Paklenica is deservedly the most famous climbing destination in Croatia – this 15km long canyon starts just a couple of km from the coast and snakes its way up into the mountains with around 600 routes from single pitch near the entrance to the impressive big wall of Anića kuk, with various routes up to 350 meters long. We’ve had a a few days sampling some of the climbing, over a couple of trips, most recently in 2015 (when Rockaroundtheworld posts were somewhat more succinct – I blame 4G)

Cragging in the Paklenica gorge

It’s a magnificent place, and it’s perhaps the juxtaposition of huge canyon and idyllic seaside that makes it so special, but to be honest we hadn’t really been thrilled by the climbing; featuring a fair bit of polish and the inevitable Croatian sandbag grading. With so much more of Croatia to explore, we could easily have skipped the area altogether, but the alure of the gorgeous sea-front camping near Starigrad proved too great and instead we chose to use it to explore some of the nearby climbing NOT in the gorge.

Starigrad is by far the most built up, developed section of coast between Rijeka and Zadar, but that’s not saying much:

This is literally the ONLY building of more than two or three storeys in almost 200km of magical coastline.

The waterfront camping is idyllic.

The nearest crag not in the gorge itself is Vaganac – it doesn’t make it into the countrywide guidebook because it features in the Paklenica guide, but there’s good coverage on TheCrag: https://www.thecrag.com/en/climbing/croatia/dalmatia/area/2810733645

It’s a winding 20mins or so, up into the hinterland, and then a short walk along a fairly obvious path over a rocky shoulder and down leftwards into a dip between two big lumps of gleaming white limestone. You’ll know you’re in the right spot because looking up you’ll see a rather ramshackle via ferrata bridge spanning the gap. We were chasing the shade so sector Ferata suited us fine.

Via Mizane, up a long fluted off-width feature, looked improbable at the grade of 5c, but strangely compelling. How hard could it be?

… Quite hard, it turns out! I confess to reaching for the cheat-clip when faced with a friction move bridged between two razor-sharp, rope-shredding flutings, quite some distance above the last bolt.

Amazing sculpted rock though…

… and it did give access to explore the rope bridge for an extra dose of mild peril:

After all that excitement we wound back the grades a bit (further!) and enjoyed a couple of the shorter routes and Remember Dagmar, an excellent 5b (HVSish) corner-crack directly beneath the bridge.

Another shady sector looked worth a future visit:

… and heading back we got a worm’s-eye view of someone else on the bridge.

Back at the campsite, any doubts about stopping over were soon dispelled!

The next day we set off to check out a newly-developed crag: Vranjaca. It’s the cool place where the locals go to escape the summer heat, and as it was 24C it fitted the bill.

First a sandbag alert – the 20-25mins approach is a bit of an understatement, unless you’re Kilian Jornet. It’s over 250m of ascent and at least a kilometer (and maybe 2 if you follow all of the ZigZags. Here’s the view down to the parking from halfway up the track:

When the crag finally comes into view it’s not as impressive as the guidebook had suggested…

… until you realise that there’s a HUGE cave BENEATH the level of the trees…

There are a couple of token 5bs on the left wing, definitely not the main event, but pleasant enough. Juggy moves between surprising holds, and no more baggy than anywhere else we’d been.

Heading underground you start to see just quite how impressive this venue is! The sunlit wall below is about 50m high, the cave to its left is at least another 50m below that, and the whole lot is well beneath ground level!

Here’s the view up and out – one of Croatia’s hardest routes, a 9a, works its way out of the left of the cave and up onto the headwall above the tree line, visible in the earlier shot.

More modest ambitions for us, Fetish, 6a, takes a series of tufa streaks up the sunlit wall mentioned above. Really good climbing, though a bit dusty, and well worth another letter (or two!)

Time for a sundowner…

… and a chance to sample one of the many Croatian craft beers that we’ve picked up – all very good but this one is probably at the head of the pack so far (our selfless research will continue though!)

Another 5km to the east on the D27 beyond Vranjaca is Obli Kuk, another superb area but you could hardly imagine a greater contrast. We’re very much back into gleaming white dome territory. The parking is a bit tricky to find – trust the coordinates in the guidebook despite the fact that Google maps doesn’t believe there’s a road (there is!) You follow a gravel track parallel to a buried gas line, with a couple of annoying ups and downs, before rounding the biggest of the lumps, Glavica.

There are half a dozen three-pitch routes around the back (the guidebook shot is a bit confusing – it shows the face coming into the shade and must have been taken late afternoon. It’s pretty sunny!)

We’d read an account of an epic on UKC so started up Leptirov Zamah, 80m 4c, 5c, 4b, with some trepidation, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and and pretty fair at the grade.

Buoyed by this, we set off up Od Poora do Vrha, 4c, 6b, 5a. Here’s Helen romping up the first pitch:

The 6b has an ominous maillon dangling in warning, and sure enough gets very thin after a few meters. A cursory look at the 5c to the left reveals another maillon and we realise we’ve stumbled upon the site of the UKC epic. We’re considering bailing from one or the other, but instead roll the dice and divert onto the 6a+ on the right. This turns out to be really absorbing climbing (not much change out of 6c) and we make it to the top of the crag after another multi-pitch adventure.

With most of the nearby cragging venues explored, outside of the gorge, it’s hard to tear ourselves away from the idyllic seafront campsite, especially with Helen’s birthday just around the corner. However, there’s only so much staring at the glistening Adriatic that you can do. A trip to the Zadar Decathlon yields the answer in the form of Helen’s birthday present – we’ve just joined the Stand Up Paddleboard phenomenon.

Here we are in double sit-in-top Kayak mode…

… and here’s Helen demonstrating some SUP Yoga:

Finally, I couldn’t leave you without a few shots of the Paklenica Canyon and some climbing in it, so I went for a rest-day jog from the coast, over the Mirila path which takes in some ancient burial tombs, and drops you about halfway up the gorge.

Fab views up to Ank Kuk

… and down to the sea.

… and folks climbing on some of the spires and walls on either side.

Just one more stunning sunset and a stroll into town for a magnificent fish supper, before it’s finally time to head further south.

Next stop, the pirate stronghold of Omis