I usually don’t sleep well before a mountain trip that I can’t wait for, but this time I didn’t slept well just because I couldn’t wait to get on the road again – the borders were finally opened and we could go to Slovenia, where we haven’t been since February. I honestly don’t even remember where we were last hiking in the Alps, how long ago that was. I’m exaggerating, of course, but these days, weeks and months in special conditions due to the corona crisis have flown by so fast (or not 😅) – the last time we were in the Alps it was full winter, and now it was already summer time…
Waking up at 4:00 AM and driving to Kamniška Bistrica had not left a mark on us and relatively quickly we overcame some 5.5 km long trail in 2.5 hours or, we climbed from 600 meters to 1800 meters. Here we took a short break to change into dry T-shirts and took photos of Cojzova hut on Kokrsko sedlo (mountain pass at 1793 m). We were looking at today’s goal, which, you can guess, was in low and dense clouds. If nothing else, the view of the Kalški ridge (2224 m) above Cojzova hut is dramatic – it somehow escaped the clouds, played with them and at the same time highlighted its grandiose rock face. We did not waste time and continued further along the ridge, hoping to reach the top before serious clouds and a change of weather appeared, eager for some kind of view from the summit. Along the way, we occasionally had a view of mountain Jezerska Kočna (2540 m), which we will write about in one of the stories from the past – a fantastic and fun mountain that is definitely worth a visit.
There were a lot of mountaineers and hikers this day, although not even close to the amount that is usually here in the real summer months. Regardless of the distance and altitude, this is a really simple climb and a good fitness test for those who are interested in such things. Of course, it is also possible to reduce the altitude difference by driving even further up the road, to the V Koncu car park and reduce walking by about an hour – however, in recent times this road has been banned from driving (and parking), although many are still using it (which we have seen even now). In addition, the fact that Grintovec is the highest peak in this mountain range certainly always attracts visitors – which is understandable.
We were somehow emotionally struggled about this trip – we wanted the first visit to the Alps after a long time to be special but we have already seen on the forecast that the weather could be really bad. That didn’t stop us from going anyway and enjoying our first alpine trip after a long time. The weather, in the end, wasn’t even that bad 😊. Anyway, the mountains aren’t going anywhere, and we knew that we’ll come again so I could slowly plan a real, long summer round hike that we’ll do here, connecting a few peaks and maybe finally seeing some nice views from this mountain.
Coming to the summit has not changed anything radically, we looked at the clock and saw that we spent 4 hours (and ten minutes😁) in about 8 km long and 2000 m high climb – we were very pleased that the timeout on a hiking in the Alps did not hurt us in terms of physical fitness. Purely for comparison, the ascent from Starigrad-Paklenica to Vaganski peak, which we recently made, also had 2000 m of ascent, but was about 14 km long (if I remember correctly), so you can see how much more serious the slope was here in an almost twice as short trail.
Although it was quite hot in the valley, we froze at the summit waiting for the view to open and dressed with everything we had in our backpacks. Occasionally we were seeing the peaks of Kočna, Dolgi Hrbet and Skuta which were mostly hiding behind clouds. It was time to head back because it was snowing lightly and was 0 degrees of Celsius.
The descent was accompanied by warming our hands and nibbling on biscuits, as well as stroking each other’s egos about how we are in good shape and how we can plan something more serious because we are great, the best, the top, it can’t get any better 😂. These outbursts of complacency are always present when you didn’t expect anything special from yourself and then you realize that every boring, same circle you did walking around the town and the concrete paid off just to stay in some shape for those mountains your heart draws you to. Needless to say, I also maintained my mental fitness by reading books and watching movies about mountains, as it will help me 😅.
We ended the day as usual – a box of Domaćica cookies (dark, this time 😊) and two beers healed all wounds, 16 km altogether, 4000 vertical meters up and down. We drove home slowly and thinking about where we will go next. Life seems to be returning to normal, and for some of us that means it was returning to the mountains. Now again, survival from Monday to Friday follows, which this time will not be so difficult for us (at least I hope so), being this spent.
I don’t know what we will write about in the next story, but returning to the Alps makes us so happy that I am sure that whatever the next topic is, it will surely inspire us enough to write a few good sentences…