There are mountains and there are “mountains.” Some will come to your memory for the sheer beauty of the whole climb, others for the effort you had to put in to climb them. Some for both of these reasons and some for neither. In any case, it seems to me it’s a shame not to look back on some of the stories from the past and remember why these ascents remain in our memory.
One of them is the Brana, 2253 meters high mountain in the Kamnik Savinja Alps (KSA) in Slovenia. In summer time it’s a relatively simple destination and a truly visited mountain – it’s not a completely different picture in winter either, but because of the final ascent across the north face of the mountain, looking like a big snow slide, it has to be approached with caution.
It was the beginning of November last year, and not a week earlier we enjoyed a short trek in Karavanke, climbing the Stol (2236 meters above sea level). Fifteen degrees Celsius in the air made it seem that at least an unusual winter was waiting for us. Meanwhile, the first major weather change occurred and the alpine peaks recorded the first snow. As romantic as it may sound, especially to those of us who love winter in the mountains, it’s actually the worst part of the year – the snowpack is very volatile then, prone to icing and generally prevents more serious climbs.
With that in mind, we decided Brana is a good option, although I initially aimed at Planjava (2392 masl) since the ascent to Kamniško sedlo (saddle on 1864 masl) is the same. The plan was that we will decide when we come to the saddle – the weather forecast was good, and I, as usual, hoped that we will be climbing both peaks if everything goes well 😊.
We left Rijeka early in the morning, and it rained lightly – that leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you have a day off and want to spend some time up there, high, hoping for a good weather. The weather was not much different two hours later – as we drove through Ljubljana, we continued to watch the same view, a view that every now and then needed to be swept away by the car’s wipers. The drizzle and low clouds followed us here too, so from the usual “wow” view of the Kamnik Savinja Alps when entering Ljubljana, our faces looked more like when you experience an unpleasant torture when someone is twisting your arm. Obviously we couldn’t see the mountain peaks from Kočna to Planjava (usually a beautiful mountain range of KSA cuts the sky), but there was a great abundance of black clouds mixed with just as much fog…this was going to be a big disappointment instead of a day well spent in the mountains!
We were watching the weather conditions in disbelief and continued our travel to Kamniška Bistrica, aware that we may have to turn on our heels as soon as we reach Kamniška Bistrica mountain hut (601 masl), which was also our starting point. When we arrived at the parking lot we realized that the rain had stopped but it was far away from the weather forecast we have Googled the day before.
Short breakfast and have put on our shoes, not knowing what is waiting for us except for the obvious problems with rain, mud and bad views, if we get to see anything at all. The forest was damp and slippery and as we progressed slowly the first snow appeared quite early on the trail. Because of the fog and clouds we had no idea of our current position. It was possible to see maybe two meters in front and behind but meeting a few people who were already going back gave us the first serious signs of doubt about today’s climb. Either we started too late or the conditions were not good.
While ascending slowly through the fog and babbling about climbing, mountains, equipment and life in general we didn’t even notice that the trail became steeper and the sky above the fog darker. Yes, darker, not as dark as “it is going to rain”, but strangely as if the fog was actually breaking. As I am usually slightly faster than her, I soon came to a place where I couldn’t believe what I saw! I started yelling at her as if I have gone crazy: “it is sunny above the clouds and I can see the parts of the rocky mountain sides!”.
All that followed was a pure rhapsody, poetry, a song … I photographed several times as I was emerging from the clouds and the scene that awaited us was simply marvelous. A sea of clouds and peaks protruding…as many times as you have the privilege to see this scenery the reaction is always the same! You literally live for moments like this and if you’ve ever wondered why you love mountains the answer is right in front your nose!
We took a short break at the Kamniško sedlo to enjoy the views – there were mountaineers all around and seems like everyone had the same intention, to enjoy the scenery and views as much as they can. I noticed we didn’t see anyone on both mountain summits and it was time to decide what will we do. The trail path to Planjava has already been partially melted by the morning sun, while the path to Brana was still under snow (and shadow). The wind was blowing from that side of the mountain and we felt that the ascent to Brana on this new snow could be quite deceptive and dangerous. But Planjava seemed more dangerous at that moment with its steep and loose rocks mixed with fresh snow that had already began to soften by the sun. So, to stop getting frozen in the wind, we got dressed and headed for Brana. I don’t even have to say that we didn’t take our winter gear with us because we did not expect there would be opportunities for crampons and ice axes, considering last week’s warmy spring weather – so until we get to the slope we couldn’t know what awaited us.
And nothing good was coming – the trail path was very unstable but as only a few traces of footsteps have passed in front of us it was still not hard and icy, so we continued, aware of the danger and being ready to turn as soon as we assessed that we cannot continue without crampons.
The higher we get the more slippery it was. We needed to climb with the increasing concentration and caution. I must mention that I do not promote headless climbing without the necessary equipment and knowledge of how to use it, but I believe that the experience behind us allows me to assess risks and make decisions. It takes years of climbing to learn a lot about snow, conditions, changes in weather…you will not necessarily become an expert, but if you learn from most of your past mistakes you will be able to decide when to continue with the ascent and when to turn back.
The crucial parts of the ascent that we managed to overcome were now behind us and I was already planning in my head the descent and how to work its parts, especially if there will be more people behind us who will make the path icy and hard – I hoped there won’t be too many of them.
Meanwhile, on the same path in front of us, one mountaineer was making a turn to climb Turska gora (2251 masl) but turned quite soon and said there was no chance without crampons and ice axe – so it seemed we were all heading to Brana. He made the climb and returned relatively quickly while we took the time to take some photos. This was simply one of those days when, as I like to say, if your smartphone falls out of your pocket you’ll shoot a good photo 😄.
Climbing the summit was just breathtaking. We took photos in all directions. The views and the mountains around us were amazing, and these low clouds beneath us…I can’t even describe it!
After a short and windy time at the top we had to go back so we took the first steps with extreme caution. Halfway through this relatively dangerous descent we met three people going up and watched two snowbirds (alpine rock ptarmigan) which started changing their feathers from camouflage gray-brown to a completely white. They were beautiful and not afraid of us at all but we didn’t not have a camera to zoom in better while they were posing.
Again on the Kamniško sedlo, we took a short break to eat something and enjoy the last rays of the sun before it disappeared behind the massive rock face of Brana. The day was short, we had to hurry!
To make this trip even more dramatic, the minor ankle injury she’s been dragging on since last weekend decided to completely ruin the return – her ankle was completely swollen and she almost couldn’t stand on her foot as she descended. We got caught by the darkness in the woods so we put our headlights on and slowly paced forward, with her just limping on walking sticks. Some of us will obviously remember this day by some bad things too. Though, I looked at her every now and then and saw that she couldn’t get a smile off her face – it was an amazing day!
We returned home with mixed feelings of “what an incredible day” and the knowledge that there will be a longer down time ahead – such injuries do not pass overnight, who knows when will we be back in the Alps…