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Welcome to our Julian Alps page, we give details of our 1987 Summer Holiday organised by Ramblers Holidays.
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OH Our holiday
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If you have any questions or suggestions to improve information given, please e-mail D and J.
The Julian Alps were our summer holiday destination in 1987, our first summer holiday together.
The Julian Alps are situated in Slovenia. On our visit it was part of Yugoslavia, now a country in its own right.
This holiday was organised by the UK based specialist holiday company Ramblers Holidays. Ramblers Holidays are very experienced in organising walking holidays in Europe, and other parts of the world. The holiday cost included the flights from the UK to Ljubljana airport and return, coach transfer to the hotel, half board accomodation and the services of a walk leader. Ramblers only provide one leader therefore it is important to consider the grading of the holiday, C graded holiday walks are probably equivalent to most walking clubs B+ walks.
Ramblers send out information on resorts, but but do not send out detailed notes about the walks. The leader will normally brief you at the start of the holiday about the walking in general, with a detailed brief on each walk the evening before. Our leader, Ken Dickinson, flew out with us and had not been to the area before. He was very enthusiastic, and ensured that we had two execellent weeks walking. The highlight of the holiday was the ascent of Triglav.
Our two free days were Thursday of the first week and Monday of the second week. There was a short walk around Lake Bohinj on the transfer day.
Our holiday to the Julian Alps was a 2 centre holiday. The transfer between the two centres was by a short coach journey.
Our first week was spent in the resort of Kransjka Gora, which lies in the Zgornjesavska valley with the Julian Alps to the south. To the north is a range of lower hills which form the border with Austria.
Kransjka is a pleasant alpine resort and was popular with UK toursits. The resort contained a number of shops and banks. Slovenia is not a member of the EU and the local currency is the Slovenian Tolar (SIT).
We stayed at the Pension Zenjramin. This was a simple, but clean and comfortable family run pension.
Our second week was spent by Lake Bohinj in the south of the Julian Alps. Lake Bohinj is in a lovely setting being surrounded by mountains. The famous lakeside resort of Bled could be reached by local bus.
We stayed at the Hotel Pod Voglom. When we were there this was a state run hotel with none too happy staff. Fortunately the weather for the second week was hot and sunny, so we spent little time in the hotel. The hotel is in a pleasant situation on the south side of Lake Bohinj, but it is two to three miles to the nearest village of Stara Fuzina.
As mentioned above our holiday was with Ramblers and, after a break due to the troubles in the former Yugoslavia, Ramblers have now reintroduced this holiday. To get to Slovenia on your own would require flying to Ljubljana Airport. Buses run from Ljubljana to Kranjska and Bohinj, this probably requires changing in Bled. Krajnska is connected by bus to the nearest railway station at Jesenice and Bohinj is connected by bus to the railway station at Bohinj Bistrica. Both stations have trains running to and from Ljubljana. You can also make use of the low cost airline Ryanair and fly to Klagenfurt in Austria. From Klangenfurt there are connections to Jesenice and Bohinj Bistrica. Train timetable information can be obtained from the German Railways website.
On this holiday use was made of both public transport and private transport for the walks. There are some local buses, especially in the Bohinj area, which enable you travel up the valley to Savica, and also in the other direction to Bled.
Use was made of the Vogel chair lift in the Bohinj area.
The Julian Alps lie within the Triglav National Park. They are the easternmost range of the Alps, and have a similar look to the Dolomites. The highest peak is Triglav (2863m) which is also the highest peak in Slovenia and the former Yugoslavia. It is a very good walking area, the terrain is rocky and steep in some places. A good head for heights is required if some of the major peaks of the area are to be attempted. There are only a few areas of permanent snow/ice in the range and the paths do not go across these. There are a reasonable number of mountain huts in the area, and most of the ones we visited were very pleasant.
The maps we used were obtained in Slovenia at the tourist office in Kranjska. There was a map at 1:50000 covering the whole of the Julian Alps and a map at 1:20000 covering Triglav and the surrounding area. The maps were of good quality, with the footpaths clearly marked in red.
The walks have been described in chronological order.
