Martin Krpan is a sport climb at the limestone Mišja Peč crag in Osp, Slovenia.
Name
The climb is named after Martin Krpan, a fictional character created by 19th century Slovene writer Fran Levstik.
Route The route is a link up, extending Konec Mira () by beginning in Strelovod ().; ;
Climbing the route requires a combination of technique, endurance and precision, including heavy use of heel hooking. Knee bars allow resting at three crucial points, so it is often climbed with knee pads.
Protection The sport route follows 13 bolts to the top.
Ascents Nico Ferlitsch took 50 day trips over the course of 2 seasons to complete the route. Christian Leitner likewise took 2 seasons. Fedir Samoilov completed the route on his third day of climbing at the crag. Jakob Schubert, who first tried it in 2009, took 4 attempts in 2011 to ascend the route; Pepa Šindel likewise took 4 attempts.; Jernej Kruder repeated it without knee pads (which would have helped him rest just before the crux). It took him "many tries". Eliáš Kysela completed Konec Mira in one day and Martin Krpan four days later. Stefano Carnati is the latest to attempt the climb without a knee bar, after several attempts beginning in December, mostly struggling with low temperatures. Kacper Heretyk took about 10 climbing days to ascend the route.
Martin Krpan has been ascended by:
Jure Golob on 4 May 2001 Matej Sova on 19 March 2002 Tomáš Mrázek on 5 April 2005 Adam Ondra on 11 November 2006; on 26 February 2009; Domen Škofic on 8 April 2010 on 14 May 2010 Mikhail Chernikov on 4 May 2011 Jakob Schubert on 21 November 2011 Fedir Samoilov on 3 April 2016; Nico Ferlitsch on 28 October 2017; ; ; Matteo Menardi in March 2018 Moritz Welt in March 2021; ; Alex Ventajas on 18 January 2022; Andrea Chelleris in September 2022; Christian Leitner in November 2023; Jernej Kruder in December 2023 Pepa Šindel on 1 January 2024 (); Stefano Carnati in February 2024 Eliáš Kysela in March 2024 Laura Rogora in January 2025 () Kacper Heretyk in January 2025 () Lovro Črep on 13 October 2025 () Lucija Tarkuš in November 2025 ()
Grade Originally graded , Schubert described the route in 2011 as "very soft for its grade",; : "Es sei ziemlich leicht für den Grad" while Kruder suggested a downgrade to (with kneepads), equivalent to Konec Mira (). Carnati agreed, suggesting 8c/+ was the grade if knee were used.; While Kysela acknowledged kneepads made the climb easier, the young climber did not believe they downgraded it to an . Another young climber, Heretyk, did not feel his use of kneepads affected the difficulty, believing he succeeded because of his hooking skill.
In 2009, Dudek compared the climb to Underground in Arco, suggesting a grade of () for the latter because it was "harder than Krpan". For context, Schubert suggested a grade of for Underground.
Ondra, who climbed the route at the age of 13, still has not downgraded it as of 2023.: "my first 9a, called Martin Krpan, when I was 13 years old"
Notes
References
Bibliography
Summary published on his official website.
Further reading
"Power endurance monster"