Slovenia

Alpine Adventures in Slovenia!
Adventure magazines are dangerous things…they get your adventurous spirit going and inspire a ‘why not!’ approach to the world. Hence why, after a half page article on via ferrata in Slovenia in Adventure Travel, a vague memory of an article some time ago in Trail on the highest mountain in Slovenia as part of it’s ‘Europe’s Highest’ series and a bottle of wine, we said the aforementioned ‘why not!’ and went to check the atlas to see exactly where it was….. A matter of weeks later, after accidentally happening across a new Eastern European airline called Wizz Air on the internet that flies from Luton (not great) to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia and extremely great) very cheaply, we found ourselves in a hired ‘smart’ car on the way to the Julian Apls. We had found a map of the Julian Alps in Stanfords in Bristol and a guidebook from the early 1980’s in Needlesports in Keswick and together with the AT article and extensive internet (which is a tad more up to date) research on summitpost.org we had a plan. First stop was a town called Bled on Lake Bled, very picturesque with a castle on an island in the middle, to stock up on food and water. Then onwards to the mountains, to the Erjavceva hut on the Vrsic Pass at just over 1500m, towering above us was the north face of Prisojnik (2547m), our goal for the next day.

After some barley broth and an early night, we set off at 8.30am the next morning and found the very well signposted path leading to the start of the route. The north face ‘Okno’ (which means window) Route took a series of scrambles and long via ferrata sections (most with cables but not all!) up steep rock walls, steps and cracks working it’s way up the north wall and towards the huge, cavernous West Window.


The routes are all well marked with red and white ‘dots’ and the rock is beautiful limestone so fabulous holds if a little polished sometimes. Many of the sections were hugely exposed which meant keeping a cool head; difficult in the blazing heat which we encountered as we passed through the stunning window at last and onto the series of slabs just below the ridge which would take us to the summit.

After a series of false summits and some incredibly exposed, unprotected ridge sections, we reached the summit of Prisojnik at 2547m.



After a photo call, a stamp in the guidebook (each summit has a metal ‘stamp’ and a box with an ink pad which alpine club members use to stamp their log books!) we started the long descent down the south gully with several more via ferrata sections before hitting the trees and scree slopes above the Vrsic Pass and eventually back to our hut a mere 11.5 hours after setting off!

The next day was a rest day, re-stocking with food and water and meandering our way via coffee shops and a beautiful waterfall (the Pericnik)


Round to the Vrata Valley and the Aljazev Dom hut, the main Vrata trailhead for an ascent of Triglav, at 2864m, the highest mountain in Slovenia. The hut has a stunning location sitting directly under the imposing and huge north face. More barley broth and an energy-inducing apple strudel later (plus a fair amount of sleep-inducing red wine…) we had another early night in anticipation of our impending 2-day epic. At 7.30am we were walking and soon were heading up through a steep forest getting ever closer to the rock of the north face. When the iron pegs and cables started on the Tominskova Pot route (quoted on sumitpost.org as ’not suitable for those afraid of heights’ – and they are right!), we donned harnesses and helmets and steadily made our way up the initial sections and before long we were on incredibly steep, exposed, sustained and sometimes sparsely protected sections of the route.

After a few hairy moments, one involving some goats dislodging rocks above a gully we were in and another crossing a steep gully just above a receding snowfield with no protection and hours of steely nerves we reached the top of the route. After a quick lunch break, we crossed a huge area of limestone ‘pavement’ (making Malham Cove look tiny!) and late afternoon, reached the Triglavski dom na Kredarici hut at 2515m, the highest hut in Slovenia. After booking in and an hour’s break, we made the final push for the summit, following the knife-edge East Ridge (with varying levels of iron protection hence the complete lack of photos for this section!) reaching the summit shelter at 6pm.


The shelter was built by Slovenian mountaineer Jakob Aljaz in 1895 after he bought the summit of the mountain from the Germans to forever maintain it’s Slovenian nationality and it is now a national monument. A hair-raising and tiring descent back to the hut followed and we were rewarded for our 13 hour day with a spectacular sunset, lots of barley broth and a rather large sausage for dinner. We descended the next day via the Cez Prag Pot route which winds it’s way down rocky slopes, steep rock bands and the ‘Prag’ or barrier, a large, slightly over-hanging rock wall which was exhausting to down-climb.

After much scree sliding, hiding under rocks to get some shade and knee pain, we reached the Vrata Valley again after around 6 hours and walked out to the hut and our car, the north face looking down on us all the way. A superb monument to mountaineers stands at the foot of the face and the head of the valley – a huge piton and karabiner!

An hour and a half drive later we were in Ljubljana, the capital and having quickly found an excellent cheap hotel, we showered, ate and promptly fell asleep! Our last 2 days were spent exploring Ljubljana, drinking a lot of coffee and wine, eating a lot, visiting churches, castles and monuments and generally mooching about relaxing and recovering. Slovenia is a stunning country from what we saw of it and the Julian Alps are beautiful, challenging and accessible for anyone after a bit of an adventure. I had an amazing time, climbed my highest two peaks yet, overcame all manner of nerves and would unreservedly recommend it to anyone! I will definitely go back, there’s climbing of all kinds at all levels, canyoning, rafting, mountain biking and many, many more peaks and via ferrata trails to try, I can’t wait.

Love from, Tracey & Gareth