Uredništvo G-L 25.07.2021 13:47 1792 0

Bits of July

Luka Stražar: Our calendar occupies a prominent spot in the living room.

4.7.2021

... Thanks to its beautiful photography and short text, it encourages the viewer (me:) to think about how he wants to invest his time and orient his mind. June came with a quote from Mike Singletary: Do you know what my favorite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.

Today those words resonate in my mind. I’m nursing my scratches and wounds after a long day on Triglav north face. There’s no glorious sports achievement behind it but me and Gašper had a great time. Tried to climb Ulina in a day but we didn’t succeed. Starting the day, I was a bit nervous. I knew all had to be perfect for us to make it. When I fell from the very end of a long and technical pitch in the first half of the route, I knew I messed it up. In my personal vocabulary, the feeling that I had is the definition of disappointment. But it was still early in the day so I had to suck it up and got sucked into the interesting pitches that followed. Eventually we had to bail and exit the face via an easier route.

It was nice to be fully engaged in climbing. I feel a lot of muscles which I haven’t in a while and the desire to go again and be better provides a good guidance on how I want to spend my time. Everyday life throws all sorts of things at you, which you have to sort out. Solving them makes life colorful. However, to put them on hold and play the big climbing game for a day is what climbing life is all about.

12.7.2021

Soča valley is a great place for a few “active” rest days. Summer is in full swing and lying in our hammock it feels great that I was able to tick off Ulina route on Triglav a few days ago.

This time with Jernej Kruder. We climbed it in two days and, except for one fall due to a brick size foothold that decided to break off, we did it free and in first go. It was me who was flying through the air, late on the first day. I got really pissed because it was already getting dark. Luckily it was the first pitch after the bivy, which we decided to climb a day before and aid it as a warm up early in the morning the next day. After Jernej climbed it, anger helped me to go again and finish it off at half past nine in the evening. It helped me sleep better.

Ulina offers constant difficulties throughout its entire length. The fatigue accumulates and in my case it led to a perfect finish. I had to focus and convince myself that falling is not an option while figuring out the sequence on the crux of the last hard pitch. It took few hard moves accompanied with a scream to finish it off. Felt good to be on the winning side this time.

LukaStrazar.com, 18.07.2021
Bits of July