A week of spectacular climbing in Bulgaria. David came out for an off-the-beaten-track brother adventure, and Bulgaria blew away our expectations; it is stunning.
We flew into Sofia, rented a car, and headed to Karlukovo. It’s still an old world in Karlukovo. Seeing horse drawn carriages and shepherds tending flocks was a daily occurence.
Prohodna Cave, just outside of Karlukovo, is the main attraction for climbers and contains some of the most awe-inspiring climbing features on earth (?). (You can see David at the base of the wall for scale).
Looking out of the main amphitheater entrance to Prohodna.
#davidfullofwonder
‘The eyes of God’ light the middle of the cave (find the climber).
David climbing on the iconic hourglass feature at the entrance of the cave. The route is “Team Building” (5.10a).
Eating a dozen cow tongues in Karlukovo.
We stayed in Karlukovo until we desperately needed a rest day. We took our rental car south into the mountains in search of ‘marvelous bridges’? We drove into the night and stopped and stayed in Zornitsa. We woke up to this view the next morning.
Our room in Zornitsa
The owners of the home we stayed in made us breakfast. We sat outside eating and talking about their adventures sailing their boat across the Pacific.
Forest near Marvelous Bridges
Marvelous Bridges: we decided to have an adventure hiking up one of the narrow canyons.
Marvelous Bridges
After growing some fresh skin at the bridges, it was back to Prohodna. The top priority was to get David back on the 5.12a project he was working.
Working through ‘Varna’ (5.12b) in the cave. An unreal route, that I stopped working because many of the holds were seeping.
Prohodna wildlife
High up on ‘Perfume Baby’ (5.12c). The route starts with a runnout vertical section that leads to 30 feet of unreal overhanging climbing culminating in a crux deadpoint right at the lip followed by another big runnout on easy climbing to the anchors. Without a doubt, it’s in my top 5 climbs.
The highlight of the trip was David sending his proj ‘Kromanyonetsat’ (5.12a), for his second ever 5.12 send. Once he got all of the beta figured out and confidence was high, he cruised it. To say he was psyched would be an understatement.
After cleaning up our cave projects, we went to go explore another area near Karlukovo. The approach was incredible and was probably better than the climbing, which was subpar.
At ‘Little Cachet’, I got completely shut down on a short slabby 5.12d, and then David and I had a great time projecting through a 5.12a in an adjacent cave.
Descending from ‘Little Cachet’
Our last stop was in Vratsa, which is known for clean, slabby trad climbing. We spent the day getting terrified and not sending, but with no real agenda, we didn’t really care. It was more than enough to be wandering in the mountains.
Vratsa mythical creature
Vratsa
Vratsa
After Vratsa, it was time to go. I headed back to Myanmar, and David was back to the States. Bulgaria is legendary: unreal climbing, unreal beauty, and pretty much completely off the beaten track. Go there.