Kamniška Bistrica hosted lovers of mountains and hills

After two years when socializing was greatly limited due to the coronavirus epidemic, it was joyful again this Saturday, June 11, at the largest mountaineering festival. Kamniška Bistrica was full of cheerful adults, young people and the youngest hikers, mountain bikers, climbers and other nature and mountain lovers from all over Slovenia. A thousand happy hikers traditionally entered the summer mountaineering season.


Slovenia is a land of a thousand hiking trails and hiking is one of the most popular leisure activities of Slovenians. Mountains have a special place in Slovenian hearts, as does the trail marker, which is celebrating its centenary this year and has become the most recognizable symbol of the Alpine Association of Slovenia. The trail marker was the central element at this year's Slovenian Hikers' Day, which brought a thousand hikers to Kamniška Bistrica at the traditional start of the summer mountaineering season. The Alpine Association of Slovenia (PZS) has been celebrating Slovenian Hikers' Day for almost 40 years, and this year's program was enriched with all-day activities for visitors of all generations, organized jointly by PZS and PD Kamnik with the support of the Municipality of Kamnik.

The Kamnik Mountaineering Association has a long tradition of operation and is one of the oldest in Slovenia. On Saturday, hikers had six guided excursions and two guided routes for mountain bikers available. Participants came from all over Slovenia.

In the area around the Pri Jurju picnic site, diverse experiences thrilled young and old alike. It was lively at the climbing wall, as well as at the creative workshops, where participants learned about the work of trail maintainers who voluntarily care for a network of more than ten thousand kilometers of hiking trails in Slovenia. The young were particularly curious to watch the rescue exercise prepared by the Kamnik Mountain Rescue Service.

Hikers also stopped with interest at the stalls where the Alpine Association of Slovenia, PD Kamnik, Kamnik Caving Club, and the Špica sports store offered e-bike testing presented themselves. Trail maintainers from PD Kamnik, the Mountaineering for the Disabled/OPP PZS committee, and the PZS Commission for Mountain Nature Conservation showcased their work at their stalls.

The mountaineering anthem Oj, Triglav, moj dom sounded as an introduction to the main event. The all-Slovenian mountaineering holiday was honored with a solemn procession by flag bearers of mountaineering associations. Welcome was wished to the crowd of hikers from near and far by the President of the Alpine Association of Slovenia Jože Rovan, proud that after two years of socializing restrictions, so many hikers gathered at the Slovenian mountaineering festival, united by their love of nature and mountains. He also highlighted that the maintenance of hiking trails and huts relies mainly on the shoulders of dedicated association workers and modest funds of mountaineering associations, but changes have been made at the national level in recent years. The crowd of cheerful hikers was also greeted in their local environment by PD Kamnik President Marko Petek and Kamnik Mayor Matej Slapar.

Slovenian Hikers' Day also traditionally marks the start of the main mountaineering season. Until mid-September, it attracts the most visitors to the mountains, also thanks to the hospitable mountaineering huts, most of which are already open, while the remaining high-mountain ones will open by the beginning of July. The pulse of the summer months will be shaped by the selection for the best mountaineering hut 2022 on the Siol.net web portal.

Safe and sound travels on the hiking trails were wished to the gathered hikers by the president of the alpine association Jože Rovan.