"Hidden Nooks and Unsuspected Passages"
The Julian Alps of Slovenia
by Steve Mann
The Triglav National park lies in the north west corner of Slovenia and contains the best of the Julian Alps. It can be easily reached in a day by taking a budget flight from Luton or Stansted to Ljubjana, the capital of Slovenia, and then using efficient public transport. In September 2006, Rose and I went on a week’s hut-to-hut journey, crossing the park from north to south.
There is a recent Cicerone guidebook, written by a British couple living in Slovenia. However, it is formatted around circular routes, combining a hut approach and a summit rather than a trek. The advantage of this is that you can put together your own itinerary, by combining map and guidebook with a glass of wine in your favourite armchair! Our route entered the range from the winter resort of Kranjska Gora, 810m, and joined the Via Alpina long distance trail, linking together seven huts before exiting at Stara Fuzina.
Huts in Slovenia are called Doms or Kocas and often take the name of their valley or mountain, but beware, these names sometime vary between map, guidebook and signpost. The huts are well equipped, with private twin rooms popular at lower altitudes and communal bunks higher up. There are no fixed menus or communal meal times.The kitchen is open from dawn till dusk with everything à Ia carte. Despite this flexibility, the food variety and quality was a little disappointing, bratwurst, goulash and spag bol were the inevitable choices and don’t expect a large bowl of milky coffee in the morning, it’ll be small and Turkish.
However the local beer was good, with a choice of two Pils type, red label Union and the wonderfully named Zlatarog. I shall long remember the evening outside the Pogacnikov Dom with a cold beer after a long, hot and stressful day, watching the sun set over the mist filled Trenta valley, 1400m below.
The mountains, like the nearby Dolomites, are composed mainly of limestone. In late season there are no streams or springs at higher elevations and water must be purchased at the huts, both for drinking with meals and carrying on walks.
Although we saw several large parties of Slovenian schoolchildren singing and shouting their way through the mountains, there were very few British parties, which is a recommendation in itself.
Triglav is also the name of the highest peak in the range and hence Slovenia. At 2862m, it isn’t particularly high and has no glaciers to speak of but it shouldn’t be underestimated. The summit pyramid is bare rock, steep and exposed on all sides and a magnet for lightning in the hot summer months. The three main routes to the summit are all equipped with cables and, since it seems to be the duty of every true SIovenian to make the ascent once in their life, it can be crowded with strings of nervous climbers.
The northern side of the massif is a series of very impressive rocky peaks that guard the way to Triglav. Fortunately there are several easy approaches that wind up through unexpected passages and break through to the centre of the range. The main trails are marked as solid lines on the map and these should present no difficulties for the experienced. In the high rocky centre of the park, however, many of the key trails which link valleys, huts and peaks are shown as dashes. This could just mean that the trail crosses scree or rocky terrain, or that it is a very exposed route like a via ferrata. It is advisable to carry some climbing equipment such as a confidence rope, helmets and slings to supplement the in-situ cables and rungs.
For example, the trail at the head of the Vrata valley ends in the worst kind of scree escalator, two steps up, one step down and steep enough to be wary of stones falling from parties above. In contrast, the route that climbs up the western flank of Razor 2601m to the Sedlo Planja col is fairly exposed, has in-situ metal rungs on steep sections and warrants the use of a rope. At least the rock is clean and solid here, with no “marbles” to skid around on and the closely spaced red flashes provide guidance just when it is needed. Confidence is also needed descending long scree slopes in order to make good progress. However, some slopes end in gaping sinkholes big enough to take the proverbial London bus!
As a reward for these difficulties, there are some wonderfully situated huts, photogenic views of mist-filled valleys and clean, sharp mountain air to refresh body and soul. And did I mention the beer?
The highpoint of our route was the col at Misejski Konec 2464m. Crossing this col opened up the route down the long and beautiful Triglav lakes valley. Beyond the col is a desolate high area of sinkholes, craters and ankle breaking limestone pavement called Hribarice. From its southern rim the path zigzags down scree to the first of the seven small alpine lakes, Jezero Zeleno. This provides a good foreground to the huge wedge of Zelnarica 2320m that towers over the valley like the Rock of Gibraltar, The landscape becomes greener and gentler as the trail drops down through the first dwarf pines to the Koca pri Triglavskih Jezerih.
The final stage at the route took us over the panoramic summit of Prsivec 1761m, where we could look STRAIGHT down the cliffs to Lake Bohinjsko and across to the summit of Triglav. Our final night in the peace of the mountains was spent at the whitewashed, Bavarian style, Kosijev Dom... along with a large and noisy school party of 10 year olds. We exited the national park down an ancient stone track through beech woods to the important farming village of Stara Fuzina.
Map: Freytag & Berndt, No WK141, Julian Alps, 1:50,000
Guide Book: The Julian Alps of Slovenia, Cicerone, 2005.
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Last updated: 04 December 2007