Julian Alps: White Christmas on Viševnik (2050 m)
The plan
When global warming hits so hard that none of Croatian mountains have snow in late December, you have to become resourceful. There is a saying “if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”, and we did exactly that. Since snow doesn’t want to come to us, we will go out and find it! For this beautiful, but unfortunately only one day trip, we decided to finally visit the Julian Alps of Slovenia. A stunning Triglav National park located in the north-west Slovenia was our last hope of “nearby” snow. Unfortunately Tess couldn’t join me on this trip, so I invited my brother instead.
Going from Split we would have around 6h of driving, but we decided to spend the night in Ljubljana. Having a beer and then early in the morning head for the mountain seemed like a good idea.
mountain day
We woke up at 7, had breakfast and hit the road. One hour away from Ljubljana we reached Triglav National Park. There is no entry fee, so we just parked the car alongside the road. Weather forecast for first half of the day was mostly sun and for the other part cloudy and foggy. Therefore we wanted to use the morning as much as possible.
The trail itself was not very difficult. Total of 9 km and 30% of it follows the ski-lift. Because of snow and ice presence ice gaiters and crampons were a must! It made the incline much easier and kept us safe. Our original plan was a circle tour Vojašnica – Viševnik – Jezerca viewpoint – Koča on Konjščica – Vojašnica, but due to snow covering all the trails beyond Viševnik peak and bad weather coming towards us we didn’t want to risk it and possibly ruin a very nice day.
Entering a beautiful tall pine tree forest where rays of sun lit up the snow around us felt very peaceful and it slowly guided us in the hike. As the trail wasn’t that long we decided to let the pictures talk.
The trail got a bit steeper after the ski-lift so crampons were needed since the snow turned into ice. Crampons are spikes mounted on hiking boots. The scenery along the trail was without a doubt breath taking. The combination of mountains surrounding the trees really gave the glimpses of the Alpes look.
4 km in we reached a new 90 degree turn towards the peak Viševnik at 1780 m altitude located just beside another peak on our left side called Plesišče (1801 m). We walked 200 m more and made a short break to enjoy the views and take some photos.
The Viševnik peak
The way up was trampled by the tracks of people so using GPS was not needed. Once we reached Viševnik the most amazing scene just opened in front of us. A 360 degree view of the whole area was more than words could describe. Right in front of us the peak Mali Draški Vrh (2132m) stood proudly and to the left was the big papa of Slovenia, the Triglav peak (2864m). Triglav was covered by clouds so we couldn’t see it clearly, but we hope that we will visit the highest point of Slovenia some time soon too.
We realized it was time to finish our tea with views and head back since the clouds were coming at us fast. We decided to give the circle trail a shot. About 200m after we saw that everything was covered in deep snow and it wasn’t the right time for testing our luck. It was a steep descent and we didn’t know exactly where the trail was, so we took the same way back.
Many footsteps were erased by skis so we had to be careful where we step not to fall in, but the way down was fast and easy. This trip was spectacular in all its views and nature. We could not recommend it more. True soul food that people like us always seek more and more. The day was slowly coming to an end, so we said goodbye to this beautiful nature rich country. Plenty more trips are ahead of us including Slovenia too, so stay close for more hygge trails.
