Velebit loop

Peaks: Babin Kuk (1417m), Crni Vrh (1110m), Anica Kuk (712m)
Area: Paklenica, Croatia
An unconventional, yet fundamentally logical circuit of three very different Paklenica peaks. We woke to the first dry morning of the trip, but Steve wasn't well and needed a day to recover. A change of plan was necessary - and this became a day that vindicates the 'all-rounder' approach I tend to naturally adopt. Within five minutes, I switched from climbing mode to mountaineering mode and packed my bag accordingly. After a hearty breakfast, I set off jogging from the park entrance before 8.30am. It was cloudy, cold, and much windier than it had been: but dry. I managed to maintain a reasonable pace through the gorge, then increase it a bit as the main path levels off as it continues northwards. The high peaks were just coming into view - clagged in, but with a fairly high cloudbase. After the initial disappointment, I was starting to enjoy myself. Nobody was around, and I began to hatch a plan for a mega-day, final training for the Fellsman in a much more congenial and interesting environment! I got to Lugarnica, the first hut, in around an hour - then the main Paklenica hut is a few minutes above. It is in a lovely spot, sheltered in a wooded glade beyond a wooden bridge with a big Croatian flag flying outside. I had a brief chat to the wardens inside, who let me know there was no neve higher up, but that it was forecast to snow today. A small cluster of higher huts dot the hillside above the Dom, then comes open meadows (this route is known as the Lipa Staza, and heads up to Vaganski Vrh). Above, cloud draped the slopes of the highest peaks, an indication of katabatic winds; it was pretty cold at this point and, looking up, I could see my first objective, Babin Kuk, an impressive spire of limestone from this angle, towards the bottom of the spur coming down from the main ridge. I kept up a decent climbing pace, for training reasons, and soon entered the trees - this was atmospheric, completely alone (I saw virtually nobody all day, hardly surprisingly given the conditions). The path was a little tortuous, but generally easy to follow: and my route to the east birfurcated from the Lipa Staza at around 1300m. It weaved round before striking directly up, very steeply in places, to gain the bottom of Babin Kuk. This has a uII scramble up it, quite intricate, the only way up. The bottom was well marked, and I enjoyed the initial steep groove. The problem, however, was the intense cold. I had to take my gloves off for the scramble, and my hands froze immediately. This got worse as the route weaved upwards via another steep groove, before cutting left on good limestone to an old cable. The summit was a hostile place indeed - ferocious katabatic blasts sweeping down from Vaganski Vrh - they were actually 'visible' as ice crystals and light snow swept down the lee slopes leaving a trail of grey vapour. The light snow got a tad heavier and I struggled initially to find the route down, as it's poorly marked from the summit. After a bit of retracing, I found it, and wasted no time downclimbing the grooves back to the trees and getting my gloves on. Painful hot-aches ensued, but I got warm quickly and started up to Liburnija. The headwind was very fierce, however, and the snow got heavier, so not for the first time this spring I was beaten back from high peaks by heavy snow - two weeks ago in subtropical Tenerife, now on the Adriatic coast! The descent went well through the woods, jogging most of the way, and then I decided to see if anybody was around at the Ivancev Dom hut (wooden, atmospheric) that occupies a lovely location above the main hut, looking across to my next objective, Crni Vrh, a fine peak which seemed sensibly lower and sheltered from the winds of the main ridge. It seemed deserted, so I got the map out and began to plan the rest of the day's route (it was midday now), when I was hailed by the eccentric owner in the cod German that is typical of the Balkans. Soon, I was dining on goulash with pasta and bread, Turkish coffee and a very large free shot of homebrewed purest raki. All hot-aches gone! I then dropped down to the main hut and picked up the path that contours Veliki Kuk for Mala Mocila pass and Crni Vrh. The mountain itself is large and complex, the centre of a mini-range of forested spurs, ridges and sub-peaks. The summit looks deceptively close from Babin Kuk and the opposite side of the valley (where I'd been that morning) but it is actually quite distant and complicated to reach. All good though, with delightfully sheltered wooded paths (on one of these I saw a pair of walkers, the only people I saw all day apart from those in the huts). From the Mocila pass, the route kinks north to follow another wooded ridge to the steep final climb to the summit of Crni Vrh. Nowhere near as windy as Babin Kuk, but still cold: and the higher peaks were now quite snowy, with the same ice streamers draping the slopes: a very wintry scene over the leafless Klimenta valley and across to Babin Kuk, this morning's summit, looking pleasingly distant and inaccessible. I jogged back to Mala Mocila, where I looked fruitlessly for a path up the nice-looking ridge and peak of Orlov Kuk. Instead, I headed south along a wonderful high path, suspended above the upper reaches of Velika Paklenica to the abandoned hamlet of Skilijici, and then another, Jurline, surrounded by Alpine meadows: abandoned shacks, barns and gardens. Then it was south through Grabove Doline to finally pick up the junction to Starigrad and Anica Kuk. This is innocuous at first, but then the views open out at a small col: down to the main gorge and across, spectacularly, to Anica Kuk. This is up there with anything in Europe: a stupendous rock peak with the gorge below and Adriatic beyond. The route traverses rock walls to another small col, then begins weaving up the gentler eastern slopes of the peak, characterised by extraordinary shards of limestone, a continual series of jagged pinnacles and walls. This is never technical, but very sharp with continual little drops and wholes: slow and rather painful progress. The summit is a great place, however, poised above the gorge, Starigrad and the sea. A tortuous descent initially, then fast running back down to Paklenica and a tricky river crossing (unusually high after all the rain). Back along the main gorge path with wet feet. A wonderful giant loop: perhaps 9000ft of climbing.