‼️`BiH Climbing Fusion’ project
2020 – Gamechanger in all aspects! ? This is BiH’s (Bosnia and Herzegovina) biggest Climbing community project so far – coming to a climbing crag near you, from August 2020.
We will need your help! ?♂️ Please? our page to stay updated. We will soon publish:
? Calls for local bolting actions
? Teasers of new Rocks
? Project updates
? Instructables on bolting & trailbuilding
.. and much more ..
Now for the project:
? Climbing in BiH is unique – Compared with any other country a Bosnian climber probably has the highest number of bolts per Climber capita and some of the newest and best Climbing areas in Europe – yet 99% of the time you won’t meet any other climbers..
?♀️ Rock climbing has a long tradition in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A tradition which was almost extinguished in the 1990ies.
? But especially in the last 5 years there was a real sport climbing boom – 70% of todays existing 1500 routes were bolted in this period and a new small climbing generation is taking over the drill, exploring and bolting new places.
? However for the number of excellent places which are well marked, have a good approach, are well bolted on solid rock with a high density of routes – there are equally many places which are remote, undocumented, scattered all over the country with just a handful of routes, are hard to find, have old corroded bolts or might have a garbage problem.
⚛️ „A Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole.“
This new Balkan Colours project ‘BiH Climbing Fusion’ with our partner MarketMakers (a project supported by the Government of Switzerland) will fuse the existing elements and transform the status quo – in terms of usability for local climbers and tourists, more recognition for climbing as a sport and stronger economic benefits for local communities.
We will :
? 1. Evaluate
We will reflect the status quo – Since we published the first Sport climbing guide for BiH in 2018, the accessibility of all climbing area has improved and a small climbing tourism is noticeable. We will look into the usability of Crags and the impact of a potential increase of climbers on neighbouring communities.
? 2. Standardize
? A handbook for the Gold standard of sustainable Climbing Crag development and bolting will be published in the languages of the people of BiH.
⚒3. Upgrade Infrastructure
? The Existing infrastructure (trails, markations) will be upgraded in 10 selected areas, in addition to new info- and educational tables.
? 75 new routes will be bolted to increase the density of routes in existing crags with a handful of routes and to expand to new regions which have few or no Climbing so far.
? 1 Climbing area will be completely rebolted with 12mm Inox material.
⛺️ 4. Promote Climbing tourism
? A multilanguage Climbing magazine will be launched covering all 4 climbing regions (Krajina, Central BiH, Sarajevo and the East, Hercegovina) and distributed for free internationally.
? A Videoseries will be launched to promote the touristic value of BiH climbing both regionally and throughout Europe.
This project is funded by the Embassy of Switzerland in Bosnia and Herzegovina throughout MarketMakers, a project supported by the Government of Switzerland, implemented by a consortium of Helvetas Schweiz and Kolektiv / Posao.ba.
Photo credits Momir Zubovic Zuba