After a short and really wet stop in Rila (Bulgaria), the caravans headed south to Prilep, Macadonia. This small city is surrounded by a mountain of boulders, a sight I have never seen in my life.
As soon as we crossed the boarder, I fell in love with this country. The Mediterranean climate made me feel warm, the landscape felt soft and there were fruits and vegetables growing everywhere.
As a route climber, I haven’t seen so many boulder areas, but I realized why so many climbers love this type climbing. Bouldering is fun! The potential of Prilep is huge for bouldering. I guess that only 5% of the boulders are cleaned and every day we brushed some new problems.
I loved the diversity of the problems and the crazy holds.
I felt like a kid again. I climbed until every fingertip was bloody. That’s the only down side of Prilep; that the granite grains are really big, so you quickly run out of skin.
As a route climber, I’m not so experienced in bouldering so I learning by making mistakes. I made a hundred try’s for a problem instead of taking good breaks between. I wasn’t able to climb explosively and to give 200% in one try so I tired quickly but not before running out of skin. I’ve had so much fun, so who cares!
Bouldering is an activity that is really great for my climbing and I’m already psyched to do it again in Bafa Lake. But first, I need to let my fingertips heal…;-)
Once more, the Petzl team members were so cool and there were some real bouldering machines on this part of the trip like Akyo Nogouchi, Sachi Amman and Melissa Leneve. It was great to watch them in their element and I wish that one day I will also be able to fully express myself on a hard boulder problem…
But before that, some multipitch routes in Meteors.
Next stop Greece!