Belca - Mittagskogel/Kepa
Starting point: Belca (692 m)
Starting point Lat/Lon: 46.4759°N 13.90982°E
Time of walking: 4 h 15 min
Difficulty: difficult marked way
Difficulty of skiing: more demanding
Altitude difference: 1451 m
Altitude difference (by path): 1451 m
Map: Kranjska Gora 1:30.000
Access to starting point:
We leave Gorenjska highway at exit Hrušica and follow the road ahead in the direction of Kranjska Gora. When we get to the settlement Belca we park on a marked new parking lot at the sawmill.
Path description:
We park on a marked parking lot at the sawmill. We return few meters back to the beginning of the marked path, which we follow past the barrier. The path then goes directly into the riverbed (right - cart track towards the abandoned border building). In the middle of stones from the rockfall, on a bigger rock we notice a blaze. To here and then on the other side of a riverbed of the stream we are looking for the best passages. This part is short. We follow the path on sand, which is already quite well-beaten, we also get help from trail blaze on the tree, there where the path turns into the forest. The path is then in the forest steeply rising and we get to the road. On the left there is a tunnel, if we walk through we can see how the rockfall swept away the road. And we continue on the road to the right. Next follows a long walk on almost all the time flat road which is on some spots also buried or bumped, closer to the gate almost entirely swept away, but there aren't any problems with passages. After approximately one hour and 15 minutes we are at the former starting point at the gate. We follow the sign for Kepa (picture 2), the path descends into the riverbed of the stream, crosses it and it turns left uphill, big trail blaze and signpost. The path starts ascending steeper. Ahead we are ascending through the forest, which is occasionally interrupted by some shorter with bushes covered clearing. The marked path then twice crosses a forest road, when we step there the third time, we follow it to the right to a little larger parking lot at the border ridge.
From the parking lot, we in few steps ascend on the border ridge and we follow the path ahead towards the east. A relatively gently sloping path which runs on the border ridge quickly brings us to a smaller bivouac (2 mattresses), which is situated on the Slovenian side of the ridge.
From the bivouac, we still continue on a marked footpath which soon joins the path from Austria. The path then ascends a little steeper and further leads on a narrower ridge. The increasingly panoramic path then crosses some slightly exposed gullies and then turns right (entirely on the Slovenian side). The path ahead ascends diagonally over steep and well-secured slope, which is very exposed to falling stones. Higher, the path turns left and is then ascending on a steep upper slope of Kepa. Steep and full of gravel path higher again brings us on the border ridge, where there is the next crossing. We continue left (right Dovje) on the path which after few additional strides, brings us to the summit of Kepa.
Belca - gate 1:15, gate - bivouac 1:15, bivouac - Kepa 1:45.
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