Comrades in the mountains

“We walked for more than 12 hours with stops, and reached more than 2,200 metres. But one thing is for sure: we will do it again next year.”

In July, when the first heatwave of the year hit, we took a trip to cooler high places in our country. For the third year in a row, we gathered with the goal of retreating to mountains and this time we chose the Kamnik-Savinja Alps.

From Kamniška Bistrica we climbed to the hut on Kamniško sedlo. Here we had fish salads and other delicacies, took a little rest, weathered a short mountain storm and then set off for the first two-thousand-metre peak – the 2,253m-high Brana. At the top, we enjoyed the magnificent view of Planjava, Turska gora, Rinka and Skuta, but not for long, as the gusty wind soon urged us to descend. We took careful steps through brittle rock world, populated with animals and mountain flowers, and just before nightfall returned to the hut and spent the night there. Despite being slightly tired, we decided to go a little higher the next day. We put on our helmets and climbed over grassy slopes, but mostly over wide scree slopes, rocky areas and high cliffs, to the 2,392m peak of the mighty Planjava. Occasionally we had to do a little climbing, with the help of ropes and rungs along the path, which was even precipitous in places. Climbing a mountain like this is always a special experience and all our efforts were rewarded at the top. In clear weather we enjoyed the beautiful views all the way to the sea. On the way back to the hut, after a short stop, we overcame the final descent into the valley. Our legs were getting tired, the minutes stretched on, the metres seemed endless and our backpacks felt heavier and heavier, but we arrived safely to the parking lot, pleasantly tired and full of new impressions.

Marko Čelhar, Bojan Fabjančič, Patrik Čekada, Anita Vekar, Jerica Fabjančič, Boris Čuk, Marjana Silice Čelhar, Valter Brezovnik (Brana).

We are proud of it