Vertical horizon

Smells like - winter ?!!

The winter had us by (a bit of a) surprise this year round. The common 'cold-fronts' of the year seemed to have surpassed this part of Europe thus far, leaving us with unusually high temperatures, high humidity, rain... and the notorious 'swine flu', hmmm?!

As we were planing for our coasy family holiday break-away, we were planning to pack just our swimming trunks and perhaps a pair of ski's - just in case. When Tadej told us of the high amounts of frozen waterfalls forming around the area of Bovec, I was already determend to expand my packing list (just ;) a little bit.

What we arrived to see were amazingly low temperatures, wind and cloudy fog, that gave way to only one day of fine, sunny weather.

We used that one to show our little-ones the endless beauties of this amazing valley... and all the other ones for some warming up... and surprizingly also some first years ascents in the areas numerous frzen waterfalls.

It was a superb week, that changed the single minute we started packing for our departure.
A pretty interesting START never-the-less.

ALL the BEST in 2010, everybody !! ; )

The SMILE of a father !

On August 9 2009, myself too, have joined 'the club'. On a quiet sunday evening me and Marjana were blessed with the birth of our firstborn daughter Neja.

After a short 'post-festum' period, everything had started moving pretty fast. Neja is quickly growing into an enthusiastic want-to-know-it-all, while we try to catch up with the surprises and moments she has prepared and in store for us.

It's a fun & definately completely new proces - I think that any 'fresh' parent would agree... ; )

Weekly counselling meetings with all of my experienced collegue fathers have become a serious matter, for once. ; )) What is in improtant is the beginnig of a new journey, of course.

Welcome Neja !

Mixed terrain...

On the first day of March 2009, after hearing about the exeptional conditions forming in our local mountain walls, we quickly teamed-up with Martin to go and have a closer look.

Our plans were initially slightly different, but after we saw a remarkable line down the middle of the mountans central pillar we were suddenly 'game' to check it out first hand.

And were richly rewarded too. The line proved to be one of the nicest, hardest, longest and comfortably mixed (of course ;) of the whole wall.

After climbing 4 pitches of sustained partially mixed climbing, we had to almost 'dig' ourselves through the unstable upper part that consisted of difficult sections of powder snow, then finally climbing out onto the summit ridge. A certain victory-jell was unavoidable, of course! ; )

We named the route 'The hidden IDEAL' and dedicated it to our co-climber and friend Janez Stegnar.

Kalymnos - the rocky resort

The tempting smell of the warm mediteranean sea won our minds and thoughts over once again. A possibility of such a trip lay in our minds the whole year long, so when it was time to go there were no second thoughts what-so-ever. A quick e-reservation of a small apartment (that we naturally changed as soon as we saw it ;) and we were off !

We flew to Greece with a plane this time, then quickly cacthing a speed-boat that took us to our desired temprorary island 'home'.

The fisherman resort and sponge-growing island of Kalymnos was previously known only to a small procentage of european scuba divers, until a tallented and explorative group of climbers discovered it in the 90's. They soon started equiping sport-climbing routes, that made this small peace of land world-wide known in the climbing comunity only a few years later...

...it's rocky nature and fantastic stalactite formations make it a true climbing paradise. The routes are inviting you with every comming day - so restdays can be a real blessing at times! In the company of good friends, there is no need to think twice of course... ; )

My motivation & overall rock-climbing form was very high at the time. Improving my technicque and endurance in incresingly overhanging sections filled me with pure enjoyment and led me through even the hardest passages.

A couple of climbing high's - some 7b(+) onsights and a first 8a graded rock route were just half of the reward for a 3 week active training regime.

The smiles and sunset's say it all. Relax and enjoy the PIC's!

The swift WHITE tooth

A (really) short & sweet alpinistic escapade, that me and my friend Tadej pulled out on a nice August weekend of this years sunny fall.

Driving to Switzerland and climbing the neighbour of the worlds (probably) most famous mountain - the Matterhorn - we were packed and ready to go.

The long approach and the changing, windy conditions of the first day didn't bother us too much. We prepared our gear in the evening and started climbing really early the next day - enjoying the crystal clear views of the surrounding mountain peaks all the way to the summit of Dent Blanche ( 4356 m ).

We were only the 3rd party of climbers on our route that year. To the general surprise of the other climbers, we started our 5 hour descent to the valley directly after reaching the shelter hut.

Though suffering from muscle aches a bit in the comming days the climb was well worth the trip!

We were back (without sleep, of course ;) at work in less than 72 hours... ; )

Sardinia - an ACTIVE break

A short year has passed and we were on the ferry-boat once again.

This time headed to the Italian island of Sardinia - a true pearl of simplicity and rejuvinating stress-free lifestyle.

At least for the group of 10 of us - it surely was. ; )