With so much climbing around our beach-front residence at Camping Stobrec, Split, I had to SPLIT it into two posts. This one, somewhat arbitrarily, takes in three crags to the west. More toasty weather meant that our new SUP hobby was an easy excuse to prevaricate before another roasting on a south-facing crag.

Having exhausted our excuses we headed for Markezina Greda, a very impressive crag just beyond the fortified hilltop village of Klis (now firmly on the map, apparently, as the setting for Game of Thrones).

Hard to get a crag shot, as it is shrouded by trees below – here’s a distant effort driving past on the motorway.

Anyway, it’s generally pretty steep, with some really impressive caves, and even most of the “easy routes” have bulging starts. We were also a bit taken by surprise by the fact that much of the righthand side of the crag is east facing and coming into the shade – ironic having spent so much time whinging about being too hot, as inexplicably we’d both decided to ditch the warm clothing we’d lugged around for the previous few weeks. Another wrinkle was that there was a lot of seepage from the weekend rain. Suffice to say we didn’t have the most productive day – Vjekin, 6a, and Crna Udovica, 6b, both turned into aid fail/bails, and not just because of wet holds, though that didn’t help. I actually fared pretty much as well on Glupan, 7a+.

Here’s a local on the adjacent Ludas, also 7a+ (just so you get at least one photo of some climbing!)

Further left on sector Geronimo we finally found an enjoyable excursion on Petina, 6a.

… and quit whilst we were ahead to chill on the beach.

A different, drier day, and a more positive attitude, would probably merit a return trip, and it’d be a great venue if you were operating in the upper 7s and 8s (50 of the 120 routes are 7s and another 30 are 8s or projects), especially with the shady afternoon aspect.

A bit further west, Bobanova Greda is another vast swathe of rock, where development has barely scratched the surface. There are only 25 routes recorded in the guide, and interestingly many of them have been put up by a Brit, now resident in Split, Steve Whittall.

We were let down by otherwise pretty reliable approach description in the Boris Cujic guide. The map and GPS coordinates both reference completely the wrong parking (immediately beneath the crag but 150m too low!) We eventually figured out that we should park a couple of hairpins higher, next to a rather fancy elevated viewing platform here: 43.569438° N 16.489748° E (pretty much directly below Sector A)

… and then walk back down to the last hairpin (room to park a tiny car) and follow this signposted and waymarked trail:

Here’s a map to make sense of where everything fits:

Huge scope for more routes, and there wasn’t much evidence for a great deal of traffic…

… so we were quite surprised by the arrival of a couple of other pairs – and then even more surprised to find they were Brits (the first British climbers we’d met in a month); and then less surprised that one of the team was none other than Steve, the crag developer, giving the grand tour for a couple of visiting friends. Anyway, nice to be able to say thanks for all the hard work that’s obviously gone into the routes. Here he is in action, maybe on Razibriga, 6a+?

We did a couple of routes at the far right hand end. Sundance, 5b, and Debrecenca, 5c. Good fun despite looking a bit bushy.

I then had a go at one of the impressive long steep slab/wall routes on Sector Quasar: Running Free, 7a+, but the too hard/hot/puny syndrome kicked in again. A fun consolation was the first pitch of eponymous Quasar, 6b, up an extraordinary square-cut runnel and some tufa features up a corner. Great views (but you’re bored of those by now!

We survived a close encounter of the Goaty kind…

… for yet another stunning sunset over Split.

With one day left before the promised overcast day (which never arrived – see previous post) we decided to take our chances at Marjan, the longest-established climbing area in the vicinity. We were a bit reluctant as we’d reccied it a few years previously (probably on a weekend) and been put off by the crowds, and had wrongly assumed it would be a polished horror-show. We were really pleased that we did.

Marjan is a peninsula that stretches out beyond the city, settled in Roman times and home to a number of hermitage and churches that have been built into the rocks. The peninsula has been protected since 1964 as a public space and nature reserve, and as such is a really precious environment. Climbing began in the 80s and the crags of Santine Stine lay claim to having hosted the fourth ever climbing competition in the world!

It’s super-convenient to access – you just drive along the seafront until you reach a barrier and “park ranger station”, park, then wander up the pedestrianised road, around a hairpin, and you’re at the first sector within about 400m

Salvatore, 6a+, was excellent, and one of the few Croatian routes we’d done that didn’t feel like a sandbag.

You even get a hands-off kneebar rest before the crux!

Pimi takes the striking wide crack

… all with a stunning backdrop.

I had a decent attempt on the outstanding Carlijev klub, 6c…

… and more short-lived effort on Carsko Vino, 7a, but Helen had much more success on (or in?) the adjacent speleological Ekspedicijski Kamin – quite an expedition!

Wandering back past the churches…

… it was tempting to call it a day, but the sight of the “Banana Split” wall and the promise of the cooling conditions inspired one last throw of the dice on Sorceti, 7a. This takes the right of the wall in the shot below via finger locks and flakey cracks, to reach the upper arete. The rock deteriorates here and the bolts run out, but more careful use of the guidebook would have revealed that the line takes an unlikely jink left, over the void, to join the neighbouring route for its finishing headwall slab. This is a potential heart-breaker, but some sly cunning via a crack on the left finally got me to the anchor.

… and yet another stunning sunset!