Geršak – Grčar Route in Vežica
Afternoon thunderstorms are forecasted, so we decide to start early, meeting at a quarter past four in the morning. Years ago, I had already wandered around this area, but today we planned to approach the route via Šraj pesek. When we shine our headlamps on the signpost pointing left to the Orglice waterfall and right to Presedlaj, everything becomes clear to me. Aleš heads left, while I confidently command us to go right. After all, I’ll know if I’ve been here before! So confidently that I don’t even need the description. We plunge into the ravine and start walking. And we walk, and walk, and walk… Just as the alarm in my backpack goes off, it dawns on me that we might be on the wrong path. Human nature leaves a lot of room for hope, and so do we, thinking that surely there will be a turnoff up ahead that will lead us to the right path. But at the signpost at Presedlaj, we finally realize we’ve messed up… I take the blame. Now I’ll just have to improvise. The weather forecast is not in our favor.
So we went "around the corner." Already on the approach, we both run out of energy at the same time, so we refuel ourselves. The continuation is more bearable, and the inclines have eased off. We somehow come up with a plan to get to Korošica, grab sketches of nearby routes, and attempt to climb something close and short. But then, a surprise. At Korošica, they don’t have climbing guidebooks!! How is that possible, I wonder. Such a small thing should surely be available. In the hut where people come to climb every year. In the spirit of "Tourism is our virtue" or something similar, we quickly leave the scene and head toward Petkove njive. As we walk, I can’t get the image of the morning dining room out of my head, where quite a few hikers were having breakfast. The scene reminded me more of a funeral. Grave silence, so much so that Aleš and I even lowered the volume of our conversation. No life at all.
But let’s leave that. We wanted to cover our path as quickly as possible. Time is not on our side. We entered the route around nine o’clock. With about two hours of delay. It’ll be fine. We can still descend back under the route, we tell ourselves.
To briefly describe the route; one of the most beautiful grade fives in our area. Excellent rock, excellent transitions. Nothing else. A route worth revisiting.
After four hours of climbing, we reach the summit of Veža. We descend via the path between Vršiči and Dedec. Partially dehydrated, after about an hour of descent, we return under the route. By then, the first rumbles of thunder can already be heard from the valley. I wave my hand and think, so what. We’re safe!
In this way, we managed to pull off a unique success. There aren’t many, if any, climbers who have approached GG via Presedlaj and Korošica and then climbed the route.