Ex NORTHERN ASCENT

Ex NORTHERN ASCENT, 3 Scots LAD

Scribe: Sgt Richard Taylor, 3 Scots LAD.

The rock-climbing expedition started with a long drive from Inverness down to Clifton, Manchester where we stayed the night before flying to Croatia, Split, thanks to 127 REME reserve battalion. After a 0430 start to Manchester airport, a nice San Carlo’s breakfast and a 3-hour flight, we arrived in very sunny Split to be greeted by Frank the Tank, Disco Derrek, and Julian the Jag, and those were just this week’s transport. We had struck jackpot with the vehicles for the week after being given a Landover Discovery, a Discovery sport, and a Jaguar F-Pace. With a luxurious 45-minute drive to the Villa and a stop at Lidl on the way, we arrived at our 7bedroom Villa, Villa Marija** in Trilj with a private pool, huge outdoor BBQ and kitchen space, a gym with 10 working mountain bikes and

Cpl Matthew Thomas making sure Cpl James Primrose was fully protected Everyone enjoying the sun playing volleyball in our private pool

as many free-range eggs as our chickens could lay for us. As if the start of the week could get any better, we finished the day in our pool with a game of water polo and a BBQ in the sunset with some lessons on Safety, PPE, and rope work.

An early start for our first day out climbing, we travelled to the small town of Omis. This was a beautiful drive in through the mountains to get to our venue riverside. This morning’s climbing was heavily focused on safety, working with PPE and climbing communication. All climbers, even the completely novice, picked it up well. With Crag side parking, leaving our lunches in the cars which turned out to be a big mistake, the early morning shaded climbing turned into blazing sun by 10am. The buddy-buddy system had to be in place to ensure everybody had plenty of sun cream on.

With some warm sandwiches and melted chocolate bars, once the climbing had finished for the afternoon, we decided to explore Omis for an ice cream and some freshly baked baguettes for an afternoon snack. On route back to the villa we stopped at the layby on route to the top of the mountain to take a group photo taken by a kind passer-by. It began an early theme of the week by spending the evening in the pool playing water volleyball before an evening meal in the Sun.

Group shot taken overlooking the valley in Omis

We continued with the early starts as the weather by 10am hit the late 20’s, so we set off to Marjan in Split and again were greeted with the picturesque climbing views overlooking the sea. Trying to stretch everybody’s climbing skills, we went for longer/ taller climbs. This pushed people mentally and physically as we had several people scared of heights. The communications had clearly advanced quickly from day one and everyone had picked everything up quickly. With a 1330 climbing finish, we took ourselves down to the shingle beach for an hour dip in the Adriatic Sea before roaming the tiny streets of Split.

Days 3 and 4 Climbing in the mountainous areas of Croatia, we travelled over to Brela towards the Markaska region. We climbed here for two days due to the different areas available to us.

The first day here we climbed longer and more difficult climbs to push everybody on the exercise after some easier routes completed the previous days. We made sure there were plenty of water breaks and as much shade cover possible for guys to get around although there was not too much shade after 9am due to the height of the sun. Being so close to the beaches again after a day’s climbing, it would have been rude not to, so off we went for an hour into the sea before retiring to the villa pool.

Our return trip back here two days later saw a great photo opportunity and an abseil. A painted Croatian coloured flag on the rocks 30m up overlooking some beautiful beaches and the sea, with an instructor at the top and bottom, we sent everybody up one by one. Everyone managed a 30m climb before our fantastic group photo and then an abseil back down to the bottom. Shortly after lunch we drove across to Markaska Bay to get prices on ferry or boat trips to the Island of Brac for a day’s climbing on the island for our final days climbing as the guidebook had some amazing places to visit.

To break up days 3 and 4 climbing in Brela, we had booked in a ‘similar Activity’ Canyoning with the company Iris Adventures. I would highly recommend. Our guides Nico and Dan were brilliant and the company where great before and during the tour. Canyoning down the Centina River was certainly a memory the guys on the trip will not forget.

With cliff jumps ranging from 2m to 9m and abseils from 20m to 55m, it certainly put all the deployed SP through their paces. The cliff jumps mixed with 18-degree water temp, slides down the rocks and lazy river style floating the Canyon, it was the best 2.5 km and 3 hours work I had ever done.

Our final day climbing meant some shorter but more challenging routes to finish the week. We headed down to the port of Markaska bright and early before boarding a boat to the island of Brac. A few hours of tough climbing and hot weather, we then took advantage of being on the island and visited a local small restaurant, for some, freshly caught lobster and octopus, for others delicious oven cooked pizzas and home-made bread. 10/10 on the recommendation from our boat skipper Dan. We spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting coves and secret caves before heading back to the port before a report of the weather turning. An evening spent packing and cleaning the villa before a nice meal in what felt like the final supper before another full days travelling back to Fort George. However, a fantastic trip would not be complete without a delayed flight, 2 hours waiting for baggage and the UK car hire company delivering the wrong vehicle.

This was a trip to remember. 3 Scots LAD would like to thank all for the contributions towards the trip which helped get us out of the door.

For anyone thinking about setting up a RockClimbing Expedition, Croatia is certainly a place to visit.

Group photo at the top of the climbs before abseiling back down

Croatian valley shot Sgt Richard Taylor ready for his 55m Abseil into the Centina River

End of the Canyoning trip with Exercise T-shirts