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W1 Vratica Col
W2 Podkoren W3 Bivak IV W4 Mojstrovka W5 Gozd-Martuljek |
W6 Spik
W7 Kamarca Wall and Komni Hut W8 Vogel W9 Triglav W10 Rodica |
| This was a tough walk for the first walk of the holidays. We started from Kranjska Gora (810m) taking the path west towards Ratece, and then south to walk up the Planica Valley. When we reached the Tamar Hut we climbed up to the Slatnica Col (1815m) and then the Vratica Col. There were some good views from here of the surrounding mountains. Especially impressive was the view of Prisojnnik. From the col we took the path that followed the road back to Kranjska. | |
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| Tamar Hut. | Prisojnnik. |
| We woke up to a impressive storm with thunder, lightening and heavy rain. This lasted through the morning as we sheltered in the hotel lounge. In the afternoon so we did a low level walk, from the hotel west up the main valley to the next village of Podkoren and then onto Srnjak (1008m). From Srnjak we followed a track back down to Kranjska and the hotel. | |
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| Podkoren. | View of Julian Alps from Srnjak. |
| A coach took us to the start of the walk at Aljazev Dom. Aljazev Dom (1015m) lies in the Vrata valley. There are some good views here of the north face of Triglav. From Aljazev we took the steep path up towards Bivak IV, which is a metal emergency shelter on a high plateau. We returned the same way. A short amble from Aljavez took us to the Pericnik Waterfall. | |
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| Memorial to the partizans, with the Triglav north wall behind. | Pericnik Waterfall. |
| Mojstrovka is a peak above the Vrsik pass that has three distinct summits. We took a coach to the start of the walk at the top of the Vrsic Pass (1611m). There was a good view of Mojstrovka from the pass. We climbed up a steep path to a col and onto the first of the summits - Mala Mojstrovka (2332m). From the summit we had good views across to the next summit of Velika Mojstrovka. We walked along the ridge to Velika (2366m), and then onto the highest of the three summits Zadna Mojstrovka (2369m) before dropping back down to the Vrsic pass. | |
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| Also looking towards Velika Mojstrovka. | View of Ticarjev and Postarske huts with peaks rising behind. |
| The weather was not so good today, so the walk was a low level walk to the village of Gozd-Martuljek to the east of Krajnska. | |
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| View of Gozd. | A closer view of Gozd. |
| Today was a day off for Ken, our leader. Lawson, Bob and Dennis decided to climb the peak of Spik, a tough walk taking them over 8 hours with about 5,500 ft of ascent and descent. Jackie opted out. From the hotel they walked up the Krnica valley to the Krnici hut, and then the Gruntovnica path to the summit of Spik. Unfortunately the cloud was hanging around, and so the views were poor. From the summit they descended down a steep path over scree and rock back down to the valley when it started to clear. | |
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| Skrlatika from the lunch stop. | Descent from Spik. |
| The previous day had seen us transfer from Kranjska to Bohinj in the morning
followed by a walk around Lake Bohinj in the afternoon - see extra photos below.
Today we took the bus to Slavica at the western end of the Valley, from where we took a path which zig-zagged up the impressive Kamarca Wall. At the top the path was taken to Crno Jezero (1294m) - the Black Lake, and then the Komni Hut (1525m). From the hut we walked back down to Savica and then onto Hotel Zlatorog and the road back to our hotel. |
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| Relaxing by Crno Jezero. | Komni Hut. |
| This was the first of two walks we did in the mountains to the South of Bohinj. We took the bus to the Vogel Cable Car station, taking cable car and then the first chair lift. From the top of the first chair lift (1650m) we walked up to the main ridge and onto the peak of Sija (1880m), and then followed the ridge to Vogel. From Vogel we descended and took the path that runs below the main ridge. This took us back to Komni Hut, and down the Kamarca wall, and back to the hotel. | |
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| The infamous chairlift - not a favourite activity for Dennis. | Vogel and the ridge from Sija. |
| Triglav was not on the main walking programme as it was above the grade of the
holiday, however Ken, our leader, was very keen that we had the chance to climb the highest mountain in
the Julian Alps.
There were seven of the group including Ken that wanted to do the walk, and with the blessing of the
other members we were allowed to have Ken leaving the others to lead their own walks.
The walk was to be done over two days, staying the night in the Triglavski hut. To get to the starting point we took a taxi up a small road to Rudno Polje to the east of Triglav. This gave us the advantage of a high start point as Rudno is at 1340m, although Triglav was still over 1500m of climbing from here. From Rudno we took a path leading west, before turning north to get good views of Triglav and the Vodnikov hut, where we had some very welcome refreshments. From the Vodnikov Hut we continued climbing to reach the modern and large Triglavski hut (2515m), The hut is in a superb position just 350m below the summit of Triglav. As the weather was so good and we had plenty of daylight we decided to climb to the summit. After booking our room (One room - Jackie & 6 men!) we set out on the climb up the east ridge. The route is a via Ferrata with many metal spikes and cables making it easier, although a good head for heights is very necessary. All seven of us made it up to the summit. We stayed up at the summit for quite a while taking photos and admiring the views. We then spent an enjoyable evening at the hut where we had a pleasant meal. Lights out was quite early about half past nine to ten - we were getting ready for bed as the generator was switched off - luckily although unexected, we had torches to hand. In the morning we woke to a cloud inversion and superb views of the tops above the clouds. After breakfast at the hut we started our descent down to Bohinj, stopping at the Planinski Hut for home made yogurt. We continued down to Bohinj and stopped at the statue to commemorate the first ascent of Triglav. We celebrated the success of our walk with wine and cakes at a cafe in Ribcev Laz, before returning to the hotel. |
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| Starting out. | Triglavski hut. |
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| Group photo on summit. | Summit of Triglav 9396 feet. |
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| Morning cloud inversion. | Statue of 1st group to ascend Triglav. |
| This was the second of the two walks we did in the mountains to the South of Bohinj. We took the bus to the Vogel Cable Car station and took the cable car to the Vogel Ski Hotel. From the Vogel Hotel (1540m) we took the path up to the main ridge and headed east taking in the views across to Triglav. We walked along the ridge to the summit of Rodica, which had something very similar to a UK trig. point. From the summit we took the path down the Bukovska valley to Ribcev Laz, and from there back to the hotel. | |
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| Summit of Rodica - almost a UK trig point. | Summit view. |
This page was last updated on 6th February 2010.