I can't think of a good title, but wow that was some good hiking!

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Let me start by saying that 3 days in the Julian Alps of Slovenia was not nearly enough.

And let me continue by saying that despite not being able to upload photos at this computer, I have a lot of good ones! (Also, this is a rather lengthy entry, just FYI. I'm not in a rush for once!)

On Thursday of last week I took the train in the afternoon from Ljubljana to Bled, a resort town at the edge of Triglav National Park. This is Slovenia's one national park, located in the northwest corner of the country. Bled is a pretty place. It's got a lake with an island in the middle, and on the island is a picturesque church. There's also a castle on a cliff overlooking the lake. However, it's also quite touristy. Finding a bed for the night proved difficult, but when I stopped at the info centre to find out about hiking in the park, the lady working there suggested I try either a hostel or campground 30 minutes bus ride up the road. This sounded good to me since I needed to go that way anyways to start my hike! My goal, of course, was the summit of Triglav, the highest peak in Slovenia. It's typically a 2 or 3 day hike, and I was aiming for 3 or 4 in order to see more of the area.

Things are never so simple though, and the bus that I was on stopped about 2km short of my accommodation. The driver didn't speak english (actually one of the few people I've met here who didn't), so I still don't know why he didn't want to take me the rest of the way. Oh well. I walked, which was a bit of an adventure since my headlamp - which I haven't seriously used until now - is playing tricks on me and only staying on for a few seconds at a time. Eventually I found the hostel and got a bed there.

The morning seemed disappointing. There was fog everywhere. I couldn't even see the lakeshore 20 metres away from the hostel! However, the fog soon began to lift and by the time I got to the proper trailhead and started hiking it was blue and sunny. I was soon wishing for fog again, since it was too hot! The trail starts out with 700 vertical metres more or less straight up a cliff, and is protected in a few places with cables attached to the rock. The small emerald-green lake at the top of the cliff made for a great rest stop. This point, in fact, 700 metres above the valley floor, is itself the bottom of a hanging valley!

Another hour on and I arrived at the first mountain hut. Camping is not allowed in the national park, so I was stuck with staying at huts along the way - a necessity if you plan on getting to the top of anything high since distances are large and elevation gains are larger. After consulting my map I decided to stay at this first hut for the night.

In the afternoon I hiked a few more hours with a lighter pack to bag a respectable nearby peak. It offered some fun scrambling and amazing summit views. The terrain here is very vertical! Huge cliff faces everywhere! I also ran into a herd of 16 chamois near the summit. These animals are somewhat like mountain goats, but make a really weird whistling noise. They're also really stubborn, or at least these ones were. As much as I shouted and waved, they simply would not move off the path! Eventually I had to go around them to avoid them.

Saturday the forecast was for wetter weather, but the day started out with pure blue skies. I took the scenic route onwards, which led me up a ridge and over a few mountain peaks before depositing me back on the main trail at a pass. It was here that the weather caught up with me: I was in the fog and light rain, and before I reached the far end of this long pass there was lightning and thunder in the air. I joined up with another group and we luckily all made it safely into the next valley before the storm got worse. By 1pm I was at the next hut, where I planned to stay for the night. This hut is on the flank of Triglav itself and would allow me a shot at the summit early the next morning - if the weather improved. (Being by far the highest thing around, the summit of Triglav is something of a lightning magnet, so climbing it in stormy weather is completely out of the question. And anyways, it's got the best views in the whole country, so you might as well go when it's clear!)

In the afternoon and evening it chucked rain and thunder echoed everywhere. There was even one lightning bolt that a few of us saw strike the mountainside not far above the hut! I spent most of the remainder of the day chatting with an old Slovenian rugby player who has traveled much of the world and hiked this area hundreds of times. He was full of good info about places to go and things to see! I went to bed early hoping the weather would clear by morning.

Morning came and brought a surprise with it. I couldn't see out the window above me in the loft, and at first I thought it was fogged up on the inside. Then I heard a strange sound outside, as if something was brushing along the roof. Then I realized that the reason I couldn't see out the window was because there was something blocking it on the outside. There could be only one thing.

Snow.

Yep, it had snowed during the night. There was an inch of the stuff lying everywhere, and only more higher on the peaks. It was also still coming down and a downright frigid wind was blowing.

There are times when you have to decide whether or not to carry on to the top of a mountain. Then there are times when the mountain makes that choice for you. This was one of the latter. The route to the top of Triglav is a difficult, exposed path, and climbing in the wind and with a bunch of slippery snow around is out of the question.

It was hard to be disappointed though, especially when, an hour later as I started down the valley, the clouds abruptly vanished leaving me with sun on snow-clad peaks for a view. Spectacular! Absolutely spectacular. It was a long hike down the valley, but amazing every bit of the way. (Well, except that one bit where I got lost on a cow trail, but let's forget about that.)

And that brings me back to the present. I'm again at the hostel where I stayed last Thursday, feeling considerably more showered than a few hours ago. Tomorrow morning I plan to carry on my way to Venice. The only thing left for Slovenia is... to find a cookie!

Until next time!

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