Snežnik
Perfect for beginners who want to try higher altitude hiking in winter conditions.
Crampons and microspikes for increased traction are provided by the guide.
Winter without snow is a strange sight. Spring knocking at our door, and there is this weird feeling of exiting the winter without feeling it. Winter without low temperatures, snow, and no frost. Ski resorts look freakish. Only the ski paths are covered in fake snow, the mountains around snowless, barren.
Nowadays, global warming is in everyone’s mind and has become part of the mainstream vocabulary.
Still, people don’t like to discuss it much because everyone thinks no one can do anything about it. It’s too titanic for any individual to have any impact at all. All you can do is adjust, accept the facts and take care of your life.
I’m not too fond of the prospect of a world without snow. This winter, I hiked the mountains that, in previous years, used to be covered in snow as far as the eye could see. The snowy mountains are an integral part of the picture of the world I know and love, and I miss the snow when it’s gone in the heart of winter.
White peaks and snowy valleys, frosted pines and whitewashed roofs of mountain lodges. This year, all that was missing – but the trips were still wonderful and fun.
We enjoyed the winter as much as the weather allowed, and we found enough days when the snow fell and stayed just long enough to get compact and perfect to walk on.
There is no better hiking than the one on hard, compact snow through which the shoe digs in only a few centimetres, so you have good cushioning and a feeling of lightness.
Everything is clean and unexplored. It seems like the world has been reset with all that whiteness. You see the tracks of animals, big and small, and you are happy because the forest is alive, you see life.
I love winter, and winter trips, and to anyone who does not have much experience with it I would suggest a trip to Snežnik, a Slovenian peak that can be conquered by every amateur and beginner, and which offers beautiful views and a hot tea at the top in the mountain lodge.
Mountaineers bring food, firewood, drinks and all other necessities to this lodge. At the foot of the mountain, the owner and maintainer of the lodge on Snežnik leaves the door of his off-road vehicle open so that mountaineers could take things out, put them in their backpack and deliver them to the lodge.
This is the old way in which stuff used to be delivered to many mountain lodges in Slovenia, but today the lodge on Snežnik is the last lodge that is still supplied in this traditional way – in our backpacks, on our feet.
The trip for slow walkers who want to enjoy nature takes around 4:30 hrs – 3 hours uphill and an hour and a half downhill. With rest and refreshment at the top lodge and with the inevitable strudel and tea at the lower lodge in Sviscaki (our starting point), plus a drive from Opatija / Rijeka and back, this makes it a beautiful full-day trip.
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P.S. Snežnik (English: Snowdon. Not to be confused with Snježnik, the nearby Croatian mountain of the same name that belongs to the same group of mountains just a bit further to the southeast) lies in the border area between Croatia and Slovenia. This part of Slovenia gravitates to Croatia and the population of the Bistrica region often identify themselves as “riječani”, people who belong to the northeastern coast of the Istrian peninsula.
During Yugoslavia, when there was no border between Slovenia and Croatia, the people of Bistrica performed all their administrative work in Rijeka. The coexistence of Slovenes and Croats in border areas was unified. Our close neighbours still come down to enjoy sea & sun activities on the Opatija Riviera. Geographically and culturally we are close and connected. Croatian Mountaineering Association “Opatija” cooperates with the Slovenian Mountain Guide Station and sometimes we organize joint exercises. At one of these exercises, I met Snežnik and fell in love with its landscape and scenery.
Don’t be intimidated by the equipment of these mountaineers. These are photos from the winter exercises of our Mountaineering Association in cooperation with the Slovenian Mountain Rescue Service. We have chosen steep terrains and slopes that beginners will not go to. For our guided walks, we will choose regular trails on the south side.
At the photo above, you can see Julian Alps in the distance, the famous Slovenian-Italian Alps. In the foreground is Snežniško hribovje viewed from Snežnik. This is where the Dinaric range ends. Of course, if you head down from north to south, this is also where Via Dinarica trail starts.
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