If the established epicentre of climbing around Podgorica is Smokovac, then the new kid on the block is definitely Lovka. The two climbing areas contrast and complement each other well. Smoki is all about the tufa, with a largely shady aspect enabling cranking even in warmer weather. Lovka is characterised by mostly vertical rock in more stratified formations, giving square-cut, crimpy (and sharp!) holds and the occasional roof. It gets all the sun going (though you can dodge and weave to find bits of shade) and is definitely a winter crag. The first online reference we spotted was someone saying they’d discovered the “new Siurana”. That might be an exaggeration, or at least a bit premature as there’s enormous scope for development. Regardless, it was our favourite crag in Montenegro and probably of the whole trip.

Lovka is situated in the Cijevna Canyon, South East of the city, on a backwater route into Albania, about 15km before the border. The whole canyon is flanked on both sides by rocky formations, and it’s presumably the accident of convenient access that has focused the development on a couple of sections about a kilometre wide in two tiers, approached from above and below. We’ll start with the upper crags, which are approached from the tiny hamlet of Lovka, hence the name.

From the parking area you head towards a crumbling house and skirt this on its left, picking up quite a good path which follows a drystone wall before trending right and down towards the cliff edge. Cairns mark the way easily down leading to a rightwards trending rock ramp and the level of the base of the crag. Head westwards here and you soon turn a corner to be confronted by the magnificent vista in the top photo. We actually bypassed the first couple of sectors and few dozen routes to explore the far end of the crag, where sector Disco has the most amenable set of routes in the 5b to 6b range. If you are using the Montenegro climbing app (see previous post) you’ll be scratching your head at the profusion of additional routes on the way (turns out this is Sectors Techno and Reggae) and you need to synthesise quite a number of sources (the Web version of the Montenegro info, 27Crags, TheCrag, Mountain Project and even UKClimbing) to unravel all the options. There’s also Sector Jazz even further around the corner. Happily quite a number of routes have names inscribed at the bottom.

Over the course of a couple of visits we did the majority of routes on Disco, and were quite surprised to bump into other climbers on each visit, including this team of four local young women.

Helen shared her birthday cake, prompting the slightly impertinent question of “which Birthday?” followed by the highly gratifying oohs of amazement, and the declaration that she was “an inspiration”. Any impertinence instantly forgiven! Helen was, indeed, crushing – Saturday Night Fever, 6a

Do The Hustle, 5c

Sector Techno, to the right, is also really good. Here’s Helen on the well-named Ecstasy Aréte, 6a+ (okay, should have been Ecstasy Corner then Aréte)

Love Parade, immediately right, gets 6c in one source, perhaps the only route I’ve done that actually felt soft touch (gets a more realistic 6b elsewhere). Further right there’s a route with our name on it…

… it was just missing a “Rock”. That’s easily fixed:

Great name aside, this was possibly my favourite route of the trip so far – unlikely looking from below, the couple of roofs are crossed on big holds.

Also managed All About The Bass, 6c (maybe +) but got shut down on DJ Gluesalot, 6c+/7a

Disco and Techno get shade from around 3pm (in late October – very welcome on our visit) with the rest of the crag bathed in the golden-hour evening rays…

Pomegranates aplenty…

If you turn left (east) rather than right when you drop down to crag level, you reach Sector Baby Doll, and then Emilio and ultimately Besa – and miles more untouched rock all the way to Albania…

These get morning sun and then welcome shade from early afternoon. The eponymous Baby Doll, 6a+, is decent but stiff

… as are Medjvedic and Winnie l’Ourson, both 6a+ (seems to be about my comfort zone hereabouts!)

The lower Cijevna Canyon crags are accessed from below (who’d have thought it?) and although you’re only a few hundred metres away from the Lovka climbing as the crow flies, it’s about a 20mins drive. In the photo below you can see the Lovka line of crags along the top of the escarpment, and below the rather unimaginatively named Grey, Left and Right Walls.

Grey Wall (we seem to be climbing on quite a number of similarly named sectors in the Balkans – sadly because they’re the ones with easy enough routes!) has 8 routes in the 5 to 6b range. We did Sarajevski Malboro, 5c, and a couple of the 6a/+s – okay rather than awesome.

Over on Left Wall, Sir Nicholas Cake, 6b, was a fun flake/crack and First Steps, 4+, made for an enjoyable outing in contrast to the surrounding steepness.

… and spotted one of my favourite route names (sadly beyond my pay grade!)

Here’s a lovely sunset to finish…

… the parking at Lovka gives a fine spot for a sundowner (beers courtesy of the Akademija craft brewery in Podgorica).

Finally, a foot note about driving from the Smokovac area (where we found it convenient to base ourselves at Autocamp Titograd) to Lovka. Google Maps will try to take you via the middle of Podgorica, which goes through a congested and somewhat deprived area. We found it much more pleasant to route via the M4 (see map below). Also, it’s better to take the first left turn when heading up to Lovka (again, Google doesn’t know this exists!) – looks steep and potholed to start with but soon settles down to decent tarmac with a line down the middle for the most part.