Jalovec

It was another of my home alone weekends and obviously I went hiking. Fortunately for me, Marko’s flight for a business trip was so early on Saturday morning that I was able to drop him off at the airport and park my car at my starting point and be ready to start hiking at 6:10 in the morning when it was just barely starting to dawn. So I had the whole day ahead of me and that is why I picked Jalovec, the 4th highest mountain in Slovenia at 2645m. Getting to the summit and back is just feasible in one day.

It was such a beautiful day and as I climbed higher up the rock wall I realized that it has been a long, long time since I last went somewhere that high. I also realized that I have to upgrade my equipment as nowadays it is almost mandatory to wear a helmet to protect the head from possible falling rocks. Years ago we never bothered with such stuff but this time I was almost the only person without a helmet. I saw only two other people without helmets and another two people with bicycle helmets which I am not sure is the best protection against falling rocks.

Some people also wore alpine harnesses which could be used to attach themselves to the fixed steel cables that run up the mountain. But they were not very useful on Jalovec because most of the route has only steel stakes but no cables so there is nothing to which one could attach the harness. There is only the steep cliff and those stakes to offer some safety. Climbing up there is definitely much scarier than a roller coaster ride. I don't have any photographs from those parts of the climb, I needed all my hands and feet on the wall.

It took me just over 10 hours to get back to my car, tired but exhilarated. This is the way to the summit: