A
perfect limestone wall. It offers more than 120 routes from 15-20m sport climbs to 12-13
pitches long. This area is good for experienced climbers and for beginners, everyone can
choose appropriate to his level route.Relatively old equipment - for the moment there is only one bolt protected route, "Terminator", on the Central wall; and some shorter, 1-2 pitches climbs.
Necessary equipment: rope (45m at least), karabiners, nuts and friends. You need also a bottle of water, because the face is south mainly and sometimes it becomes very hot.
You can enjoy Vratza climbing in spring (april-may) and autumn (september-november), it depends on the year.
We are trying to freeclimb the old artificial routes, but some of them are really hard. You are welcome to solve these problems. If you want to do a new route - there is enough place on the cliff!
If you are a sport climber, you can visit an overhanging 20-35m crack near Zgorigrad. There are about 10-15 bolt protected routs, the easiest one is a 6a. You can also climb in the "Cave", but it's not a popular area and the easiest climb is a 7a...
If you have money, you could sleep in a hotel in Vratza, otherwise you can open your tent under the rocks, near the ex-"alpinist house". Be careful with your luggage.
Ten years ago, Nikolay Petkov and Ivan Maslarov published a guidebook for the Vratza area, but now it's impossible to find it. If you want fresh information, you have to contact Nikolay Petkov, nik@osf.bg.
