
19. Huda čudovišta (8a, FA), Vranja peć, 24.2.2011.
20. Albanski konjak (8a), Mišja peč, 26.2. 2011.
21. Gorilko (8a), Vranja peć, 31.5.2011.
22. Anthrax (8a), Zia, 24.9.2011.
23. Enigma (8b, FA), Pokojec, 28.9.2011.
24. Prste lomim živci mi krvare (8a), Pokojec, 11.10.2011.
25. Marmots at work (8b), Pandora, 23.12.2011.

2012

26. Snoop Boggi Direkt (8a), Pandora, 9.4.2012.
27. Winnetou (8a), Paklenica, 15.4.2012.
28. Paštašuta (8a/a+), Vranja peć, 29.4.2012.
29. Psiho (8a), Pokojec, 25.5.2012.
30. Kompresor (8a, FA), Pokojec, 13.6.2012.
31. Specijalist za življenje (8a+), Kotečnik, 24.7.2012.
32. Disleksija (8a+, FA), Pokojec, 21.9.2012.

2013

33. Corto (8a), Mišja peč, 30.5.2013.
34. SPK Direkt (8a), Čuturaševa peć, 9.6.2012.
35. Che Guevara (8a), Bitnje, 6.7.2013.
36. Modern art (8a), Goltschach, 11.7.2013.
37. Ledena doba (8a), Čreta, 18.9.2013.
38. Sonce v očeh (8a+), Mišja peč, 13.10.2013.
39. Reve de papillon (8a), Buoux, 5.11.2013.

2014

40. Es ist vollbracht (8b+), Pandora, 17.1.2014.
41. Los compadres de puta madre (8a/a+), Paklenica, 5.4.2014.
42. Ženska za nagrado (8a), Bohinjska bela, 20.5.2014.
43. Pune bombe v ovinek (8a+), Čreta, 3.6.2014.
44. Pravi muži (8a+, FA), Vranja peć, 28.6.2014.
45. Placcoman (8a), Barratro, 16.7.2014.
46. Gojzr party (8a+), Ter, 9.7.2014.
47. Chiquita (8a), Mišja peč, 22.7.2014.
48. Iglu (8a), Mišja peč, 11.9.2014.
49. Alexander (8a), Goltschach, 28.9.2014.
50. Independence (8a+), Preddvor, 30.9.2014.

June 29, 2014

Learning how to climb (normal) again

Finalists: 1. Borna Čujić, 2. Luka Kivela, 3. Krešimir Morić, 4. Nikola Kramarić. 5. Ivan Pevec, 6. Jurica Levatić. Photo by Ivana Kuštek

Croatian bouldering championship

Merely two months passed since the BWSC competition, but it seems like a year. After the BWSC, there was no time to waste, Croatian bouldering championship in Pula was just two weeks ahead. I did a couple of training sessions on plastic to remind myself how to pull hard, but after 3 months of 6b-jug-climbing, it felt like my body will fall apart. It amazes me how quickly and efficiently the body adapts: you train, fell like super-fit speed climbing machine, and suddenly “normal” climbing starts to be awkward and strange. I left to Pula without big expectations. I was hoping to enter the finals, and did exactly that – just barely squeaked into. At the end, I took 6th place – sturdily :). Happy with the result, but to do better next year, a bit more (or a lot more) training is needed. Young-guns are becoming really strong. I really enjoyed the competition, this is always a nice opportunity to meet friends from all over Croatia.

Climbing around Slovenia

After Pula, it was finally time for some normal climbing again, without competition, pressure and stopwatches. My girlfriend Petra and I, were eager to make use of the benefits of living in Slovenia. There is a ton of crags, and most are within 1h driving from Ljubljana. One day you can climb in beautiful alpine setting, and the other enjoy sunny sea side. We visited some of the regular climbing spots, but also some of the less traveled ones – Slovenian friends are still making fun of our choices :). Particularly interesting was the crag named Pod Sušo. A relict from history, with plastic and drilled holds here and there, red restricting lines and hard-as-hell vertical routes. Anyway, it was good for getting back in shape, and I managed to send a few 8as and onsight a 7c (not at Pod Sušo 🙂 ).

Huge anchor at Pod Sušo. Photo by Marina Jašić

First ascent of the last project at Vranja peč

Two weeks ago, I decided to check out an old project at my home crag, Vranja peč. Vranja is a small piece of rock deep in the Zagorian forest, where mosquitos abound and gentle 0.5 promiles of alcohol are in the air :). The routes are just like the local drink rakija: short and intense. Only one line remained unclimbed there, an old project Igor Čorko bolted about 6 years ago. I was fumbling with this route for years now, but just couldn’t do the moves. This time I envisioned some very unobvious beta – and it worked! It features probably the hardest shoulder move I have ever done on rock.

The move. Photo: L. Tambača

Next day, I returned with my brother, and suddenly, after a huge fight, found myself going for the last hold. The combination of excitement and exhaustion made me flying down. Damn! We were back two weeks later, but with no climbing in between due to work. Expectations and confidence were not high, but somehow, I stuck the shoulder move. I knew that there is no chance to do it again that day, so I was determined not to let go this time. And I didn’t. I named the route Pravi Muži. “Muž” is a typical Zagorian man: strong as bull and with remarkable drinking skills :). Grade? For sure the hardest at Vranja peč, so I will go with 8a+, one step at a time. Luckily, excellent photographer Luka Tambača was there, enjoy photo gallery: