The Julian Alps of Slovenia - A Walker's and Trekker's Guide

Over 60 walks which bring the best of Slovenia’s Julian Alps to the English-speaking walker. The walks are organized around five bases – Kranjska Gora, Bovec, Kobarid, Bled and Bohinj. The routes range from easy valley walks and rougher forest trails to high-mountain protected routes and multi-day treks.

‘[The Julian Alps] have become for me, after forty years’ devotion to ­mountain scenery, the most desirable of all mountains... Triglav reigns over a dreamworld, sundered from time, full of unbelievable hidden nooks, of ­unsuspected passages, of sudden visions of cliffs which cannot be real. Surely there is no other mountain land like this…’

Thus wrote Tom Longstaff, former president of the Alpine Club, of this mountain range at the south-eastern end of the Alpine chain that stretches across Europe. The Julian Alps are not as high as their western relations – the highest peak, Triglav, is 2864m – but they are no less imposing for that. The limestone scenery here is outstanding – steep rock faces plunge into forests and flower meadows, while waterfalls and rivers cascade from the cliffs only to mysteriously disappear into the bedrock and re-emerge elsewhere. Beautiful open pastures nestle beneath crags and are scattered through the forests that abound as far as the eye can see. The flowers, painted an amazing rainbow of colours, change with height and situation but always retain the same great variety of hue. The mountain walker can return here again and again, but always find a new delight in the changing landscape and seasons.

The main bulk of the Julian massif lies within the borders of Slovenia, in the north-west corner of the country, with a small part of the range extending into Italy. (The name was known in Roman times, and is thought to be linked to the imperial Roman family of Julian.) Slovenia has been called ‘Europe in miniature’ because this tiny country, only about the size of Wales, really does have a bit of everything – coast, caves, plains, rivers – including some truly magnificent mountain scenery, which is the focus of this book. Although only 11 per cent of the land area is covered by high mountains, Slovenia still proudly considers itself an Alpine country. The first people to climb Triglav, in 1778, were three local men and one German, who are honoured in a monument by Lake Bohinj. It is considered essential for any true Slovene to climb the mountain at least once in their life, and on any high-level trip you will pass many Slovenes out to do just that.

The Triglav National Park, which contains most of the Julian Alps range, is Slovenia’s only national park. Development is kept to an absolute minimum – this is an area where the walker, not the motorist, reigns supreme. The footpaths and protected routes on the mountains are well maintained and signed, and the many mountain huts or doms are strategically placed for refreshment and overnight accommodation, thus making it possible to wander for days or even weeks without descending to the valley at all. In the mountains one can see an abundance of wildlife – chamois, ibex, marmots, choughs and even eagles live up high, and are seemingly comfortable with the walkers who share their landscape, allowing for excellent animal and bird watching, and numerous photographic opportunities.

In Slovenia, and especially in the rural areas around the Julian Alps, aspects of the traditional way of life still endure. Many people live on the land in farms and smallholdings, and whole families can be seen working together out in the fields. Hay meadows are a mass of flowers before they are cut, and the work often done with a scythe. Shepherds take cows, sheep and goats up to the high pastures in summer, an undertaking which usually involves a celebration for both leave-taking and home-coming.

The mountains provide more than enough room for all walkers – even in the summer season of July, August and September – to find a place to be alone in the hills. The area offers a surprise in the form of a new vista around every corner, and the limestone scenery is as unspoilt as it was when the glaciers first receded. This is a country to enjoy and return to over and over again.

Slovenia: History, People and Culture

Situated geographically in the centre of Europe, and assailed through the ages from north, south, east and west, Slovenia has managed to hold itself together as a nation with its own unique landscape, culture and language. At different times the land has belonged to countries including Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia, but since Slovenia’s independence in 1991 the nation’s individuality has been allowed to flourish.

One thing Slovenia is not, is Balkan. Although it is often lumped together with the Balkan states and, by extrapolation, with the Balkan wars, Slovenia has always had much more in common with western Europe than with the east, and has always been a very safe place to live and visit. There are no landmines here; the worst you will contend with are the natural limestone features of sinkholes and loose rock as you explore the wonderful scenery.

The territory that is present-day Slovenia has been inhabited for millennia; archaeological finds suggest that people lived here long before the Romans. The present-day capital, Ljubljana, was founded on the site of the Roman town of Emona, and Roman artefacts are also evident in the towns of Ptuj and Celje in the east. It is thought that the first Slavs arrived here in the sixth century, with the first Slavic state, the Duchy of Carantania, being established during the seventh century and lasting until 745. After this, until the First World War, Slovene territory was part of various dominions including the Habsburg and the Austro-Hungarian empires. During the 19th century, Slovenes became increasingly aware of their identity as a people and of their culture; the first great poet to write in Slovene, France Pre eren, exerted huge influence by establishing Slovene as a literary language.

