September 2012 saw ten highly
enthusiastic Ubesters travel to Slovenia for 2 weeks of backpacking,
scrambling, mountaineering... and Laško (Lashko)! The Julian Alps, located in the far north west of
the country, contain arguably its most beautiful landscape ranging from the thick,
tick infested pine valleys to the snow-capped limestone peaks. And with such a
wide variety of weather, we didn’t have to search far to find a picture
postcard view every day of the trip.
Be it by plane, bus, train or hot air
balloon, we all met at Kranjska Gora, a valley town to the north of the
national park. After checking in at our hostel to our bewilderment, the owner
proceeded to drive us literally 100 yards up the road to our room. All was not
lost though as after a meal and a relaxing pint, or two, we were ready for our
first taste of Slovenian mountains the
next day.
We spent the first week in the
north-eastern area of Triglav national park and encountered some pretty hot
weather for September. Taking advantage of this we conquered two peaks; Prisank
(2547m) and Bovski Gamsovec (2392m).
Each of these days involved some
strenuous walking/scrambling up scree, often the handrails and pegs proved
vital, but on the summits we were rewarded with stunning views of what felt
like the whole Alps, along with Mt Triglav (2864m) itself; which we were to
climb later. The other days were spent doing the most beautiful walk in the
Julian Alps (according to the guide book) and bimbling up and down valleys, encountering
most notably a magnificent waterfall and a seemingly never ending line of
Ljubljanan schoolchildren!
We stayed in mountain huts which
provided the most basic of provisions: Beer and goulash! Showers were very few
and far between, making the painful ‘dunking your head in a sink of extremely
cold water’ sometimes the only option. The evenings were spent mostly planning
the next few days hiking, and playing cards; we even resorted at one stage to
having a Hearts tournament! The unusual game Yaniv (renamed Ellen, who promoted
it) also proved popular. Tom and Sarah sadly had to leave after the first week,
so we celebrated their departure with round of Blueberry shots (god only knows
what’s in this wild but highly satisfying alcoholic beverage).
The second week brought a drastic
weather change. After a day’s rest in a valley hostel (with showers!!) we discovered
that there’d been a large dumping of snow on the peaks. This made our ascent of
Triglav 2 days later all the more spectacular. We approached this sacred
mountain, which dominates the entire
eastern area of the park, from the
south, walking from Vodnikov Dom to it’s precarious ridge via Dom Planika. It
was a challenging but rewarding day, not only for the fact that we managed to
unknowingly lock Lucas in the summit hut!
The next two days saw us casually
summiting Kanjavec (2569m), deciding that bum sliding down steep, snow covered
slopes should become an Olympic sport, and getting slightly lost/into trouble
on what was supposed to be a short bimble! We ended up trying in vain to
contour round a steep, boulder and vegetation ridden mountain, with myself volunteering
to scramble up a steep scree slope to investigate a potential route. The only
positive that came from this was; the view I saw was amazing.
Before we knew it our trip had come to
an end, and after a demanding hike back to civilization down a long winding
valley, and two days day spent rowing, exploring, partying, home cooking, and
generally being tourists in Bled and Ljubljana, it was time for us to part
ways. Many thanks to Naomi for organising a super expedition.
Special mention goes to Eric, the Vodnikov Dom dog who
couldn’t bear to see Lucas go, as well as his owner, aka “hut lady”, whose
pancakes were especially memorable.
