Koča pod Košuto - Cjajnik / Lärchenturm

Access to starting point:
Via the border crossing Ljubelj we drive to Borovlje / Ferlach, where we turn right in the direction of the village Sele / Zell-Pharre. A little before the sign which marks the settlement Sele / Zell-Pharre, the road branches off to the right towards the mountain hut Koča pod Košuto / Koschutahaus. We follow this road all the way to the mountain hut, where we park on a large parking lot.

Route description:
From the parking lot, we head towards the southeast following the signs Lärchenturm / Cjajnik, Koschutnikturm / Košutnikov turn. At the beginning of the path, we will also notice a large board with a picture of Košuta and precisely drawn paths to Cjajnik and Košutnikov turn. The path then for some time runs through the forest towards the east and brings us to a fork where we turn right following the signs Cjajnik. We soon come out of the forest to a scree field which we then cross in ascent towards the west (in the direction towards Cjajnik). When crossing the scree, we follow the red-white blazes; the big yellow blazes on the rocks should not confuse us, as they lead upwards across the scree towards the gully which leads towards the Cjajnikova škrbina notch.
At the entrance into the climbing part of the path, we must equip ourselves with a helmet and self-belay set; the use of climbing gloves is also highly recommended. The path already at the beginning steeply ascends and then crosses a steep wall to the right. The path is throughout well secured with a steel cable; occasionally some pegs also assist us, but far fewer than one might expect. There are not many footholds and much of the work during the ascent must be done with the hands. The path then for quite some time runs slightly to the right and ascends almost vertically several times. Later, the path turns to the left and ascends a somewhat easier slightly vegetated slope. For a short time the summit of Cjajnik also appears to us, then we re-enter the wall. We ascend very steeply again and the exposure also becomes greater. The steepness rarely eases in the continuation, then the path turns slightly to the right and brings us to a fork below the summit tower. We have two paths to choose from that lead to the summit; no matter which one we choose, very demanding climbing awaits us. The left path is marked with difficulty level D, the right one with difficulty level C.
Austrians assess the difficulty of climbing paths with grades from A to E, where A is the easiest and E the most difficult.
The right easier path first bypasses the summit on the right side, then ascends to the summit from the west side. The left path ascends vertically from the fork towards the summit. The climbing here is really very demanding since there are not many holds in the rock. We are assisted only by a few pegs and the vertical steel cable.
The path to Cjajnik is exceptionally demanding and suitable only for the most experienced mountaineers with sufficient arm strength and mandatory self-belaying. The path is among the most difficult in the Karawanks and harder than most Italian extremely demanding paths in the Julian Alps.
We can descend via the ascent path (in the upper part via the C difficulty level path). Another option is to descend southwards to the Cjajnikova škrbina from where we continue to the main ridge of Košuta and descend to the Slovenian side or via the climbing path to Košutnikov turn back to the starting point. The path from the Cjajnikova škrbina through the eastern gully is closed due to falling rocks.

The trip can be extended to the following destinations: Koschutnikturm (Košutnikov turn) (1 h 30 min)

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