This year’s winter started off slow, but it finished quite strongly. I had been wondering in the beginning of December whether winter will show up at all, but then I spent most of it on skis. The only thing that bothered me throughout the season was the constant temperature fluctuations which had a major impact on the snow conditions, not to mention the increased avalanche danger.
During Easter it seemed that large quantities of snow will last until May or June, but the warm winds again brought a major change. To make the most of the winter which seemed to be departing abruptly, we decided to go ski touring above the Logarska Valley this last Sunday. The morning greeted us with a beautiful view of the mountains stretching from Ojstrica all the way to Planjava. It turned out that the snow cover was at least a metre shallower than it had been just a week before, and we were able to reach the end of the valley by car. We passed the majestic Rinka Falls and put on our skis just above the source of the Savinja River. We chose Kotliči, the lowest point in the ridge between Brana and Turska gora, as our goal. After making our way through some trees, we had to cross several fields of avalanche debris, which slowed us down considerably. Due to the unusually high temperatures I often looked up towards the sunlit slopes above us, as I was afraid that the strong sun might cause an avalanche. After passing the north-eastern ridge of Turska gora, the slope started to get steeper and eventually we had to resort to boot packing.
After reaching our highest point, from where we enjoyed beautiful views towards the valleys on the other side of the ridge, we got ready to ski. The snow was very hard at the top, but lower down it became softer and I could start skiing in a very relaxed manner. We traversed towards a saddle beneath the north face of Planjava, which gave access to beautiful slopes with even nicer snow. We skied all the way to the valley and stopped directly in front of a pleasant hut, where we had a nice cold drink. Without any big expectations we had a beautiful day which treated us with 1,100 vertical metres of skiing.
Since Sunday had been so warm, Milan and I went rock-climbing to our local crag at Boč just a couple of days afterwards. My fingers caressed warm sun-baked rock for the first time this season and I think that it’s finally time to swap my skis for climbing shoes.
Danilo Tič
