Well, the title page, for starters. Along with many new photos, texts and a complete design overhaul. It has been rethinked ground up: from fonts, layout, other elements, photo-topos and maps. All with the purpose to make the topo more readable, clear, intuitive and easier to use. Of course, you can’t always please everyone, but I hope the new design is a step towards a better and more practical topo.

I also added all new routes in existing areas and corrected some lines, grades and notes. I vigorously follow all the comments and news and recheck (even reclimb) many routes to provide as complete information as possible. I believe that despite many additional content the heart of any topo are the route informations and photo-topos, which is always my main focus. There are bound to be some mistakes and inaccuracies but I take each route, be it 4c or 8c, just as seriously.

I added a short description of every sector to make it easier for you to choose your next climbing destination. I hope it will encourage you to explore some new places in the region! There are three new crags: the huge and not-to-be-missed Val Rosandra/Glinščica, which alone represents about 25% of the new edition. Apart from that, the biggest additions have been Aurisina, Črnotiče and new Napoleonica sectors, combined adding about 1/3 of new routes to the topo.

There are new extensive texts about history and cuisine and a big section on rest day suggestions, especially (but not exclusively) useful for foreign visitors.  I recycled some of the older material, from previous topo and Beta magazine (as I think it’s good enough and new users might enjoy it), but I’ve also added many new stories, trivia and funny stuff. Some jokes will inevitably be bad – but I left them in so that they make the mediocre ones look better.

Last but not least, there are some really interesting interviews with some key people, who live and create this area as it is. They know, how it came to be like it is, what makes it tick and are familiar with the problems. They are very inspiring figures for your climbing as well and should paint a nice picture of the Karst edge as I know and love. Janko Sever, Adam Ondra, Vili Guček, Tadej Slabe, Betka Galičič, Klemen Vodlan, Gabriele Gorobey, Emilio Comici, Emiliano Zorzi and Benjamin Marjanovič are a colorful group, representing old and new, equippers and locals, hardcore climbers and climbing hedonists (well, sometimes both).

BUT WHAT ABOUT BUZET AREA? Hey, I couldn’t fit everything into one book. When the material started to acummulate I realized it will be too much for one book. It’s clumsy and hard to use, not to mention heavy. So I decided to split it into two books: Karst edge and Istria (for Croatian crags in Istria). To compensate for that, I set a really nice price for both books, so you don’t overpay for this decision. Sounds fair? Both books will not cost you more than 34€ both and 17€ for one edition. So hold your horses, Istria is coming in about 2 months and is actually the second half of a single project, split for your convenience.