Klemen Bečan: Pred dvema letoma sem opremil super linijo na levi strani jame - Water world (9a) ... (angl.)
Big Project - Osp
Klemen Bečan: Soon I realized it's going to be hard, probably the hardest one in the cave. When I tried it for the first few times I had no idea how to do all the moves in the first section. I could do only the first two and the rest of 28 moves (to the big rest) were mystery. So I had to hang around on a route for a long time to crack the puzzle. Upper 30 meters of the route is super nice climbing on stalactites and luckily not so hard. Around 8a, 8b I think.
After more and more tries I could finally connect sections together and I got an idea this route could be possible to climb. Than the water came and I couldn't try it anymore. Under the cave was a big lake so I couldn't get to the start of it. When the water was gone and I came back I had to start all over again. I found some crazy new sequences where I didn't know at the end what is up or down. Real 3D climbing.
So now when we had too much of rain in Slovenia I had to find other ways to get to the route. First I tried with a boat. Especially comfortable for a belayer but was hard to stay dry until I started to climb. So next time I made a Tyrolean traverse over the lake and I could get to the project "normally".
On Saturday I came in Osp and I went directly to the route (other routes were under water so no warm up). One try to clean it and second one I fell on the last hard move before the rest. It took all the energy out of me so I didn't know if I will be able to try it again. But the rest on the deserted island was good and I tried one more time. Second time I fell in the beginning so I tried again immediately. Fell again on the 30th move. Rest again, eat, drink red bull and I was ready for the next try. This time I was climbing perfectly and I saved some energy for the last hard moves. Was on the limit but I came to the good rest on the stalactite. I was happy but I knew I still had around 30m of route to climb to the top. I was wondering all the time to the top "why didn't they just finish the route after hard part?". When I cliped the chain I knew why: It makes the route so much better.
The route is called Water world and graded 9a. If it's more (or less) others will tell, I know I had great time in it and it was worth making it.
Klemen Bečan