A new challenging route in the heart of the Julian Alps, Slovenia.

I pushed open the heavy wooden door and as I entered the alpine club meeting room it made a loud creaking noise. This was in the small town of Celje Slovenia two decades ago. It felt holy like entering a church. I was too young to be able to join the club legally, so my parents needed to sign a paper, that stated Luka was responsible for his actions. At that time this support and trust given by my parents was a minor hurdle but with twenty years of life experience I understand the positive impact and meaning it had. The “climbing church” gave me direction, which was an incredibly valuable thing to have in my life. Taking responsibility early in life helped shape my personality and gave me the ability to make bold decisions.

The first meeting I attended, was the annual start of the “alpine school”. There were about a dozen new members and a larger group of the more experienced alpinists. I didn't know anyone, but I noticed another young boy and I sensed that we had something in common. During the weekly meetings and training outings on local crags, we got to know each other better and quickly became the “two Lukas rope team”. The first few years that followed were full of childish enthusiasm for alpine climbing. We started to climb in every free moment we had, riding our bikes to the crags or taking the bus to the mountains. This was before I had a driving licence and a car. We never made excuses or were frustrated at that time. We were both beginners and were learning a lot on our own and made some mistakes. This was for sure foolish and made it a dangerous activity, but it also made us grow up very quickly.

After a few years of climbing together a period arrived when our paths separated. Luka got drawn towards difficult rock climbing and me more towards higher mountains in the Himalayas. I believe it was also a time when we were the busiest with our egos and focused on our goals, obsessions, and important projects. This was during our early twenties, even though we never had any conflict we were for sure measuring each other and competing in a way. I think we were lucky to have this healthy competition, it was a good source of motivation. We didn't have much contact for maybe two or three years during this period, but somehow, we met up even if only for one climb in a year. Interestingly, this one meeting or 'climb of the year' was the most significant climbing experience of the year for us. In my mid-twenties, I began spending more time with Luka and climbing together. With the formation of the young alpinist team in Slovenia, when we were mentored by Marko Prezelj. Under his direction, we were able to experience many great adventures along with a few other good alpinists from our generation like Nejc Marčič, Luka Stražar, Martin Žumer, and Tadej Krišelj.

During those long trips to many different mountain ranges that were made possible by the support of the Alpine Association of Slovenia, we discussed the possibilities for difficult new routes in Slovenia. A few times the idea of a route on the north face of Rjavina was subject to discussion. I saw it for the first time sometime later, when I climbed the northeast ridge with Nejc Marčič one winter. I looked at the photos from that day, again and again thinking about route possibilities. Finally, in the summer of 2021, I decided to check it out for real with Luka Krajnc. A relaxed “discovery day” filled us, the two Lukas with that same childish enthusiasm that we experienced, when we started climbing together without pressure and open to new experiences. We didn't know what exactly we would find but we sensed that we were opening a book that large and would not finish quickly.

In the two summer seasons, we slowly but steadily forged our new route up the north face of Rjavina. We tried to follow the style of other routes in the Julian Alps and used mostly pitons and removable protection on the route. During these 2 years, we both went through various stages of real life but kept working on the line. What was a very long hike to the base of the climb at the beginning, turned into an incredibly valuable time with a friend. We talked a lot about work, women, the sense of our selfish activity and real climbing. We realised that most things are always changing in our lives, but our friendship was a rare constant in between. Once in the wall we always entered this little “bubble” where focus on the next move takes over and everything else disappears. The magical moments! The wildest terrain that we ever experienced in the Slovenian mountains, forced us to fight quite a bit and get creative to find a line. During this time our problems back at home disappeared and we were able to return home with clear heads. It was interesting to think about my attitude towards the challenges before the climb, during the day on the mountain and after having completed the experience. This brought realisations for having the seemingly pointless activity of climbing but accepting it as a means to clear my mind and form a bond with a friend.

Finally, we had summited a line using bolts only where nothing else worked. We placed six on the pitches and seven on the belays, so thirteen on the whole route. But before we finished with the first ascent it was clear we would need a third season to free climb the route. That year there was fresh motivation for Luka and me to train and be fit for the summer to free the new route. The first few visits we spent cleaning the rock and studying the moves. We reinforced a couple of holds in the crux pitch with glue to prevent them from breaking off. The summer of 2023 offered quite terrible weather for rock climbing and we faced the worst flooding in the history of Slovenia. Seeing some of our friends’ houses almost disappear in the water, our wet hold problems became irrelevant. When we more or less gave up for the year, we got dry conditions. On August 20th, 2023 we had a perfect day and we both free-climbed the whole route and topped out in the setting sun on the summit of Rjavina. It was a weird feeling. It almost seemed we were happy to have this project as an “excuse” for our “sessions” and now it was over. We named the climb ‘Beauty and the Beast'.

 I identify as an alpinist and am surrounded by mostly strong personalities, some have big egos that are difficult to control but because of it we, alpinists can do incredible things in the mountains and survive hard-to-believe adventures. On the other side, many friendships fall apart because of these egotistical adventures. In the process of climbing this new route, we relieved the twenty years of our rope team friendship and realised that it had evolved into a very tight friendship. A part of it came naturally and a big part of it was a result of taking time and energy to make the friendship flourish. Over the three years, many days and a large amount of energy were spent on our route on the north face of Rajavina. I think it was a perfect way to strengthen our friendship. This route just might be the hardest one in the Slovenian mountains, and it is a souvenir that will remind us to keep working on life. Route facts: “Beauty and the Beast”, Rjavina north face, Julian Alps 700m X (5.13d).

Photo: Luka Lindič

Photo: Marko Prezelj

Photo: Marko Prezelj

Photo: Marko Prezelj