Not to go to deep into the past… The beginnings of serious climbing date from the early 90ies.  Here I refer to climbing as serious in terms of approach, trainings, national and international competition organization, etc. Although Mountaineering Association of Serbia has existed for more than 100 years, the tradition of mountain climbing has not yet been developed.  This primarily refers to the cult of the mountain, family field trips, etc. everything that people on the Alps have. Here in Serbia more attention is paid to football, basketball, volley ball, water polo, tennis and some other sports, since we, as a nation, are certainly talented for those sports, and the results prove that.

But, let us get back to climbing.

With a new generation of climbers that appeared in the mid 90ies and with the first artificial wall, the number of fans of this sport starts increasing, and the quality of climbing ameliorates. The search around Serbia for the locations appropriate for sport climbing starts. Therefore the number of these climbing spots and the routes has been increasing day after day. The best equipped locations, when the routes are in question, are Jelašinačka Gorge, near Niš and Grdoba near Valjevo.

The most common rocks in Serbia are limestone ones, but there are granite (Kopaonik) and crystal shale rocks (Vršačko Brdo) as well.

Along with sport climbing development, bouldering itself starts expanding. Although a fairly small number of people were interested in this kind of climbing in the beginning, a few enthusiasts took the “responsibility” upon themselves for finding suitable locations for bouldering. Currently the most popular boulders are located on Vrašačko Brdo, Kopaonik, in Jelašinačka Gorge and on Babin Zub. Since the greatest number of climbers lives in Belgrade, and Vršac and Vršačko Brdo are the closest locations, naturally they visited this location most often, so the greatest number of the routes can be found exactly on this location. The cliff on Vršačko Brdo is extremely sharp with cut edges (crystal shale) and the majority of the most difficult routes have pretty small holds, therefore it is advisable to prepare your skin well before going there. Otherwise, you can finish climbing after just a few attempts.

We would appreciate if some foreigners could come and try to climb the routes that still are projects for years, since, as far as I’m informed, not many people have visited Serbia for bouldering. In my own opinion, the potential of Vršačko Brdo is immense and I am sure that they could find some 8b routes or even harder.

For all additional information you can send e-mails on komuna011(at)gmail.com.