We set off from Luknjo Biv in the valley at 8:30 am, fairly late considering that we were planning to go up Triglav. I couldn’t decide which way to go but at the last minute decided we should walk further down the valley and ascend through the cliffs to the North-East of Triglav towards Triglavski Dom. This is a hut about 300 m below Triglav to the East.
The ascent was quite nice. It was a beautiful day with loads of blue sky and since the sun hadn’t reached the cliffs it was relatively cool climbing in the shade. The route up to the hut is easy with just a few sections of metal rope. Although, easy is a subjective term as Leonie would agree.
Above: We headed off from the Biv in the morning with the intention of following the route up through the cliffs to Triglav. There were a few scrambly bits along the way to the Triglav Hut but it was all pretty happy.
After reaching the tops of the cliffs we had a flatter section but this was quite snowy. The snow was soft though so we plodded up without a problem. We bought some very expensive drinks from the hut and pondered what to do. The cloud had come in and there was very little to be seen. We decided give it a go anyway.
We headed up the route that is secured with metal ropes. Leonie was finding the height hard to deal with so we moved very slowly.
Above left: There were a few scrambly bits along the way to the Triglav Hut but it was all pretty happy. Above right: The weather came in at Triglavski Dom and Triglav disapeared completely. We set off anyway hoping that the cloud would clear.
Above: The ascent to Triglav from Triglavski Dom is secured with steel ropes. We used our via feratta gear to clip into the rope but some people just headed up without any protection. The ascent isn’t particurarly difficult. Of course that’s a bit subjective.
Looking at the map, if we were to continue on the route we had planned we’d need to get to the summit as the descent was from the summit to the South and we were approaching from the East. We continued on and as we did the clouds began to disperse and we sat on the summit in sunshine.
Above left: As we walked along the ridge the clouds began to depart a little and we could see the summit in the distance. Above middle: We reached the summit a bit behind schedule but we made it. There was a little bit of snow at the top which was a contrast to my last ascent in 2009. Above right: Time to sit down at the summit.
Above: The clouds had cleared by the time we made it to the summit of Triglav. There was a bit of snow left on the top.
We had to rethink our plans at the top as it was already 4 pm and we had a long way to go if we were to make it back to the bivuoac before dark. A Slovenian guy recommended that we didn’t try the direct route down to Koča na Doliču (the next hut on our way) due to snow. Instead we opted to head back down the ridge and stay the night in a different hut (Dom Planika).
Above: The view was fantastic from Planika Hut in the evening. We spent the night there after running out of time to get back to our biv below the Luknja pass.
