Sele pri Cerkvi / Zell - Pfarre - Cjajnik / Lärchenturm

Access to starting point:
From highway Ljubljana - Jesenice we go to the exit Ljubelj (Tržič), and then we continue driving in the direction of Celovec / Klagenfurt. After Ljubelj tunnel the road starts descending, and we follow it to the crossroad, where slightly right and downwards road towards the settlement Borovlje / Ferlach branches off. The road which is still descending quickly brings us to the mentioned settlement, where we soon cross the railway track. Only a little after the track we join the other road which we follow to the right, and we are driving there in the direction of the settlement Sele / Zell - Pfarre. When we get to the mentioned settlement we park on a parking lot opposite of the church.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we return on the main road towards Borovlje, and then still before the end of the village, we notice signs for mountain hut Koča pod Košuto, which point us to the left on the road which leads to the yard of the nearby houses. Behind the houses, the path passes on a cart track, and it ascends diagonally through a meadow, from which a nice view opens up on Setiče / Freiberg. After few minutes of the ascent, we get to a hamlet with few houses, where we step on at first still asphalt road which leads towards the mountain hut Koča pod Košuto.. For a short time, we walk on an asphalt road, from which a nice view opens up to mountain walls of Košuta, and then the road passes into the forest and loses an asphalt covering. On the macadam road which higher leads past a smaller waterfall, we walk to a marked crossing, where from the right side joins the marked path from the homestead Ridovc / Ridovcsäge.
On the mentioned spot, we leave the road and we continue left into a steep hill, on which a steep footpath leads through the forest. Higher, we return on the road, and there we come out of the forest in Mrzli log.
From here we can continue right on a marked path which continues on the bottom of a small valley, or on a parallel macadam road. Wherever we continue we will after approximately 15 minutes of additional walking come to the mountain hut Koča pod Košuto and few steps ahead to a parking lot.
From the parking lot, we go 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 picture of Košuta and drawn paths on Cjajnik and Košutnikov turn. After that, the path for some time runs through the forest towards the east and it brings us to a crossing where we go right following the signs Cjajnik. We soon come out of the forest to scree which we then in ascent cross towards the west (in the direction towards Cjajnik). At the crossing of the scree we follow red white blazes, big yellow blazes on rocks should not confuse us, because they lead on the scree upwards towards the gully, which leads towards the notch Cjajnikova škrbina.
At the entrance into a climbing part of the path, we must equip ourselves with a helmet and self-belay set, highly recommended is also the use of climbing gloves. The path already at the beginning steeply ascends and then crosses a steep wall to the right. The path is all the time well-secured with a steel cable, occasionally we also get help from some stemples, but much less than someone might expect. There aren't many footholds and a lot of work at the ascent, we have to do with hands. After that, the path for quite some time runs slightly to the right and quite few times almost vertically ascends. Later, the path turns to the left and it ascends on a little easier slightly vegetated slope. For a short time also the peak of Cjajnik shows up, and then we again enter the wall. We again very steeply ascend and also the exposure is becoming greater. Steepness further rarely decreases and then the path turns slightly to the right and it brings us to a crossing below the upper tower. We can choose between two paths, which lead to the summit, and no matter which we will choose follows a very demanding climbing. The left path is marked with difficulty level D, and right with difficulty level C.
Austrians grade difficulty of climbing paths with grades from A to E in doing so A is the easiest and E the most difficult.
Right the easier path at first bypasses the peak on the right side, and then to the summit ascends from the western side. And left path from the crossing ascends vertically towards the summit. Climbing here is very demanding because in the rock there aren't many holds. We get help from only few stemples and vertical steel cable.
The path on Cjajnik is extremely demanding and it is appropriate only for most skilled mountaineers with enough strength in arms and with mandatory self belaying. The path belongs among most difficult in Karawanks and it is harder than most of Italian extremely demanding paths in Julian Alps.
We can descend on the ascent route (in the upper part on the path C difficulty level). The second option is that we descend towards the south to the notch Cjajnikova škrbina from where we continue to the main ridge of Košuta and we descend on the Slovenian side or on climbing path on Košutnikov turn to the starting point. The path from the notch Cjajnikova škrbina through the eastern gully is closed because of falling stones.

On the way: Mrzli log (1185m), Koschutahaus (1280m)

Trip can be extended to: Koschutnikturm (Košutnikov turn) (1 h 30 min)