D. Brahm (5c - UIAA VI) on Anica Kuk

History of this route

This route is a classical Paklenica climbing route. It is a memory for D. Brahm who died when he wanted to climb Anica Kuk on this route.

Approach

You should go up through the Klanci valley. You leave the Klanci and go up on the path until a black Anica Kuk board.
It is new: since 2006 there is a red table that shows the way to Anica Kuk. Follow exactly that direction what the table shows. :-) (we missed it first time and it was a little bit difficult to find the right way. :-) )
You should cross the small river by jumping on rocks and the other side you can find very well visible red marks on the rocks and trees. Just follow them to the leg of Anica Kuk. Where the track turns intesivelly left you can find a track what takes you to the entrance of the route. To the left you can find a metal memory-table for Dragujevic Brahm.

The wall

This route is on the North-Western face of Anica Kuk so it is in shadow most of the day. It could be great in summer.
In spring and late autumn it could be a little bit windy and cold. After a rain the lower parts can be slicky but thanks for limestone it quickly dries.

The type of climbing is very mixed. You can find a chimney, crack and plain wall.

Standings are well built and easy to find them.

Route Description

The route is about 300m high and it has 12 pitches.



The first pitch start with a chimney-like place and its difficulty is IV+, 35m. You should climb 3m up and after that you should traverse to the left 10m to an oblique crack. You can find the first anchor here. Follow the crack to its end and after that you should climb up. You will see the first stance to your left.

When we first time climbed Brahm we got lost for a while because we started directly up altough the next 3+ pitch went to a little bit left in a "jungle". :-))) We realised this failure in time so we descended a bit and continued the climbing in the good direction. Others did the same mistake because we saw a little rope-sling in an anchor for descending. :-)


So the second pitch is to the left. Don't follow the visible anchors because these belong to another route. :-) You can use slings and nuts here but you will find fixed anchors soon and you can use some quickdraws too.


The following part of the route is very clear.
After the 4th pitch you should go to the right and you will see the key-point of the route from here. A very short IV climb you can reach the bottom of this.



The 6th pitch is a short VI (5c) pitch... about 15m. This is the hardest part of the route. It starts with a 5-6m height chimney. You can put a #3 - #4 sized friend to the ceiling of this, after that you have to traverse to a plain wall-surface. You can reach an anchor here so with a sling you can make this part a little bit easier. (but it's wrong... :-) )



The following two pitches are UIAA III, very easy. After that there are two IV and V- pitches. You can see the sea from here. :-))) Very nice in sunset but it's very difficult to walk down in the dark. So be fast ! :-)

The end of the route is a rock-gate.

Descending

There is a new track to go down. You can find red-white marks on the rocks from the top of the rock-gate to the east. It is very new and you cannot miss them all the way down. It first goes to the summit of Anica Kuk (712m) and after that it goes down on the eastern side of the mountain. I suggest to use this descending path.
It takes 1-3 hours to the parking place of Paklenica National Park.


Other older descending path also starts on the top of the rock-gate to the sea direction. Follow the "stonemen" and painted marks to the west. Some places you can find fixed ropes and wire but their quality is not so good.

Gear

- long slings
- short slings
- a set of nuts
- some friends in the size #1-#4.
- 50m length rope
- 8-10 expresses

Wear helmet !

It is very useful if you have a pair of via ferrata gloves for descending.
(I forgot to bring them and I had no skin on my palms when we got down.)

Sometimes we use PMR walkie-talkies for communicating easily.

Red tape

For climbing in Paklenica you have to buy a ticket at the entrance of the valley. It permits you to climb.
Prices were in 2006:
1 day ticket 30HRK
3 days ticket 60HRK
5 days ticket 90HRK

You can find the actual news, prices about Paklenica on http://www.paklenica.hr

Images

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