Without a doubt Osp should be on every sport climbers hit list. Just for sheer beauty, the little village with a camping are make it worth visiting. The walls are big, short, wide, slabby, overhanging, vertical and at times very sharp! The rock and bolting were first rate.My trip there yesterday was interesting, it started in the blowing snow in Trizic, then a slippery ride to the Kamnik highway turnoff, where I stood outside of a coffee shop waiting for a short while for my partner, Marko Prezelj. We drove to the west, Osp, is a kilometer from the Italian border, on very windy and slippery roads, Marko and I joked that two alpinists can only sport climb in these conditions. But Marko knew something, when we got within a few kilometers from Osp the skies cleared, and it was just another beautiful day by the coast. OK, to be honest, it was clear but still windy and the temp was 1 degree C.
3 minutes of approach past Silo Karo's house and we were at the base. It was cold, and windy, oh yeah, we were th only people there the whole day, until two Italians showed up at a reasonably warmer 2pm.
We climbed a few pitches and then the sharp rock rock took its toll on me. I have not had such soft and whimpy skin in so long. I could hold on when it was a gentle hold, but as soon I a touched the little spikes I cringed. We did actually worry a bit about getting finger injuries from the cold
. But Marko at the end of the day managed to send a 7a or a+.Hanging with Marko, one of the greatest alpine climbers of all time, was super, we had fun talking about people we knew in common, his and my travels, US and Slovenian politics and possibly going ice climbing in Cogna soon.
All in all a fun day. Time to train.
