Yalta, climbing in Ukraine

Evgeni Krivosheytsev, #5 All Pics: Mattias Johansson

Maksim Petrenko, #4 in World Cup 2004

Johan Luhr (44) doing an 8a in Nikita

Said Belhaj onsighting a 7c+ in Redstone

All Pics by Mattias Johansson C2 Vertical Safety

A climbing day at 'Petit Buoux', Ukraine, is awaiting and we're in a small supermarket(one room) to shop for food. No fruit, no vegetables but after some searching we spot a shelf with freshly baked bread. To the left we find vodka, cookies and some locally produced juices and to the right there's some coleslaw and a shelf with a few candy bars and mixed cans of preserved food. International and national brands are equally represented. We point at whatever we want and the shopkeeper starts working the abacus like a key-board. Bill by bill is placed on the counter while the black and white marbles goes left and right. Eventually I get 3 cents in return and the shopkeeper gets the abacus ready for the next costumer. Maksim, #4 on the world cup 2005, purchases a package pf cookies and I glance at our dietician to see what he has to say, but he only nods back at me and says that fast energy is good for power.

On the way to the crag our heads spin like periscopes and overhangs can be spotted all through the valley. At one place there's even a small church cemented into the cliff just beneath an 8a overhang. Our guide points at a super overhang and starts telling us the grades: 6a+, 6c, 7a, 7b, 6c, etc. At a first glance there seems to be no holds at all but then we discover that the crag is filled with drilled pockets. Climbing starts. Half the crew misses a 6a+ onsight and our world cup performers are having big problems sending a 7b. The guide just laughs and tells us that the routes were 'constructed' for a competition and that in Ukraine it is not customary to change the official grades.

After a disappointing performance and 2.5 hours in a VW-bus we're back in town. Unfortunately Maksim misses the night train to Kiev, which means that the whole of the next day is spend on the road since he has to get back before the next morning when the car leaves for a 3500 km trip to the world cup competition in France (later we heard that the car broke down and that they made it to the competition just in time). In contrast to this, our group checks in to the 2500 bedroom large hotel with its own dolphin show, elevator to the beach and a 24-hour casino. Although it sounds impressing we must say that the service is as bad as we expected and after a few nights at the disco we know the sequence of all the discjockey's song lists.

Yalta is most famous for the peace conference in 1945 when Churchill, Roosvelt and Stalin divided Europe into east and west. However, for the Russians Yalta has always been a luxurious Black Sea vacation spot and this where the Russian establishment spend their vacations. Yalta has become popular because of its beautiful scenery. It is fringed by splendid mountains, which is accessible via a cabin cruiser, and there is a beautiful beach walk where you can see a huge statue of Lenin rise above expensive yachts and a McDonalds restaurant.

Yalta with surroundings also offer some of the best climbing in the region. This is a hot spot for Russian climbers and everywhere you look there are crags sticking up. We have never seen an area so extensively bulted and we are told that this is due to a few guys from Sibiria who came down for a few months and went on a bolting streak, sponsored by some rich Russian mogul. Among all the crags, we find that the best area is Red Stone where some of the routes are of world-class quality. The only problem is that the easier the grade, the more it needs upgrading (or maybe we're just weak?).

Unfortunately, as elsewhere, most routes have been manually altered to generate a certain grade and on a few routes, thick layers of cement cover holds that are considered 'to good' for the route. We are told that because of the competitions the routes are altered to become harder as the climbers advance (this is in an area with 10000 potential climbs).We also try the multi-pitches on The Sail and this could definitely be seen as the best area since it is more 'pristine'. It also extremely well bulted even on the easy sections. All and all, the potential of the area around Yalta is enormous and with changed ethics and sponsoring moguls from Russia, this could become a future Mecca for adventurous climbers.

More pictures from the different crags around Yalta