Vertical Bitola

A Passionate Community of Macedonian Climbers and Their Search for a New Gym

By Natalija Ristevska | January 29, 2020

During our August 2019 case study research in North Macedonia, we met Natalija. She is an exceptionally talented climber living in Bitola, near the world-class bouldering area Prilep. We asked her to write this article to share what climbing means to her and some of the challenges encountered by her climbing community, with the goal of exposing the global climbing community to seldom-heard local voices.

Even though I have only been climbing for four years, climbing has become a huge part of my everyday life. Besides being a student, I spend all my free time climbing and training and I enjoy the process of it: I love pushing my own limits and boundaries. The Macedonian climbing community is small, but it makes up for its size in energy and positivity. Climbing has a significant social impact on our lives: it brings us together as a community but also as friends, regardless of our age or our cultural differences. Personally, climbing has influenced my live on so many levels and brings me endless sensations.

One of the things I loved the most when I started climbing is that male and female climbers are treated equally in the climbing community. It is a sport where differences between men and women are not as important because each gender has its own advantages and disadvantages. Even though Macedonian society believes that women can’t and shouldn't climb because they are too small, too thin, not powerful or brave enough, the climbing community accepts and supports female and male climbers equally. A good example of our society’s perception of female climbers comes from one situation I experienced during a routine sports medicine evaluation, when the nurse asked me what sport I was playing. When I answered her question, first, she was confused, because she had never heard of climbing. Then, when I explained it to her, she told me that climbing is not a sport for girls but since I had decided on it, that I should at least take the bible with me to pray whenever I had the chance. I was quite shocked by her words, but I guess a lot of people in Macedonia think similarly. Despite all of this, some of the strongest climbers I know are women. I always look up to my friend Biljana, who started climbing a couple years before me and is one of the strongest, most passionate climbers I know. She is always positive and eager to share her knowledge and motivation for the sport with me.

Our climbing club, Vertical Bitola, was founded back in 2004 by our president Goran Kuzmanovski, who wanted to share what he learned about climbing while studying in Bulgaria with friends back in Bitola who were interested in the sport. With the help of the Macedonian Federation, our club was formed, and it now counts around 40 members, who hold events ranging from indoor and outdoor competitions and gatherings, to route and bouldering development and outdoor first ascents. One of the most memorable first ascents for me was when one of our club members Mario Minchevski sent his first 8a+ route in the Mavrovo cave this past summer. Even though he has sent a dozen 8a boulders, Mario was a bit skeptical about trying this route because a couple of foreign climbers had tried it and broken off the crux hold, so they thought the route would be really hard or even not climbable at all. But in the end, after a couple of sessions, Mario did the first ascent of Moonwalk (8a+) and another wonderful, classic route was established in Macedonia.

However, despite the successful results and achievements of our club, the conditions in the gym where our training takes place are getting worse each and every year. Our main inspirations for creating Vertical Bitola’s Instagram and our promotional video were our love for climbing and the situation that our gym was in, from the leaks in our ceiling to the lack of heat in the winter and the small space that we are supposed to train in. We work in a socialist way, so our club and gym are not private: none of us profit from them, and they belong to everyone who is part of the club.

We have tried hard collectively to fix our gym, to inform the citizens of our town and the municipality of our conditions, and to give them a general picture of our sport and the benefits it brings us, but we still don’t have any answers. In the past, we found a couple ideal locations for a new climbing gym in buildings that were part of Bitola’s military camp zone. We started negotiations with the help of a couple enthusiasts from the municipality but, in the end, the buildings were given to businessmen for commercial use and there was no space for us.

Having a new climbing gym would mean a new era for the climbing community in our town, including a lot of new members and especially new young members. Right now, many parents don’t want to bring their children into our gym because of the state it is in. A new climbing gym would allow us to host better competitions, to better prepare for outdoor climbing and would bring us closer to the global climbing community. Please keep spreading the word and sharing our story on social media: it will be a big step forward for us and a great way for Macedonian society to hear more about climbing. But for now, despite these challenges, we are enjoying ourselves, we are trying hard, and we know no one can take the outdoor places from us.

The Vertical Bitola crew made the following video in an effort to show climbing to locals in their town and highlight their desire to grow their training facilities. Check it out!

Instagram: @verticalbitola

Facebook: Vertical Bitola