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| Hiking | 16.80 Miles |
6,434 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.80 Miles | | | |
| 6,434 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Triglav is the highest mountain in Slovenia, named for it's three peaks (the translation of Triglav to English is "three heads"). This mountain is within Triglav National Park, which has several trails throughout. It is also part of the Julian Alps. The trails in Triglav NP range from the upper alpine environment to the lower lands in the forests and meadows. To get to Triglav, there are several trails that lead up to two upper lodges, each just below the peak. To get to the peak, you have to ascend on one of 3 different via ferrata routes, which are cables that are anchored into rock, very similar to what is installed at Picacho Peak. I can't remember when I first heard and saw of this, but it was at least 6 years ago. Since that time, I've been wanting to do this hike/climb.
In order to ascend the via ferrata route, you have to wear a safety harness and a helmet. Actually, I was under the impression that this gear is required, but during my ascent, I saw several people not using any safety equipment, but I also saw several memorials along the way of people who died. Almost all the dates of these memorials were in the months of July or August. Regardless of how mandatory the equipment is or isn't, I don't have any. The cost of buying it for a one off use didn't seem very economical. Tour guides are pretty common there, so I decided to get in touch with one of the companies and hire a private guide to get me through the via ferrata route mainly. The cost of this included the equipment, and a reservation at the lodge I chose to stay at, and dinner and breakfast there.
My guide was Alenka, who is in her 60s and has a son and grandson. She didn't speak much English, so the rudimentary Serbian that I know got more use than I've needed it for in several years. She's been a guide for several years, I don't exactly how many. While she was working for the company I hired, I think she also does most of her work independently with other people. I found out later she has a website and uses social media to advertise, like most businesses do. She's done tours all over Europe and currently is on a 15 day tour with 20 Slovenians in Kyrgistan. She is no slouch.
Right off the bat, hiring her was the right move because the route I was planning to go to hike up to the lodge is currently inaccessible because the road to the trailhead has been closed for almost a year due to a storm last year that caused a lot of treefall. I found nothing about this on the internet, including the Triglav NP website. This also increased the mileage to the lodge, but I didn't mind that at all, especially once we were making our way through the alpine and subalpine areas.
The first half mile was on a logging road, which took us to the trail. The trail was immediately steep and went through a heavily forested area with semi old growth trees. After about 2 miles in, there were some glimpses through the trees of faraway mountain ranges. Right as we started a hiker seemed to be about to pass us. I offered to let him go, but he needed to stop and rest. Another mile up he finally did pass us. We talked briefly and he mentioned that he was from the Netherlands.
At about 2.6 miles in, we got out of the trees an were at the bottom of a bowl shaped valley, which was becoming an alpine environment. The walls of this bowl were very steep and at the top of the ridge around it was definitely alpine, with bare rock peaks jutting into the sky once the green ended. Very dramatic scenery. From here the trail makes a left and climbs up the side of the valley to a saddle. At the saddle we found the hiker who passed us taking an extended break and also found that after all that climbing, we had to descend a few hundred feet to follow the trail as it wrapped around the ridgeline that was between us and Triglav. This took out out of the alpine area for a little bit.
As the trail made it's way around the big ridgeline, below it were very some meadows and at other time very steep dropoffs and cliffs. At first there was a flock of sheep below in a meadow. then was a huge dropoff, then more meadows with a herd of cows. Both groups of animals had bells on that were audible as they moved around. Looking down into these meadows there were buildings visible that looked like residences. My guess is that's where the farmers live that raise the animals there. Very picturesque views with the green below and the rocky mountains up high that had clouds floating through them. After the initial descent from the saddle, the trail was mostly level, with a few climbs here and there. It was also pretty rocky most of the way.
Just over 5 miles in we stopped at the Vodnikov lodge, which was just above one of the meadows with a herd of cows below. Alenka got a coffee and I had a small prepared meal of paprikash in a foil tin that I bought at a supermarket. After this lower lodge, the trail began a gradual ascent into the alpine zone with less and less vegetation around us. Views of the trail ascending a good mile ahead were visible, it was mostly straight.
Soon there were some via ferrata areas, but they were pretty minor. Less difficult than anything at Picacho Peak and sometimes maybe even unnecessary. The trail climbed through these into another upper valley with another set of ridges around us. The peaks above were getting higher and higher, but as it was a cloudy day, not all the upper mountains were visible. At this point, both lodges below Triglav were visible, although neither one is visible from the other one if you're at either lodge.
