Trbovlje chimney turned into longest climbing route

Trbovlje, 27 January - The Trbovlje power station's 360-metre chimney, the tallest in Europe but no longer in use, has been turned into the world's longest artificial multi-pitch climbing route. Slovenian world-class climbers, Janja Garnbret and Domen Škofic, have already successfully ascended it.

Trbovlje
Slovenian sport climbers Janja Garnbret and Domen Škofic climb the longest artificial climbing route in the world, the 360-metre tall chimney.
Photo: Jakob Schweighofer/Red Bull Content Pool

Trbovlje
Slovenian sport climbers Janja Garnbret and Domen Škofic climb the longest artificial climbing route in the world, the 360-metre tall chimney.
Photo: Jakob Schweighofer/Red Bull Content Pool

The longest climbing route was designed by licenced Slovenian route setters Katja Vidmar and Simon Margon.

The route has 13 pitches, with the most difficult one graded 8b+. They used some 800 holds, which weighed over two tonnes.

Garnbret and Škofic, two of the world's best sport climbers, took it on in the autumn but managed to climb it only in the second attempt.

The first attempt took 12 hours but did not count because they reached the top only after several falls. The second, successful one took them seven and a half hours.

Their attempt was filmed to make a 48-minute documentary, which premiered online today.

eho/zza/mab
© STA, 2021