When I spent the whole winter at Pokljuka quite some time ago, we had huge amounts of snow. We were skiing on the slopes of Viševnik, Mali Draški vrh, Veliki Draški vrh, and other peaks. Our skis were narrow and over 200 cm long, but we still had fun in remarkably deep powder.
This last Saturday we went to Pokljuka with the Slovenian mountain guides for our winter training. We headed for the Blejska koča hut and checked the stability of the snow during our ascent. It turned out that patches of wind affected snow at slopes above 30 degrees hid unexpected dangers.
From the hut, we continued towards Brda. There wasn’t much fresh snow, only somewhere between 10 and 20 cm and we had to find our way through plenty of pine shrubs. The training was focused on avalanche safety and we practiced various different avalanche scenarios. Higher up we were treated to some rather spectacular views of the Krma Valley and the mountains above it. Triglav was in the background and we were able to see the Kredarica mountain hut.
We skied back down and soon reached the forest, the skiing actually being surprisingly good. We had a drink at the hut and discussed avalanches for a bit, then skied down to our cars. We had a great time.
Danilo Tič
