This year's autumn keeps on surprising us. While winter already seemed to be in full swing with snow on the ridges of Triglav in September, snow down to the valleys of Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Allgau in October, and wintery conditions on Morocco’s Jbel Toubkal, November has been spoiling us with beautiful, warm weather. I spent one such wonderful day during last week with co-workers, friends and partners.
First we headed for Val Rosandra above Trieste, where we planned to climb a modern Via Ferrata. We were greeted by warm temperatures and golden colours of autumn, made even more beautiful by the sea in the distance. Some of my friends made their first steps into the vertical world, which proved to be quite a challenge. But they soon got used to the exposure, which is made more agreeable by the helpful steel cable. Soon, everyone got the hang of clipping and unclipping carabineers, and we started to move along the limestone cliffs with increasing efficiency.
The introduction to climbing was then taken one step forward at the legendary crags overlooking the village of Osp, where we tried our hand at three sport-climbing routes. Most of us climbed routes graded 4b and 4c, while some also tackled the slightly more difficult grade of 5a.
As the sun set, the crag lit up with increasingly bright shades of orange, creating a wonderful ambiance. To finish the perfect day we tried some Refosco, various types of cheese and smoked ham. We had a blast!
Danilo Tič
Photos: Dušan Smolnikar, Danilo Tič
