August - Anica Kuk, Paklenica National Park, Croatia

The summit of Anica Kuk stands at a rather modest 712 meters, yet getting there was one of the biggest challenges of my mountain loving life so far, and this is because 320 of those meters we climbed vertically!

Summiting Anica Kuk was the epic finale to an awesome climbing holiday in Paklenica National Park, Croatia, a climbers paradise! Leading up to the day we climbed Anica Kuk we spent 7 days climbing single and multipitch sports climbs elsewhere in the national park, bagging over 25 routes including my first outdoor 6a.

Anica Kuk itself was a 14 hour epic (with 10 of those hours spent on the 320 meter vertical section) which took us up 13 pitches over two routes named "Saleski" and "Brid za veliki cekic". I can't put into words the feeling of arriving at the top of my first "serious" multi-pitch... but as always I hope to let the pictures do the talking...

Bridging on the 4th pitch

Looking down from the 4th pitch - approx. 120m up!

Starting an exposed and balancy traverse at about 200m, pitch 6.

200m up on an exposed traverse.

Climbers following us up on the pitch below

13 pitches and 10 hours later... but still some scrambling to go till the summit!

Made it! A view we worked hard for!

 

Anica Kuk in all it's vertical glory!