We got to 2 different trail junctions and kept taking the steep trail, which was taking us to our lodge. Alenka was calling to a hiker below us on another trail. It was the Netherlands hiker we saw earlier who was taking the long way to our lodge. he scrambled up to our trail and began to follow us. Soon he passed us, but not long after that, Alenka took another trail that was a more direct route to our lodge (which was getting very close), so he just finally kind of gave up and followed us the rest of the way. At about this time we saw 2 mountain goats that were roaming around close by but now decided to sit on the trail right in front of us. Soon they took off and made their way down the hill. It was interesting to see how easily they can make their way across the steep areas with loose rocks everywhere.
Finally we got the Kredarica lodge, 7.8 miles and just over 5000' AEG. The first thing you see is the 2 windmills that I assume generate electricity for the lodge. they were spinning so fast cutting through the air that they sounded like helicopters. I had originally hoped to try to summit the first day. However, after hiking that far, and the fact that the weather wasn't conducive for good views, the only move was to hang at the lodge. It was around 3pm, so dinner would be served soon anyway.
I got my bed assignment, put my gear away, and changed my shirt. There are no showers there and all the running water for the toilets and sinks is non-potable. I made my way to the dining area and got a bowl of barley soup with a sausage. After I ate that I had a beer and was talking with the various people who were sitting at the tables. One of them was the Netherlands hiker and we talked a bit. This was his first day of a 3-5 day backpack through the Triglav NP. He lives or lived in the US for a while and was at Georgia Tech, where he learned about American football and talked about he really got into the sport there from the locals. There was a very friendly Austrian guy was almost 70 who talked about how healthy beer is. I really liked this guy. There were also 2 American guys in their 20s from North Carolina who were also doing a multi-day backpack through the park and also a trip across Europe for the summer. Meeting people like this is also big part of the experience of doing these faraway hikes in other countries.
After dinner, I went outside to check the scenery, which was stunning. Now all the views were mostly looking down on a lot of the mountains I was looking up at on my way up. The clouds had cleared a little and evening sun and shadows made for even more dramatic scenery. It was in the 40s so I had to put my sweatshirt on to keep warm. Being out of AZ in July never felt better up there. Looking over at Triglav, the start of the via ferrata route was visible, and it was STEEP, damn near vertical looking. There were also some crazies who were starting to climb it at 6pm, which gave a sense of scale as to how big it is. Looking at it online was daunting. Looking at it in person was absolutely intimidating. In the lodge talking with the other hikers, some had made mention of how they never did any kind of climbing and were hoping they could make it up there. I told them that it always looks worse until you get on it, then it seems not nearly as bad, just take what's right in front of you. Now that I was looking at this in person, I began to have my own concerned musings. 
Soon I was getting sleepy and decided to turn in early and try to get some extra sleep. Once i was in bed however, I couldn't fall asleep. The bed was about 2-3 inches shorter that what I needed to straighten my legs, and you also have to sleep with sheet liners, which never really work or stay in place the way they should. People moving around also tend to keep you from fading out, even though I had earplugs in. And the daylight lasted until 9:30pm, which surprised and slightly irritated me. i think the nervousness of the big day ahead was keeping me up. I finally faded out and got maybe 2 hours of sleep. I think before and after that I got a few catnaps. The time went faster that I expected, so I may have been out a bit more than I realized.
I set my alarm for 3am and found myself awake at 2:30am. No point to try to get a few more winks, or in this case restless tosses and turns. I slowly made my way in the dark getting some things together, got my gear and put my boots back on in the hallway. I made my way down to another dining area and ate 2 more tinfoil prepared meals and some snacks. None of it was very tasty, and I really didn't care. I needed calories for energy to get to the peak. Once I got my breakfast, I got my gear together, put my safety harness on, and did all the other general preparations to get ready. I brought my smaller Camelbak for the summit and left my bigger pack in the drying room, which was full of many other hikers socks, shirts, and phones, which were all plugged into a multi outlet strip.
Soon Alenka was up from an area she stayed at with the lodge staff. She seemed to know everyone there, and several other hikers on the trails as well, which I assume were also guides. She had mentioned starting at 5:15am, which I thought was too late. I convinced her 5am, which was a kind of a compromise from my original suggestion of 4:30am. She walked through the door with at 4:46am, at which point I was decked out ready to go and said "Hajdemo", which means "come on, we're going".
The skies were totally clear and the peak was visible from outside the lodge. I was talking with the one younger American from NC. He wanted to go but was waiting on his buddy who was still sleeping. I told him were were heading out now because Alenka had said that after 5am, the via ferrata route starts to get crowded. This made him more excited to get going, but he would have to wait.
