With a mountain guide across the border and belles-lettres to...

With a mountain guide across the border and belles-lettres to solitary paths.

The Mountain Publishing House of the Alpine Association of Slovenia presented its rich book harvest on the first summer day, the day when light has the greatest power, so that ideas for visiting mountains and good mountain reading will hardly run out. Mountain lovers will venture into the neighborhood with the new guide Carnic Alps and explore wonderful mountain areas a step across the border, while those who stay home can read the fictional works Whisper of Solitary Paths and Memories of an Old Alpinist.

»The Mountain Publishing House publishes guides, including hiking, mountaineering, and alpinistic ones, professional literature, belles-lettres, and youth literature. In February, the ski touring guide Over the Planks on Touring Skis by author Tomaž Hrovat was released, in March we published two belles-lettres works, Jana Remic's Whisper of Solitary Paths and Peter Muck's Memories of an Old Alpinist, and at the beginning of June the selective guide Carnic Alps, which my wife Irena Mušič Habjan and I wrote. In the publishing house, we are very satisfied that the guide Along the Paths of the XIV. Division has already seen a reprint after a year of sales,« said the editor of the Mountain Publishing House of the Alpine Association of Slovenia Vladimir Habjan at the introduction and announced the release of at least three more books for autumn. »The book by Žarko Rovšček, The Word Sparks, which deals with the journalistic activity of the giant of Slovenian and world alpinism Tone Škarja, is written. The handbook Ski Touring by author Tone Golnar is prepared. Currently, the belles-lettres work I Walk, Therefore I Go by Marjan Bradeško is in editing. We are especially looking forward to the release of the exceptional book by Dušan Škodič Beginnings of Organized Mountaineering and Alpinism in the Time of SPD.«

The biggest undertaking of this year's publishing house was the release of the selective guide Carnic Alps, by authors Vladimir and Irena Mušič Habjan, which will apparently become an indispensable part of mountaineering literature. The Habjan spouses are authors and editors of numerous mountain guides. Their latest work covers the extensive area between the Julian Alps and the Dolomites from Ojstrnik to Piancavallo. The demanding guide is different in many ways from similar ones. »This guide is primarily very extensive, as it includes as many as 100 destinations, and since we describe additional ones in individual tours, many more have accumulated. Gathering so much data and information, moreover in Italian, which we do not speak, was quite a challenge. I think we will continue collecting data and also books from this area,« said Vladimir Habjan. In addition to 110 differently approached peaks, the guide describes two gorges, 55 marked paths, 8 climbing paths, 51 off-trail or unmarked paths, and 4 alpinistic ascents, as well as a description of the Carnic Connecting Path and a circular tour among huts above the Cimoliana valley.


Irena Mušič Habjan added to the invitation to look across the border the best time for using the guide. »The guide is intended more for dry than winter ascents, although we can ascend easier peaks (for example, Lepi vršič, Ojstrnik, Verzegnis, etc.) also in snow. Mostly, the best season for ascents is from June to October. In spring it is greener, in autumn the weather is more stable.« A specialty and novelty of the guide is also that QR codes are added to numerous useful information, linking to the path display in the maPZS mobile app and to the tour starting point.

Jana Remic: Whisper of Solitary Paths

Whisper of Solitary Paths by author Jana Remic is a book for lovers of beautiful stories and nature, for people who appreciate every day given to them. The belles-lettres book, equipped with beautiful photographs by Jana, is a hymn to life, not only in the mountains but also in the valley. Jana Remic, a mountaineer since childhood, was so inspired by mountains and felt so beautiful in them that she wanted to preserve memories of hikes in written word. »For a long time I wrote only for myself, for my pleasure. About twenty years ago, I gathered courage and decided to send my writing to the address of Planinski vestnik. Vladimir Habjan was already the editor then, and apparently my writing was good enough that he encouraged me to write more.« In self-publishing, she also released two mountain books for children and the young at heart, educational Stories for Young Mountaineers, and the second part of stories, Young Mountaineers, Towards New Adventures. »Although somewhere deep inside I feel the desire to write, I didn't take time for it, children were in the foreground. I was surprised when editor Vladimir Habjan invited me after a longer period of not writing to prepare texts for a book. When I sat down at the computer again, it slowly started flowing. I must admit I am very grateful to him for the encouragement.«


