Mostar is situated on the Neretva River and is the fifth-largest city in BiH and the largest in Herzegovina. It is named after the bridge keepers (mostari) who guarded the Stari Most (Old Bridge) over the Neretva during the Ottoman era. The Old Bridge is arguably the “face” of BiH – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, the original was destroyed in the Balkan War and rebuilt in 2004.

Whilst Blagaj, about 10km south of the city, is undoubtedly the major climbing attraction (see previous post) we checked out some other crags whilst we were there.

Dreznica, about half an hour north of Mostar, has about a hundred routes spread along a row of mostly SW facing crags. There’s a simple camping field (walk-in only – not in use when we were there) and the ubiquitous signpost…

The crags are split by a road which tunnels through the ridge line (the path along the foot of the crag doesn’t join up so you have to choose left or right). Heading rightwards, there’s an inscription carved into the rock from the 14th century setting out the ownership by the local Duke (not, it turns out, an earlier record of the climbing available!)

There’s an imposing tower, above my current pay grade, but otherwise the routes are a bit scrappy so we headed back to the left hand side, where the crags are more continuous.

We’d planned to explore to the farthest sector, Toplo…

… but became a bit disillusioned with the bushwhacking (the path deteriorates or we missed the good one) so stopped short and did a couple of routes on Sector JDAV, Sama, 5c, (tough) and Kapika, 5b (surprisingly straightforward).

Further left there’s a fine-looking buttress, Sector Boca. I got repelled by Two Old Friends, 6a+, but managed to fight my way up Dolma, 6b – good but so tough! My ascent was punctuated by a call from below, as Helen spotted a snake slithering around the foot of the crag. She bravely reported “good to continue” as it was only small. As I threaded the anchor, a further update suggested I get a move on, as a bigger snake had turned up (Mum?) This was almost a metre long, and somewhat dampened our appetite for more exploration!

Having cut short our afternoon, I decided to at least recce the nearby Komadinovo Vrelo area, another 15mins north along the Neretva valley and above the busy main road. Advertised as 10mins approach, it turned out to be a 20mins trudge (look out for a couple of steel rungs to scale the embankment, just behind the “Little Chef” statue). Can’t fault the path marking though – must have used a can each of red and white paint.

Even more remarkable, on finally arriving at the crag, I found a table and chair. Respect!

Someone clearly loves this crag a lot, judging by the effort that’s been put in, but TBH the actual climbing didn’t look amazing. I won’t be rushing back with a rope.

Fabulous views though…

Closer to Mostar, in fact visible from the centre of town, is Stolac. This is reached via a zigzag road whose main purpose is to access the viewpoint / bar / zipline complex of Fortica.

There’s no missing the crag, and it’s an easy downhill wander to the first sector.

This is a fairly impressive wall (the first of three sectors) and the position and views are stunning.

Tempted though I was to jump straight onto one of the pockety yellow 6as, I’d finally reached the conclusion that I should give myself a break and warm up on a 5. Drugi, 5a, is the left hand line, and is a really good route, but OMG it’s more 6a than 5a. The pattern repeats on the adjacent Izrad 981, a 5b that thinks it’s a 6b.

We’d purposely picked a shady crag, as we’d been toasted earlier in the week, but hadn’t accounted for a whistling wind. Davno Bilo, 6a, takes a line linking big pocket features up a rounded arete, and catches the first rays of some welcome sunshine. The “add a number” grade algorithm finally failed – it was thankfully only a letter harder than promised.

We bailed to check out the Fortica Sky Platform viewpoint and weren’t disappointed – you definitely get a view!

You can see the crag clearly above the T in Mostar, and the city splayed out below.

Look closely enough and you can get a bird’s eye view of Stari Most:

We popped into town for a closer look. It was unsurprisingly bustling (must be mayhem in the full tourist season):

Though with a bit of help from AI it was just us and the ducks…

Leaving aside a 500 (or 20) year old bridge, our Mostar cultural highlight was the discovery of the Cooltura Craft Brewery:

Stupendous beer! Result!