26.-27. sept. 2015
Triglav, Slovenia
With 2864 metres, Triglav is Slovenia's highest mountain. Its grandeur is further increased by its mighty North Face, which is several kilometres wide and more than a kilometre high. For an average mountain-lover, all the routes to Triglav’s summit are quite difficult, since they all have a vertical gain of 1800-2000 metres, depending on the chosen route. It’s a similar story in terms of distance which has to be covered, with the shortest route being 8 km long and the longest exceeding 15 km. The summer climbing season is from July until October, but sometimes it ends as early as the first half of September due to poor weather and snow at altitude.
On 26th and 27th September I guided a group of four fairly fit mountaineers to the summit of Triglav. 3o cm of snow had fallen a few days earlier, which substantially increased the complexity of our trip. Instead of the planned ascent from the Vrata Valley, we chose Krma as our starting point. After leaving the parking lot at 8:30, we were accompanied by low clouds and very humid air. It took us 4 hours and 5 minutes to hike up 1658 vertical metres and cover a distance of 7.83 km. After resting for an hour at Kredarica, we headed for the summit. The higher we climbed, the deeper the snow became. Since it was relatively warm in the afternoon we didn’t have to use crampons, but my clients still found the climbing along the exposed and partly snowy ridge quite demanding. After 2 hours and 4 minutes we reached the top, feeling very excited and happy. We still had the descent in front of us, which took another two hours. We helped two other climbers along the way, who didn’t have appropriate equipment.
The following day we hiked down to the Krma Valley, descending 1704 vertical metres and covering a distance of 8.34 km. My clients were now ready for Grossglockner, but since the season is coming to a close, we’ll be heading there next year.
Statistics of our trip:
- altitude gain: 2004 m;
- distance covered: more than 18.5 km;
- total time: 11 h 45 min;
- highest altitude reached: 2864 m.
Danilo Tič, IFMGA Mountain Guide
join us to our next adventures! Triglav
