Gypsie power all around!

Salut tout le monde – Hello everybody!
It’s like this in my head and in conversations since Florian arrived. Switching languages all the time! But it is a good thing because my French wasn’t as good anymore.

After that last rainy day we made an attempt to do ‘Moratorium’, 4 pitches 5.11b. We ended up doing only the 2 first pitches and I tried to lead the third pitch but the crux of this pitch - and also the crux of the whole route – was wet and dripping in my face! So we decided to bail and do something else the rest of the day. We did ‘Serenity Crack’, 3 pitches 5.10d. I already did this route on my second day in the valley but it is such a beautiful line that I didn’t mind doing it again. Flo lead the first and third pitch, so he could feel how it is to lead a perfect and pure crack. He still had to get used to the pure crack climbing but I’m sure it will come soon!

The day after we gave ‘Freeblast’, the first 10 pitches of ‘Salathé Wall’ (=32 pitches on El Cap) a go. We only did the first 6 pitches because we were quite tired. Those where the best pitches of Freeblast. I lead all the first pitches when Flo followed. The third roof pitch I said take, really stupid, but I did the crux in the thin roof first go! After that there was one pitch in a corner with some scary stemming and technical moves! The fifth pitch was first 5.10d scary in a tiny crack with offset nuts as large as my pinky nail. After this section in pitch five the beautiful slab is coming at you! It’s a 5.11c slab and it’s all bolted. So it’s less scary but still pretty hard I fell twice in this section! But I’m sure that I can do it next time!



Those days we didn’t do big stuff but still we both were worked and ready for a rest day! The next day it rained really hard so we couldn’t climb. We saw at the weather forecast that it was going to rain for about 4 days so we pieced out of that bitch-hole! Flo and I left the valley joined by my dear German friend Fabi! We didn’t climb that day but we went to Jailhouse, 1,5 hour out of the valley. Jailhouse is a small overhanging climbing area who stays very dry when it rains!

We slept at a nice and quiet place near Jailhouse on some BLM-land (Bureau of Land Management). The next day we all really enjoyed the sport climbing! It feels good to do a little of sport climbing to let your head relax a little after being high above small gear all the time! I did a couple of 7’s (5.12+/5.13’s) and was surprised that the physical sport climbing went so well. The next day we dropped Fabi off in Stockton where he took the train to San Diego where he is going to study one more year! Crazy that German!
So that day we didn’t climb much, just 4 hours I think!


Jailhouse is a little local crack with big overhang, there are just two 6c’s I thing and all the other lines are harder. It’s definitely a really nice spot to do sport climbing when its wet weather because of the big overhang and it never seeps! The rock is basalt and really nice and sticky to climb on. It’s comparable with Rifle, Colorado, but the rock is stickier and the moves are less complicated. I had to take out my kneepads again to some technical knee bars in the big overhang! This is a really nice training wall if you’re living close to it. It is definitely worth it to visit is to for a couple of climbing days!


Today we took a rest day because the rock in Yoyo-mite will be dry from tomorrow! I also showed Flo how to drive my big Chevy cow! It was so funny to see someone ells having trouble with the wideness and the lose steering wheel of the car!

Tomorrow morning we will go to Yosemite and do some cragging, single pitches all day. One of the single pitch projects is ‘Separated reality’, a nice hands/roof crack! Famous one!






Here a little movie of my Slovenian friends and I in Hueco Tanks and Joshua Tree.

Desert fox from Gašper Bratina on Vimeo.

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