"TRIGLAVIAN DREAMS" a Triglav Nacionalni Park Travel Page by mtncorg

While I was in Dovje, the weather was fairly wet. But the day after my wanderings along the Karawanke crest, the forecast was for good weather. The only problem was that it was the last summer weekend before schools in Slovenia began again. I didn't think too much about that, though, just the possibility of good weather for the long day trek up Triglav.
There are many approaches to Triglav - see Jmarkoos page for them all!! With Marko's advice, I chose the Kot valley route. There are three long glacial valleys extending off the NE side of Triglav. The Kot provides one of the shorter approaches and had the added appeal of not being as crowded as some of the other approaches. My plan was similar to the VT climb that took place earlier in the summer, led by the indefatigable Marko, himself: Kot valley - Stanica hut - Kredarica/Triglav Hut - Triglav and return.

An early start is needed for such a long journey and Marko responded beyond the call of duty to give me a lift to the trailhead in the Kot valley. Several cars were there already and people were stirring at 6 am when we arrived. I bade Marko farewell and began the long climb up the valley. It is good to finish the first part early before the sun is up to blast you. The trail climbs quickly from around 900 m along the impressive north wall of the Rjavina. At about 1700-1800 m you pass by a huge stone, Debela Kamen and then a little trail goes off to the north wall of the canyon, quickly losing itself as an iron route along the cliff walls. Shortly after, comes a high rocky basin - the Pekel - country that is very much moonscape. And finally, the first hut, the Stanica Hut, 2332 m, appears - just in time.

The setting for the hut is glorious. Behind is the razor edged Rjavina, already with a small group atop. To the right, people are slowly ascending up the steep path coming up from the Vrata valley and the Aljazev Hut.

Ahead, lies the stony basin of the Kotel, towering over head, the Triglav itself, visible for the first time. On top of Triglav there is a damn choir actually singing!! Not angels, either. Now, I noticed that there was a fair number of people on the mountain.
To my left, I looked at the rocky peak of Rz and the ridge leading to Kredarica and the Kredarica/Triglav hut - the next stage of the journey. Walking along the ridge, there were a few nice airy sections. The views constantly renewed themselves.

Within no time I reached the beehive of activity - both human and sheep (!) - surrounding the Kredarica hut, 2515 m. It is here that the iron route up the final 350 meters begins. There were over a hundred people visible on the route and the pace was snaillike. I had hoped to return by a longer path and with the day getting on, I decided to forgo the climb up the final pitches.

Peaks are great to bag, but I figured the Slovenes on the mountain were more excited to stand in line to get to the top than I was.

So, plan c. I descended the wide trail to the south and traversed around the lower cliffs of the Mala Triglav to the Planika hut.

This hut was even busier that the one on Kredarica - don't let the pictures fool you :-). I met about half of Slovenia either at the hut or on the path just below - for the southern approaches to Tirglav are reputed to be the easiest. On this day, these approaches were also the sunniest and I was glad to be descending as I watched people sweat their way higher. Some thought their efforts were too easy and in order to keep at a maximal sweat effort, they wore helmets up the broad trail.