Podnar / Bodenbauer - Bielschitza/Svačica (on scree)

Access to starting point:
We drive to the border crossing Ljubelj and further on the Austrian side. Soon after noticing a smaller church on the left side of the road, a road branches off to the left towards the village Poden / Bodental. At the crossroads after the village Slovenji Plajberk / Windisch Bleiberg, we turn left towards Poden / Bodental. In Poden / Bodental, we reach the mountain signposts for Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte, one to the left and one to the right. We head left and drive along the road to the end of the asphalt, where we park at the parking lot near the pasture fences.

Route description:
From Podnar, near which we park on the widened road, we head onto the gravel and closed-to-public-traffic forest road in the direction of Mlaka / Märchenwiese and Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte. The road, which starts gently ascending, soon brings us to the first junction, where the path towards the farm Vgriz / Ogrisbauer branches off to the right, and we continue straight in the direction of Celovška koča. The road goes a little further into the forest and splits into two parts. We choose the left marked road, which after approximately 30 minutes of walking from the starting point brings us to Mlaka (flat, ample and panoramic meadow).
Here the road turns slightly to the right, and we continue straight on the parallel but somewhat less visible marked path, which continues across the meadow. On the other side of the meadow, the path returns to the forest and gradually starts to ascend moderately. After a short ascent we arrive at a smaller junction, where the ski-touring path branches off to the left, and we continue straight along a smaller torrent gully. Some 10 steps higher the marked path turns to the right, and we continue along the torrent, where we follow a fainter track, which a little further on turns to the left and ascends through a belt of dwarf pines to the extensive screes below Vrtača. Here the track disappears, and we continue along the lower part of the screes, where here and there we notice a cairn. Further on we ascend for some time along the lower part of the scree below Vrtača, then a nice passage opens on our right to the slopes below Svačica. After a short traverse ascent to the right, we will come to a fainter but well-visible track, which then ascends between the scree and the belt of dwarf pines. We continue the ascent along the mentioned track, from which increasingly beautiful views open up onto the surrounding peaks. Higher up the track starts to fade on the screes below Svačica, but if we pay attention we can find a barely visible track on the right side, which starts to ascend diagonally to the right. Further on we ascend across steeper, partly already grass-overgrown scree, which ends or begins below the cliffs of Svačica. When we reach the lower edge of the cliffs we join the unmarked path that leads from the pass Vrata / Matschatcher Sattel towards the saddle Belščica (path that bypasses Svačica on the left eastern side). We follow the mentioned path to the left and ascend along it across occasionally quite steep slopes. Higher up the path levels out and transitions from scree to less steep grassy slopes, across which we ascend to the border with Slovenia.
Here we continue to the right (straight to saddle Belščica 3 minutes) and start to ascend along a steep path that continues through a belt of dwarf pines. Higher the track turns a few metres to the left and joins the marked path from the saddle Belščica. When we reach the mentioned marked path we step onto the ridge, which a few metres higher narrows. A short gentle ascent follows along the locally exposed ridge, and the path brings us to the panoramic and precipitous summit.

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