At the bottom of the via ferrata route there is a section where the snow hasn't melted (I'm sorry, I know NO ONE in AZ wants to read about this right now, but it is relevant). There was a section next to it where there was bare rock, but Alenka wasn't comfortable with me climbing on this. I tried to explain to her that it was completely within my skill set and comfort level, but more I tried to climb up it, the more agitated she got. I figured she was the boss in this area so I backed off. Her plan was to climb up the snow with her ice pick and throw me down a rope to climb up through the snow. She did that and threw down the rope which I used to pull myself up as I dug my feet into the snow and previous spots where there were "steps" from other climbers.
After that, the ascent through the steep via ferrata began. Everything in front of me seemed very doable. I pulled myself up through some steep sections and looked down and thought, "oh yeah, you can easily die falling from here". but none of it was frightening. it was actually way too much fun. I've spent the last 3+ months doing training hikes to get my conditioning up and also to get comfortable with these kind of semi vertical climbs. The training hikes paid off big time. I was expecting jitters and being more tired and out of breath, but there was none of that. I could tell I was breathing heavy, but it kind of didn't register. I think at that point I realized there was a big time adrenaline rush happening that I was just loving. For me, doing this beats sitting on a beach anywhere.
After the first ascent, there is a ridgeline that's mostly level. The cables are a bit low so I had to stoop a bit, but this was easy stuff. At one point the ridgeline gets pretty narrow, which reminded me of Battleship Mountain in the Supes. I took a video of that area looking down each dropoff either way. the ridge ascends to Little Triglav, which is a little hump along the way, and then descends until the final climb. That climb was also steep in a few parts, but not as steep at the original ascent. The peak was closer and closer and we were there in about an hour and a half.
Once we were there, I got my obligatory Terrible Towel picture, then stared off and admired the views up high of the surrounding mountain ranges, several of which still has some snow on them. This was just an amazing feeling to experience all of this. It's also really nice to have that in my back pocket now that I've hiked in the Alps, as well as been to the top of Mount Olympus in Greece 6 years earlier  .
the way back down was also pretty easy. I had to descend backwards in a few spots, and Alenka helped me with spotting foot placement for stable steps. The way back was also much busier with climbers on their way up. We moved out of their way several times. I was willing to move off sooner in several spots, but I followed Alenka's lead as to when the right time it was to do this. Also several times we ran into more climbers that she knew and had short conversations with. We also the Netherlands hiker and the NC hikers on their way up. I bid them all well wishes, good luck and a safe trip. I was definitely on a post adrenaline high of achieving a goal I had set years ago. Back at the snow slide at the bottom of the via ferrata route, Alenka tied in the rope again and I used it to climb/slide down the snow. I actually had to put my gloves on because I had to dig my hands into the snow to help stop from sliding too fast, which would be pretty easy. It was another time it felt really nice to not be in AZ in July. 
We got back around 8:30-9am, which was before the 10am breakfast cutoff. We ate and headed down the trail, which was immediately very steep with loose rocks for the next few miles. I looked back before the last view of Triglav to see the via ferrata route overrun with climbers making their ways up and down. There were also clouds starting to roll in, which may have ruined of the views for them depending on their time. It felt really good too be on our way down. We also saw a military helicopter try to land on the helipad there, but it aborted and took off, only to come back 15 min later and land. Before our hike down, there was a soldier in military fatigues outside the lodge and Alenka knew him, too. Very glad I hired a guide and got one who was so familiar with everything there.
The further we got down the trail, the more my feet hurt from the rocks and the more my quads hurt from the steep grades. The last few miles were getting brutal until I took 2 ibuprofens, which within 10 min made a big difference. Alenka noticed and decided to take a different return route at one point, which would put us on a road sooner. I don't think that helped much, but I was happy to be on another different trail on the way down to see more of this area. The last mile of trail was back in the heavy forest, next to a running stream, very zen.
We started what would be a 3km hike back on a dirt road to where we parked. about 1km in a car was coming up behind us and Alenka hitchhiked and got us a ride back. I began to say she didn't need to do that, but she had a 2.5 hour drive back to her home after she dropped me off at Lake Bled, so who was I to argue. I was actually kind of surprised that she didn't know the driver, but I don't know Slovenian, so who knows, maybe she did. Again, well worth the money I spent on a guide for this hike.
Another very epic hike in Europe. The mountain this time wasn't as famous as Olympus, but it was amazing scenery the entire time and another hike of a lifetime. Doing this in my mid 50s is another feather in my hat and it still only the start of more hikes to come in the next week. I'll be getting to those triplogs soon.  |
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