When the
Vlachs of
Gomirje requested a confirmation of their
Uskok rights throughout the territory they inhabited in 1605, they listed its boundaries as stretching from Mali Klek –
Ustanke (the confluence of the
Vitunjčica and the
Dobra) – Vrbica –
Kamensko – Vrbovsko – Plešivica – Mošenski – Bilek – "Potschovodo" –
Topolovica –
Okrugljik –
Radigojna –
Gornji Lazi. In April 1898, Alberto Weber wrote a poem titled "Klek": Iznad munjâ, oblakâ i triesa Orijaški, poput kamen diva, Sanak vječni spokojno što sniva, Klek se gordi diže put nebesâ Veličajan sred mira i biesa, Časak rujan u sunašcu pliva, Čas mu glavu našem vidu skriva, Tmasto velo, leglo urnebesa. Kršna roda ponosita slika, Alem kamen hrvatskijeh gorâ, Ne ima mu ravna taka lika, Od Crnoga do Jadranskog mora Sokolovâ timor i slobode, Na njem vile svoje kolo vode On 4 June 1898, a
botanical and
entomological expedition consisting of , and
August Langhoffer left Zagreb with the intent of ascending Klek, among others. In Ogulin, they met up with local guide
Josip Magdić Sr., K. Harambašić,, forester A. Čop, botanist
Antun Heinz and two alpinists from Zagreb. They left for Klek at 5:00 on the 5th, beginning their ascent from the house of Đure Milanović not far from
Musulin Potok. They reached the peak by 10:00, remaining there until noon, returning by way of
Perasov jarak to the base and from there to Ogulin, where they held a presentation of their findings in the "Frankopan" inn, including before the
mjestni načelnik Vukelić and the former
predsjednik kraljevskog sudbenog stola in Ogulin. Inspired by the presentation, the
župan and
veterinarian Fink joined together with two of his nephews an expedition that climbed Klek on 14 August, consisting of
HPS president , vice president Milan Lenuci,
Franjo Marković, Mrs. Seifertova and a certain Severinski as their photographer, guided by A. Čop. This second expedition was written about in Ogulin's
Viesnik newspaper. On 1 October 1900, Antun Heinz and his assistant and a friend went on a botanical expedition to Klek, guided by Ante Kostelić of
Sveti Jakov. They left around 7:30, reaching the inn before
Musulinski Potok in an hour and reaching
Zorin mir around 10:00. They reached the top around 13:00, staying about an hour before descending the same way they had ascended. Due to its proximity to the capital city of
Zagreb, Klek became a popular climbing destination. The first ascents came in 1917. On 9 April 1927, Etelka Hagenreiter, a young alpinist (since 1924) from
Okučani who once lived with her parents in nearby.
Plaški, died on the southern Klečica, attempting to climb its cliffs with 2 others. She was supposed to be on the northern Klečica, but appears to have become lost. Once the group on the northern Klečica got her attention, she sat down and watched them, as a certain L. led a group south to get her. They lost sight of her once they reached the saddle between the two. As they prepared their rope to climb, wind and rain hit Klečice, forcing the rescuers to shelter beneath an overhang. From where he was on the northern Klečica, a certain N. Ć. thought he saw her fall from the cliff and rushed to join the rescuers. Upon reaching them, L. informed him that she was not at the top of the southern Klečica any more, and that he presumed she had found a rock shelter in the rain. N. Ć. rapidly scaled the southern Klečica, confirming her absence. Eventually, the group located her body below part of the cliff beneath the highest point on the peak, her skull in pieces. She had slipped on wet rock, and fallen to her death. Her body was retrieved by the group with the assistance of 3 villagers and taken by train to Zagreb, where she was buried in the
Mirogoj Cemetery. On 19 February 1939, Ivan Bumba, Slavko Brezovečki and ascended the southeast head of Klek by a new route,
HPD, a route repeated in 1940 by a team including the future
HPS povjerenik, the
Ustaša Slavko Prebendar. In May and June 1939, Marijan Dragman and Brezovečki climbed the southeast head of Klek by two new routes. In 1941, despite 110 ascents by the Alpinism Division of the
HPD "Zagreb", they were only carried out on Klek and
Čvrsnica. Already in 1942, even Klek was no longer safe enough, forcing Zagreb's Alpinism Division to climb only on
Medvednica,
Samoborsko gorje,
Zagorje and in the
Tatras. In 1943, the HPS was further limited to just West and Central Medvednica. In 1953, Ivo Babić-Gjalski died on Klek. In 1954, Drago Belačić died on Klek. In the spring of 1958, the roof of the
mountain hut on Klek was finally finished. The idea to build a mountain hut on Klek came shortly before
WWI, but despite continued attempts in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the unrealised idea had to be revived after
WWII when the
PD "Zagreb" built a
bivouac beneath a
rock shelter near the peak. The
PD "Klek" Turković Selo turned the bivouac into a mountain hut. The president of the HPS, Vjećeslav Holjevac, visited the mountain hut for its opening. The mountain hut had a cistern (), and once
Bjelsko and Musulin Potok were
electrified, it was planned to introduce electric lighting. On 11 May 1958, alpinists Branko Lukšić and Zvonimir Lindenbach died on the
Tonkina priječnica while attempting an ascent of Klek. On 28 September 1958, a mountain hut built on
Vidova gora was named after Lukšić in his memory, and its memorial plaque was moved to the new mountain hut when the old one was destroyed in 1972. On 7 July 1960, Davor Ribarović and Anton Filipčić ascended a new route up Klek, naming it
Bankov smjer. The
PDS Velebit placed a memorial plaque at the exit from
Tonkina priječnica honouring Lučić and Lindenbach, reading: In 1963, Mirko Frey died on Klek. . From left to right:
Omladinski,
Tajanstveni,
HPD-ov,
Žoharov stup,
Dragmanov,
Glava By the late 1970s, Klek was an established training wall for
Velebitaši. Zdenko Anić typically took his trainees to
HPD-ov smjer "Hapedejka" (5a). During one such training in 1980, which was
Boris Čujić's first exposure to rock climbing, an accident occurred on the nearby
Omladinski smjer (5a), on which a young
Varaždin native, Dražen Košić, who had been assigned the task of leading a course despite not being an instructor became entangled in his rope, which choked him to death. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. The event shook all the
PDS Velebit trainees, and so only half the number showed up for the next outing. In 1999, the
HSS installed a memorial stone with plaque to the 7 alpinists who have died on Klek, in the
Ogulin castle park. In 2023, a new
via ferrata was installed near the peak of Klek, of difficulty A with two B/C sections requiring some arm strength. ==Climbing==