UKC

Having seen a video about bouldering in Macedonia on UKC, South-West based climber and Maths Guru, Ed Southwood decided to head out to check out the trad potential of the area after realising it looked like a 'Super Dartmoor'...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5695

In reply to UKC Articles:

Matka Canyon is also brilliant.

Only 30mins drive from Skopje and has a strong local climbing scene. One of my favourite parts of the Balkans.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Good Article! The point about occasionally leaving the guide behind rings especially true. There was a climb article this month from Jen Randall which covered this too. It compared that carefree feeling of just skiing for the joy of it with the pressure to chase grades which is sometimes hard to avoid in climbing. Pretty inspiring trip man, cheers for the write up.

In reply to UKC Articles:

We met Igor as well when we were in Macedonia, really nice guy and very helpful. Shame we failed to find the routes we were looking for in Matka canyon (we only had sport kit with us), we got the boat and hiked up to find a few bizarre bolts and then sacked that off and tried the other side after walking down and couldn't find anything.

I recommend you go to Montenegro next - potential there for 10,000 routes or so....

In reply to UKC Articles:

Glad that you enjoyed Macedonian hospitality.
One correction: Matka is limestone, not granite.
There are many other places for rock climbing, ice climbing as well.

Visit us again

In reply to Red Rover:

Looks like there's at least a few easy trad routes on that already:

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/montenegro//durmitor/area/294278319

There's a hell of a lot more rock over there as well, and not just in the mountains. There are a few not bad sport routes bolted near the bus shelter in Kotor and then miles of good looking limestone gorges as you drive (south-east-ish?) out of Kotor.

In reply to darkon:

Are there any steep sport climbing venues similar to France and Spain?

In reply to Matt Vigg: I didnt know it had been climbed or that the routes would be so easy! I spent a long time below the north face of it in the valley that begins with a K and form there it looks very steep, but looking on google earth now it looks more like a huge slab.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Nice article and loved the bouldering video (this from the world's crappiest boulderer). Some of the locals looked pretty handy. The guy on the elephant's arse top-out... I could feel his pain.

And good people - which also matters. Well, in truth, it matters more than anything.

Mick

In reply to Tyler:

If you're after a new steep sport venue, northern Greece has 2-300 hundred routes many of which are very steep, also not far away from Bulgaria where there's more of the same, there's a long climbing season in Greece too. If you're interested I could upload a couple of pics. These areas aren't new as such but not many brits seem to know about them.

In reply to Tyler:
There are steep routes. Depends what you prefer, trad or sport climbing.
Just to name few locations in Macedonia: Matka, Demir Kapija, Solunska Glava, Pletvar, Pilav tepe/Ploca, Ostra Karpa, Kamena baba, Mavrovo,...
There are a lot of sport climbing routes in these locations as well.
http://alpinizam.org/eng/rock/matka1.html
http://macf.mk/index.php/2011-04-03-23-05-08

Prilep bouldering topo:
http://thesend.co.uk/Prilep-Bouldering-Topo/home.php

Hope the info helps.

In reply to Tyler:
Sport climbing federation Macedonia:
http://www.climbing.mk/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Macedonian-Sport-Climbing-Federation/1398643...

In reply to Tyler:
http://www.climbing-macedonia.com/sport-climbing-crags

In reply to UKC Articles:
Thanks for the nice article and thank you guys for the usefull links here in forum. Will definitely consider Macedonia next time when planning a climbing trip...
adam

In reply to darkon: It's really great that Macedonian climbers have put lots of effort into giving information in English for maximum international reach. I hope you get lots of enthusiastic and respectful visitors as a result!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Looks absolutely awesome!

Buying Ed's T-rad products makes you as great as Ed. Ed is very great!

In reply to darkon:

Thanks Darkon

In reply to UKC Articles: Glad you find the links usefull. Hope it will be a good starting point for climbers willing to discover new climbing areas and make new friendships.

In reply to UKC Articles: Great article. Have been considering making a trip there as first choice for 2014. This has helped me decide thats a good idea!

In reply to UKC Articles:

Been looking at going here for the last 2 years. Me and a mate were planning on going next easter but we decided to go for Morocco instead cos the flights were a bit cheaper. Still kind of wish we paid the extra to go now but I definitely still plan to go at some point. It looks amazing.