GRS shelter on Okrešlje burned to the ground

Taken from the GRS Celje website.
Like a bolt from the blue, just after eleven in the morning, the news struck: Your shelter on Okrešlje is burning. In such moments, you only then realize how powerless you are against things that unfold against your will, or against anyone's will. Firefighters with their equipment cannot get close (the shelter is at an altitude of just under 1400 meters and it is almost an hour's walk from the valley to it). The helicopter cannot take off due to fog. You are helplessly surrendered to the cruel force of nature. With sadness in your heart, you realize that you can only helplessly watch as fiery clouds devour a part of your life.



Somewhere at the beginning of the 20th century, a shepherd's hut was built in the shelter of a huge rock, which served as shelter for shepherds who grazed livestock on Okrešlje. After World War II, border guards found shelter in it, who vigilantly guarded the border with neighboring Austria. In the sixties, the army wanted to build a new guard post on Okrešlje. But since this was not agreeable to the then leadership of the Celje mountaineering club, they made a compromise and handed over the GRS shelter to the then JLA for the guard post with additional payment, while the Celje GRS station received the guard post in return, that is, the old shepherd's hut under the rock on the meadow on Okrešlje. With great enthusiasm, the rescuers at that time renovated it and made it suitable for living, and in the stable at the back part they arranged a winter room for the needs of hikers.



At the beginning of the nineties, the hut was thoroughly renovated, yet it retained its "soul". It was friendly, warm, although small, so many memories bind us to it that novels could be written about it. On winter evenings, of course with good conditions in the walls above Okrešlje, up to fifty of us crowded into it, and we had a great and unforgettable time. Many guys have beautiful memories of it from spent nights in female company. It often provided shelter to rescuers who were waiting for dawn so they could continue the rescue operation.

Now it is no more. We are firmly determined to build a new one. The soul will be breathed into it by people



Source: http://www.grs-celje.org/