Martin Krpan (climb)

Martin Krpan
Martin Krpan (right), on the Mišja Peč crag
Martin Krpan (climb) is located in Slovenia
Martin Krpan (climb)
Location within Slovenia
LocationOsp, Slovenia
Coordinates45°34′02″N 13°51′51″E / 45.5673°N 13.8642°E / 45.5673; 13.8642[1]
Climbing areaMišja Peč
Route typeSport climb
Vertical gain28 metres (92 ft)[1]
Pitches1
  • 9a (5.14d)? (without kneepads)[2]
  • 8c+ (5.14c) (with knee bars)[3]
Bolted by[[]]
Jure Golob, 4 May 2001

Martin Krpan is a 28-metre (92 ft) sport climb at the limestone Mišja Peč crag in Osp, Slovenia.

Name

Martin Krpan, namesake of the climb

The climb is named after Martin Krpan, a fictional character created by 19th century Slovene writer Fran Levstik.

Route

The route is a link up, extending Konec Mira (8c (5.14b)) by beginning in Strelovod (8c (5.14b)).[4]

Climbing the route requires a combination of technique, endurance and precision,[5] including heavy use of heel hooking.[6] Knee bars allow resting at three crucial points, so it is often climbed with knee pads.[7]

Protection

The sport route follows 13 bolts to the top.[1]

Ascents

Nico Ferlitsch took 50 day trips over the course of 2 seasons to complete the route.[8] Christian Leitner likewise took 2 seasons.[9] Fedir Samoilov completed the route on his third day of climbing at the crag.[10] Jakob Schubert, who first tried it in 2009, took 4 attempts in 2011 to ascend the route; Pepa Šindel likewise took 4 attempts.[11] Jernej Kruder repeated it without knee pads (which would have helped him rest just before the crux). It took him "many tries".[12] Eliáš Kysela completed Konec Mira in one day and Martin Krpan four days later.[13] Stefano Carnati is the latest to attempt the climb without a knee bar, after several attempts beginning in December, mostly struggling with low temperatures.[14] Kacper Heretyk took about 10 climbing days to ascend the route.[15]

Martin Krpan has been ascended by:

  1. Jure Golob on 4 May 2001[16]
  2. Matej Sova on 19 March 2002
  3. Tomáš Mrázek on 5 April 2005
  4. Adam Ondra on 11 November 2006[17]
  5. Łukasz Dudek on 26 February 2009[18]
  6. Domen Škofic on 8 April 2010[19]
  7. Mateusz Haładaj on 14 May 2010
  8. Mikhail Chernikov on 4 May 2011[20]
  9. Jakob Schubert on 21 November 2011
  10. Fedir Samoilov on 3 April 2016[21]
  11. Nico Ferlitsch on 28 October 2017[22]
  12. Matteo Menardi in March 2018[23]
  13. Moritz Welt in March 2021[24]
  14. Alex Ventajas on 18 January 2022[25]
  15. Andrea Chelleris in September 2022[26]
  16. Christian Leitner in November 2023[27]
  17. Jernej Kruder in December 2023[28]
  18. Pepa Šindel on 1 January 2024 (𓂾)[29]
  19. Stefano Carnati in February 2024[30]
  20. Eliáš Kysela in March 2024[31]
  21. Laura Rogora in January 2025 (𓂾)[32]
  22. Kacper Heretyk in January 2025 (𓂾)[33]
  23. Lovro Črep on 13 October 2025 (𓂾)[34]
  24. Lucija Tarkuš in November 2025 (𓂾)[35]

Grade

Originally graded 9a (5.14d), Schubert described the route in 2011 as "very soft for its grade",[36] while Kruder suggested a downgrade to 8c/8c+  (with kneepads), equivalent to Konec Mira (8c/8c+ ).[a] Carnati agreed, suggesting 8c/+ was the maximum grade if knee bars were used.[37] While Kysela acknowledged kneepads made the climb easier, the young climber did not believe they downgraded it to an 8c+ (5.14c).[38] Another young climber, Heretyk, did not feel his use of kneepads affected the difficulty, believing he succeeded because of his hooking skill.[39]

In 2009, Dudek compared the climb to Underground in Arco, suggesting a grade of (9a (5.14d)) for the latter because it was "harder than Krpan".[40] For context, Schubert suggested a grade of 8c+/9a  for Underground.[41]

Ondra, who climbed the route at the age of 13, still has not downgraded it as of 2023.[42]

Notes

  1. ↑ However, Domen Škofic wrote Konec Mira was "much harder than Strelovod", which Jakob Schubert graded 8c/8c+ in bad conditions.

References

Bibliography

Further reading

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