Climbing in Slovenia » Vipava Valley » Multipitch Climbing in Gradiška Tura
I love spending sunny autumn and winter days in the rocks above Vipava; the crags around Gradiška Tura were one of my first sports climbing adventures. Years later, I started tasting the long trad climbing routes, resulting in a discovery of a recently-created masterpiece: an almost-vertical slab with fantastic compact rock and almost a dozen bolted multi-pitch routes.At a Glance
- Difficulty
- V+, 90 m
- Altitude
- 500 m
- Average time
- 3 h
- Elevation gain
- 250 m
- Coordinates
-
Start: 45.832270,13.971014
Peak: 45.830888,13.976297
A Bit of a Warning
What I’m describing here is not part of the Vipava sports climbing area. You must be proficient multi-pitch climber; if you’re not, get professional help. There are dozens of licensed mountain guides in Slovenia. I can highly recommend Miha Habjan – exploring this crag with him was a great experience.
Finally, a helmet is a must – we had a bird throwing stones at us.
Notes
- Park at a large parking lot near Gradišče campsite.
- Follow the footpath (not Via Ferrata) toward Gradiška Tura.
- After passing the sports climbing crag (Oltar), follow the hairpins until you’ll reach a large slab with clearly visible bolts ascending toward the sky.
- I haven’t found a climbing guide for the area yet. The leftmost route (starting on a rock pillar almost hidden in the bushes) is a IV-; most of the others are somewhere between V and V+.
- The bolted routes are ~90 m long and many pitches exceed 40 m; you’ll need at least a 50 m rope.
- While it’s possible to rappel from the top, we decided to climb out and descend on a marked footpath.
- You’ll pass another fantastic sports climbing crag (Luska) on the way back. It might be worth stopping there as well.