Križovec - Barentaler Kotschna/Struška (by road)

Access to starting point:
From the Ljubljana - Jesenice motorway we take the Lipce exit and continue on the road towards Jesenice. When we reach the traffic-light intersection where we join the old road, we continue right towards Žirovnica. We follow this road only briefly since at the next somewhat larger intersection (traffic light), we continue left towards Javorniški Rovt. The road then passes through an underpass (railway) and turns left (right Koroška Bela). We follow the road that begins to climb steeply higher up in the direction of Javorniški Rovt. The road leads us past the Pristava house (the house is slightly above the road) and after the house we reach the next (smaller) intersection where we turn right. We then continue on the gravel road all the way to Križovec, which we recognise by the junction of several roads (there are a few small parking areas at the junction and a cross).

Route description:
From Križovec we continue past the cross along the road towards Pusti Rovt. At the beginning the road leads us past a barrier and then climbs gently through the forest. After about 15 minutes of walking it turns left and brings us out of the forest to the lower edge of Pusti Rovt. We continue on the road to which a marked path from Dom Pristava on Javorniški Rovt joins from the right and after a few dozen steps of further walking this brings us to the shepherd's hut on Pusti Rovt.
From the shepherd's hut we continue on the road which in the upper part of Pusti Rovt turns right into the forest. A little further on we reach a marked junction where we continue slightly right (left Golica) on a moderately steep path.
Just a few steps further we reach a newer forest road and follow it to the right (straight ahead the old marked path continues to Sedlo Kočna).
The road then passes onto the slopes of Struška across which we ascend transversely to the right. The path first leads us through forest and higher across a scenic avalanche slope. The gradient eases higher up and we climb through the last belt of dense forest to Belska planina or Svečica where a mountain shepherd's hut stands and from where a wonderful view opens.
From the alpine pasture we continue eastwards. From the marked path which turns slightly more to the right we soon go a little left onto an otherwise traceable but not heavily trodden unmarked trail leading towards the highest summit of Struška (if we continued on the marked path we would reach Planina Seča).
The turn-off from the marked path is located in a small grassy gully from where we begin to ascend on an unmarked path that leads us through dwarf pine. Further on we also ascend on a sometimes harder-to-follow pathlet that for some time runs along a kind of gully or small valley. At the top of this small valley the path turns right into the open world of the upper slopes of Struška which are partly overgrown with dwarf pine so we carefully follow the poorly visible trail so as not to stray into difficult terrain. A little below the highest summit of Struška the path brings us onto a ridge along which we then continue to the summit from where a fine view opens towards Slovenia and Austria.
Part of the route from Belska planina to the summit is orientationally somewhat more difficult and in fog even more caution is needed so as not to stray.

Križovec - Pusti Rovt 0:15, Pusti Rovt - turn-off for Struška 0:10, turn-off for Struška - Belska planina 0:55, Belska planina - Struška 0:45.

Along the route: Pusti Rovt (1296m), Belska planina (Svečica) (1349m), Odcep za Struško (1373m), Belska planina (Svečica) (1700m)

We recommend: trips from the same starting point, similar trips, panorama, summit register