New Routing in Slovenia, Winter 2013

The plan was to head over and meet up with Matej and do some new routing on big Ice Falls, last year there was some perfect Ice conditions, very cold and not much snow saw lots of falls freeze up and new ascents being done.

For those not familiar with Slovenia and how easy it is to get to, there is a 1 h 45 min Easy Jet flight from London Stansted to Ljubljana 3 days a week, ticket prices vary from £57 - £110 return depending on when you book. Once there, pretty much any part of Slovenia is accessible in less than 3 hours.

Slovenia as a country shares its borders with Italy, Croatia, Austria and Hungary, it has a land mass size of 7,827 sq miles (UK has 94,060 sq miles) with a population of about 2.05 million. The geography of Slovenia is mountains and forests with over half the country forested and protected, protected areas of Slovenia include national parks, regional parks, and nature parks, the largest of which is the Triglav National Park.

Matej confirmed that the conditions are best around the end of January so with that as a rough plan and things looking good the dates were booked…

2 weeks prior to heading over we were discussing what kit was needed, Matej confirmed that there had been no snow and things were looking bad! With a warm front in it wasn’t looking good so he’d let me know the week prior to going over.

5 days before heading over Slovenia had its first huge dump of snow that lasted for a few days, in the mountains some 1 – 2 meters had fallen so I was pre warned that we were un likely to head high as there was a Cat 5 Avalanche rating, the highest rating that can be issued!

The flight from Stansted is only 1h 45 min and I was collected by Zdenka at the Airport, the plan for the day was to head to Krvavec which is a ski resort about 30 minutes from the airport, Matej would be meeting us there, the last time I skied was in Canada about 6 years ago this would only be about the 4^th time I’d skied so I was a tad nervous… rightly so I was utter shit at skiing, I spent more time either on my face or tumbling backwards!!

I got to grips with going fast in one direction and just found the stopping and turning to be an issue … the views from the top were stunning, but the coming down was hard work!!

Matej had sorted accommodation at the Hostel Celica in Ljubljana for the evening, the Hostel Celica is located in the old military prison building in Metelkova area in Ljubljana. It was originally built in the Austro – Hungarian times at the end of the 19th century (1882). The building functioned as a military prison for over 100 years until 1991 when Slovenia achieved its independence after separating from the former socialist federation of Yugoslavia.

It consists of some 20 prison cells that have been turned into bedrooms by artists, each one being totally unique. I stayed in Cell 103 ; which was the French / German cell designed by Petra Marguč who was born in Germany but lives in France.

The dark ceiling  symbolizes the sky at night. There are door handles scattered around the walls as a symbol of escape attempts. The small coffee table was found in the Metelkova area and remodelled into a trendy piece of furniture.

The cell was very comfortable and worth the experience! Being relatively cheap and having ratings like Number 1 Hippest Hostel – by Lonely Planet and being in the top 25 Ultimate Places to stay – by Rough Guides it is well worth the visit! There is also an art gallery and resturant/bar on site. http://www.hostelcelica.com

In the evening Matej took me for a tour of the city.

It is a large sprawling city, with everything you could want nice bars, restaurants and shops, it was nice and clean as well as photogenic and seemed very well suited to cyclists. We wandered the streets, visited the castle and met up with Zdenka and Barbara for an evening meal at a small restraint that served traditional style Slovenian food, dinner, drinks and cake for four only cost 47 euros, and we were all full!

The next day the plan would have been to go high and find some unclimbed ice, with the avalanche risk still high Matej decided we should check out and area where there were some big falls that hadn’t been climbed yet so with that in mind we hired some snow shoes and set off to Bohinj.

On the way the roads were getting smaller and on we went until we came to the road where we needed to drive up to get parked up, the road was partially blocked by snow so Matej decided that he would push through it, subsequently we got stuck!!

Shortly after grounding the car and trying to dig it out a very angry man in a very big tractor turned up and was shouting all kinds of profanities in Slovenian, (I was later told that this included Mother Fekkers!) when I informed him I didn’t speak Slovenian and only English this only enraged him further to which he replied “No English… Slovenian … rarrr rarrr rarrr” but he did help us out. After he got us out and with his tractor he then rather than remove the pile of snow he built it back up. I am assuming he didn’t want anyone going up the track!!

After we parked up further down the track we got kitted up and begun to treck up to the falls, Matej had his touring skis and I had snow shoes, Matej reckoned it would be about an hour to walk into the falls, three hours later we arrived! Having waded through deep snow we’d cut a path all the way up only to find the falls still running wet!

Feeling slightly disappointed after carrying all the kit up we wandered down, although now I know how long it will take and what’s required for the walk in, it was a stunning blue sky day so it was an adventure and it was certainly not an hour walk in!!

That night we stayed at the Hostel Pod Volgom, the rooms were very comfy and had an ensuite toilet with a shower! Bonus after a day of snowshoeing!! There is Rafting and all sorts of activities to be had in the summer, worth considering if staying in the area! http://www.hostel-podvoglom.com/sl

Sunday we woke up to Rain, this confirmed the plans for the day, Tourist Day!! we would walk up to the falls at Savica, we won’t take the kit as we know it won’t be in condition, and do a recce!!

The walk was a lot easier taking only some 30 minutes but we heard a massive avalanche just off to our right and saw the aftermath of a load of debris and dust linger for quite some time.

The falls are a famous site in Slovenia where the Emperor of Austria is said to have visited!

We would have needed a dingy to get to the bottom of the very newly forming slithers of ice!!

Following this Matej took me for the Traditional Bled Slovenia sweet cream cake called Kremsnita, very nice and was destroyed and demolished with not much elegance or grace by myself!!

To round the trip off we visited the National Alpine Museum which was fantastic. It was a very open and new building, lots to touch, pick up and play with, you could even put a harness on and try a bit of Via Ferrata or build a Cairn!

All in all no new routes or climbing was done but it it was an amazing trip with lovely people and stunning scenery, a massive thanks to Matej, Zdenka, Barbera & Erika (who let me have Matej for the weekend!) 

Here is a video of the weekend…