We spent the rest of our time in the mountains doing via ferrata climbing routes. Several days in Vršič Pass, a valley over for Mt Triglav (the highest peak in Slovenia), and then on the east side of the Slovenian Alps near Lake Bohinj.
Pictures of this set are from Postarski Dom (Vrsic Pass). We rode our bikes up 25 switchbacks to this hut, got a plate of sausages, buckwheat meal, and sauerkraut.
After the hearty meal, we went and climbed Mala Mojstrovka via the north face via ferrata. It was created in the late 1920s by Slovenian climbers who were forbidden by the Italians from climbing it on the normal route to the south. The last picture is from the summit looking down at where we were staying.
The next day, we woke up early to climb Prisojnik (pronounced Pri-soyn-ik). This via ferrata was much longer and features a huge natural arch you climb through. The other nice part of these climbing routes are the signage (red and white dots) marking the route so it's easy to find your way through.
TUNNEL (with climber Kimmy)
We continued from Vrsic pass down the other side via an old former wagon road used during World War 1. We had a nice short day connecting over to Mojstrana (Moy-straw-na) and up the valley to the Aljažev Dom hut. In general, we would book huts or hotels a day or three in advance when we knew what our schedule could be. Never had an availability issue with it the whole time.
WW1 supply chain road to the Isonzo Front
There was a STEEP road up this valley
Aljazev Dom
View from our room
Today was our day to climb Mt Triglav. Slovenians say that you become a true Slovenian when you summit. I can get behind this type of nationalist gatekeeping.
Instead of normal route, we took the "hard" route, the Bambergova Pot (route), which is relatively exposed and has lots of unprotected, exposed hiking, just like the North Cascades! After some via ferrata up the ridge, we cross the Stone Desert, and begin the final via ferrata up the south ridge of Mt Triglav to the summit. Busy at the top but understandably with the history of Slovenia working hard to claim it from the Italians.
Starting the via ferrata
Exposed hiking
The North Face wall of Triglav
View from the summit of Mount Triglav, highest peak in Slovenia
View from summit to the south
The descent was pretty straightforward, descend the main via ferrata that everybody normally goes up, then take a trail down to the valley. In classic Mark fashion, I sandbagged us and took us down another fairly exposed and technical via ferrata to the bottom of the valley instead of the pleasant hiking trail. But it was beautiful and we felt great. Lots of 300-400 year old European Larch trees along the way.
Larch trees
The trip was starting to come to a finish. We had another two legs of biking between huts and then we were heading back to Ljubliana to Kimmy's family's home.
This last stretch had pleasant gravel roads through the national forest lands used for logging. We finished the day in the farmland area above Lake Bohinj (Bo-heen). It's a quaint countryside known for dairy and cheese.
The last picture is of a pasture with mounds that are natural remnants of glacial deposits from the ice age. The local people have preserved them throughout the region.
Hummocky meadows, the mounds are glacial deposits from the ice age
Final day of biking! We got some cheese at a store where the farmer, opened the room and it was filled with aging cheeses. Swam in Lake Bohinj. Made our way to Kimmy's family's home outside of Ljubliana and had a couple nice rest days! (see the food section).