After the First World War Slovene land was divided between Austria, Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. At the end of the Second World War Slovenia became a republic within Yugoslavia, but by the end of the 1980s the country was calling for independence. This was declared on June 25th 1991, prompting the Ten-Day War, but after this Slovenia was recognised as an independent republic and took no part in the subsequent hostilities of former Yugoslavian states. Its accession to the European Union in May 2004 has cemented its position in central Europe.

The earliest surviving example of written Slovene dates back to 1550, and the Slovenes have maintained their unique language in the face of invasions from all sides. Although for long periods of their history the official language has not been Slovene, the language is in no danger of extinction and keeps its unique dual form intact (see Appendix 3). It is spoken by around two million people and is now one of the official languages of the European Union.

Slovenes have a close affinity with their land, and this is very much in evidence on even a short visit. In addition to the more obvious agricultural connections, it is rare to see an unkempt garden, with almost all having a vegetable plot, and even city tower blocks will usually have a neat row of allotments by the side. This link to the land is also shown in Slovenes’ unwillingness to move; while many are great travellers, few care to emigrate and often are not keen on moving to the next village! The culture is based on close family ties, with different generations usually living near to each other for most of their lives.

With such a varied landscape, the tradition of outdoor sports, and particularly mountaineering, is very strong throughout Slovenia. The nation has produced generation after generation of top athletes, particularly in mountain sports. Davo Karni ar was the first person to ski down Everest, and Slovene skiers regularly do well in the World Cup championships and in the Olympics. The Slovene mountaineer Toma  Humar is well known in the climbing world for his bold Alpine-style ascents of new and established routes in the Himalayas.

The first mountain association in Slovenia was set up in 1893, and in the following year the first mountain lodge, Oroznova ko a on  rna prst, was built. The Mountain Rescue Service (Gorska resevalna sluzba, GRS) was founded in 1911. Today the Alpine Club of Slovenia (Planinska zveza Slovenije) has over 80,000 members, and the landscape is criss-crossed with over 7000km of marked and maintained trails. These include via-ferrata-type routes in the high Alpine areas, where many strategically placed huts offer overnight accommodation and refreshments.

Geology and Landscape

At the heart of the Julian Alps stands Triglav – at 2864m it is over 100m higher than its nearest rival,  krlatica (not counting Mali Triglav, which is part of the massif of Triglav itself). The area around Triglav is an upland of peaks and ridges, bounded to the north by the upper Sava valley and to the south by Bohinj. Komna and the lower Bohinj mountains form the southern boundary of the national park, and to the north-west, close to the Italian border, lie the Kanin ridge and the peaks of Mangart and Jalovec.

The Julian Alps are mostly composed of limestone, primarily from the Triassic geological period. The main characteristic of this rock, which has a dramatic effect on the topography of the range, is its porous nature, which allows water to sink directly into the rock. This means that, compared to other European Alpine ranges, there is little surface water in the form of streams or lakes. Many river beds in the national park are dry for most of the year. Those streams and lakes that exist on the surface are linked below ground level by complex systems of caves and channels, many of which are still not fully explored. Several cave systems are known to be well over 1000m deep.

As throughout the Alps, glaciation has played a major part in forming the landscape. There are many textbook examples of features such as U-shaped valleys, glacial moraines and erratic boulders. Fast-flowing rivers like the So a, with their great erosive power, have carved steep-sided valleys in the surrounding mountains.

The Julian range contains areas of high mountain karst, typified by the Kaninski podi in the Kanin range. The term ‘karst’, derived from the Slovene word kras, is used all over the world to describe the characteristic landscape of areas in which the rock is readily dissolved by water. Karst features include deep steep-sided gorges and dry valleys, sinkholes, springs, water-dissolved caves and tunnels underground, and water-eroded surface rocks that result in the formation of limestone pavements. High mountain karst is formed from limestone plateaux situated above the treeline, with little vegetation cover, in areas of high precipitation. Here, snow and water remain at the surface for more than half the year, so water erosion is greatly increased and results in diverse rock formations that are of great interest to geologists and cavers. (More information on the geology and relief of the Julian Alps can be found in Nature of Slovenia: the Alps and The Triglav National Park  – see Bibliography).