Istria, the bulbous peninsula at the northern end of the Adriatic, is separated from the rest of Croatia by the Učka mountains, which are protected as a Nature Park. The western edge of the Park is formed by the canyon of Vela Draga, a spectacular landscape of pinnacles and soaring cliffs, and home to some very scenic climbing.

Parking in a slightly scruffy car park, just off the motorway (which blasts through Ucka via a tunnel) there’s only an unassuming sign to hint at the stunning landscape ahead.

It also marks the start of a nature trail, with fading information boards charting 140 million years of geology. A few hundred metres along a wooded pathway across the flat plateau the vistas open up to reveal the cliff edge and the yawning canyon.

Zigzagging down scree-strewn paths you drop into the maze amidst the pinnacles, at one point heading through a natural arch to round one of the most fragile…

… eventually reaching the tunnel sector above the railway line.

The guidebook is honest enough to admit “the rock formations are better for admiring than for climbing” and it’s a fair assessment. In any event, the brutally hot sun wasn’t encouraging any grade-pushing but did make for a suitable blue backdrop to set the gleaming white needles into sharp relief. The easiest route on the wall, Suncana Luka, a 30m 6a up the right arete, was plenty taxing enough.

Looping back beneath the base of the walls, we navigated the labyrinth to the foot of Veliki Toranj, the tallest of the towers.

Originally climbed by the great Emilio Comici in 1931 – not the most famous North Face he pioneered, and by no means the hardest, but a thrill to be treading in the footsteps of a giant. The route of his ascent now warrants 6a, protected by a string of shiny bolts, but would have been a different prospect 90 years ago. As an added bonus we got to write our names in the summit book.

Here are a couple of shots of me on the route taken by Andi, a visiting German climber:

Hard to top an ascent of a the North Face of a classic pinnacle via the Comici Route, so we sensibly quit while we were ahead to catch the last of the rays at the campsite.