I still remember the winter when we first climbed mt. Storžič (2132 m). We were still very “green” in the Alps and it was the first encounter with mountain Jezerska (and Kokrska) Kočna (2540 m). Ok, it wasn’t exactly an encounter, but that’s when we first saw that regular cone and almost volcanically shaped mountain. If I’m not mistaken, we were in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps (KSA) for the first time and everything was new to us there.
Slovenians say that this mountain has two peaks. Maybe it has, but we call it Jezerska, or just Kočna, because it is easier for us in our stories, and we regularly remember this mountain in our conversations. I think I still have a pretty bad photo from then (I’ve took it with my “toaster” cell phone 😊) that I would occasionally look at and in moments of boredom say, “When are we going up there again?”.
Even when we look at it from a distance, it looks like a mountain worth climbing (although, for us, every mountain is 😁). But somehow, we constantly avoided to seriously look in the direction of this mountain. Every drive that had an ending in the Julian Alps would pass in the same tone: “Uh look at the Kočna, we should climb it, it looks challenging.”. Of course, we would never go because the list is long, the plan is big, we must do something else and so on for years. Slovenia just has so many great mountains 😍!
That summer, 2 years ago, was not particularly different either. But, as we spent every weekend in the Julian Alps, we finally decided to shuffle the deck a bit and to climb Kočna.
As we are not exactly hotshots in KSA mountain range, we decided to climb the simplest approach: Ravenska Kočna – Jezerska Kočna (čez Štularjevo planino in po Kremžarjevi poti). At least I think that we hiked there. I can’t believe I don’t remember exactly, but as an alibi I must say that there is quite unusual number of paths leading to the Czech hut (1542 m) so please don’t mind if I swapped trails. The orientation was really not too complicated, nor was the access to the Czech hut particularly difficult, but surfing the web now to find out what this trail was called I find a fantastic ferrata path which I immediately put in the bucket list – it seems so fun 😁!
Anyway, we weren’t looking for some excitement back then, but we didn’t fully knew what awaited us. Looking at the pictures of the ferrata path (and the one on the map), we concluded that we have already climbed over that kind of path countless times. Not sweating in advance about the difficulty of the climb and after a quick break at the Czech hut, the path became steeper, and we were increasingly impressed by the views around us. In KSA mountain range we don’t always have that impression which is mostly reserved for the Julian Alps – that you are surrounded by high mountains, rock faces from the very beginning and similar high mountain landscapes. But Kočna has it all and it looks fantastic 😍!
I’m not sure to call the secured part of the path a ferrata, although it has all the characteristics of one (with more freestyle climbing with pegs in the rock, and a little less cable). The rock face immediately lets us know that it won’t be easy, nor short (that part of the climb took just under 3 hours). I noticed that we don’t even have 30 photos from that day, which says only one thing – maximum focus on climbing and maximum concentration. But it was so damn fun and you can’t help but enjoy the ride 😊.
We haven’t met a lot of people, if I remember correctly – maybe 4-5 on the climb and 2-3 on our way down. And that is good, because there really wasn’t much space to get around, the crowd is least needed on such approaches. Regardless of the mentally and physically tense climb, you can’t help but enjoy the views. Perhaps most of all, that view on mountain Grintovec, which from this angle really looks impressive – somehow its flat slope called Streha comes to focus even more than when it is viewed from the valley.
The highlight of this mountain, with this approach, is not just the summit – although I must be honest and say that it rarely is. The way to the top is something that makes a peak impressive, because long and demanding ascents to the top give that wow impression – an impression of achievement, physical and mental strength and endurance. I don’t remember ever climbing a peak and truly enjoying it, if the climb to it wasn’t challenging in some way 😊.
I can immediately remember a dozen of brutally difficult ascents, where we would reach the summit and scream with joy how good it was and that caution on what kind of descent awaits us 😅. And there are the third ones – the ones where you barely climbed the summit and you wondered even more how you would get back, if it was this hard to climb it. But we’re not going to write about such things this time. I just wanted to point out that the mountain top is always halfway there. You don’t need to lose your head from happiness to eventually lose your head later for real, because you relaxed too much.
But I wandered off a bit, what did I meant to write? Oh yes, the peculiarity of the whole ascent to Kočna is not only in the long and fun climbing through the rock, but also in the moment when you reach the famous belly, located almost below the very mountain top. Yes, you read well, this trail has a belly! A big, fat, hanging belly under which the trail passes! What’s so good about it? Well, it’s not good, it’s quite dangerous. But it’s also just as much fun, because you need to take off your backpack, slip under the belly the best you can, drag your backpack behind you while your head hangs over a huge rock face and be careful not to fly tens of meters below 😅. And then repeat that process on your way down, if you’re not doing a circular route.
How we enjoyed that 😍! To be clear, it was insanely tense, and we had to be terribly focused. But there is something in it, something intangible and, above all, fun. Perhaps I remember this part best – when we knelt to see how to get through and told each other that we would obviously have to take off our backpacks and slip inside the path under the belly 😁. After we successfully passed the exam and continued on our way, a simple climb to the summit awaited us and we were finally able to rest, eat something and enjoy the view.
Because of the serious concentration only on our next step and the many tasks we solved along the way, we haven’t realized that the weather was getting worse and that not much could be seen from the summit; also, some rain had just started to fall. Therefore, we decided not to go further to Kokrski peak and quickly headed back, wanting to be rid of the problems in the rocks before it gets wet.
We really gave our maximum effort to return as soon and safely as possible. Luckily, the rain stopped, that is, it stopped when we descended a little lower from the summit. We took off our safety equipment after descending from the rock and rushed to the Czech hut. We rested there for a short time and with constant staring at the now quite cloudy sky we continued our descent. We arrived at the car filled with impressions. Too bad we don’t have more photographs, but from memory I can say this was one of my most fun climbs. But, now that I see this ferrata right at the beginning of the path (which we haven’t been to), it is clear that it can all be even more fun 😊!
It is certain that we will repeat Kočna, maybe for the second time in the winter or by some other approach. For now, as things stand, we can only write alpine stories that we remember and that have left a mark, because we can’t travel yet. At least not in the physical sense – in our minds we will surely wander there many more times…