THE JULIENNES ALPS, SLOVENIA

TRIGLAV

TRAVERSE: ASCENT BY THE TOMINSKOVA POT AND DESCENT BY THE PLEMINICE ARETE

The hardest part is looking up. At the startthe eighteen-hundred metres of Triglav’s north face dominate the sky, the birds and all Slovenia.
Among the ways leading to the Triglavski refuge, Tominškova Pot is not the easiest: steep and exposed ground turns into a via ferrata with occasional, clapped-out cables.
Black pines give way to bleakest stone. At dawn the last steps on the knife edge Triglav arete: the view stretches out from the Dolomites to the Gulf of Trieste. Now it’s time to descend by the Plemenice arete: get away from the rock bands, slip on the neve, climb down a chimney on crumbling rock. A descent into the void, on the edge of the north face. No trace however of the Zlatorog, the legendary chamois with the Golden Horns … perhaps because Triglav, the least known peak in the Alps, is the largest of its kingdoms…

KEY INFORMATION