The book is like a small guide for seeking less known paths, of which there are still some in Slovenian mountains according to Remic. »I think unknown little paths could still be found. But at the same time, I think the network of paths for mountaineers is wide and dense enough and that it is time to stop with new paths, to give space and leave peaceful areas for the animal inhabitants of forests and mountains.«

Peter Muck: Memories of an Old Alpinist

In the book Memories of an Old Alpinist, in twenty-two short stories with special historical value, Peter Muck revives his climbing exploits in a completely new way. Instead of describing classic alpinistic ascents imbued with sweat and fear, he focuses on everything else that marked his tours and left a trace in his memory of youthful days.


In his memories, Muck tells about the lack of climbing equipment and how they managed with their ingenuity in difficult situations. He also reveals colorful characters he encountered on his paths and their special habits and eccentricities. In huts, there was always lively activity, so he likes to revive memories of meals and funny anecdotes about "digestive problems" of all kinds. Peter Muck tells in a very positive, self-ironic, and generally humorous way about the life of a young alpinist of that time.

»The Alps as a mysterious world full of castles, dark gorges, mysterious little valleys, mountains with precipitous walls, interested me since childhood. My great-grandmother is from South Tyrol right from under the Rosengarten mountain group. She told us children terrifying fairy tales about fairies, princesses, dwarfs, etc., which made a deep impression on me. My grandfather and aunt were avid hill climbers who fed me with mountain events. I spent part of my vacation and all weekends in the mountains where I completely settled in. Mostly I was a solo hiker. In critical situations, of which there were not few, I swore that mountains would never see me again. But already towards the end of the week, I started browsing my extensive archive of maps and making plans where to head.« Peter's love for mountains rivaled his love for music.


»I played a lot in bars, which was time-wise hard to combine with visiting mountains. Later I solved this by simply driving to the mountains after playing.« Peter Muck still very much likes playing the accordion, part of which we experienced at the press conference as well.


Unfortunately, he can no longer go to the mountains, as at 92 years his legs no longer carry him so well. »Now I compensate this with surfing the web. I search for a mountain or description of a climbing route and am amazed when I see a new steel cable. I wish that now, when I have difficulty walking, someone would take me to some pass, of which there are plenty in the Alps. Surfing the web evokes memories and my eye also tears up if I spot a place on the web where I had a very nice time.«

At the press conference, author Dušan Škodič also provided a small insight into the upcoming extensive historical book Beginnings of Organized Mountaineering and Alpinism in the Time of SPD. »This year we marked 130 years since the founding of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society (SPD). This time also has an extensive prehistory with local Germans, which later led to a fierce national struggle for our mountains. In the book, I will air out this time, which importantly influenced the development of our mountaineering as well as alpinism. In the Austrian archive during the corona time, we found a lot of previously unknown material, which gives us the opportunity to finally get rid of black-and-white stories, which are mainly a consequence of four states changing in this time, but the first change (the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy) was so radical that it almost completely swept away the remnants of its past. The purpose of this book is to fill the cracks in time with it, so that everything together gets the right meaning and that we get to know the true story of SPD, which is actually even more interesting than we thought. It is right that we know this history - after all, it's about our mountains and Triglav, which became our national symbol, and we a mountaineering nation.«


In the mountains, it is necessary to follow markings and marked paths, but when reading books, you can allow yourself to get lost without reservations between their covers. Enjoy the books of the Mountain Publishing House of PZS, where wisdom and the spirit of mountaineering intertwine.

Thoughts from the books


»I will never tire of accompanying and experiencing the transitions of night to day or day to night. Every sunrise is exceptional, unrepeatable. Darkness first barely perceptibly starts to yield to thin strands of light that spread and spread, begin to color, light slowly but at the same time majestically suddenly embraces everything – fields, forests, meadows, mountains and valleys, and when I finally turn away from the unique event on the horizon, life is in full swing.« Jana Remic: Whisper of Solitary Paths


»The most cheerful was in Erjavčeva hut. In long winter evenings, we played social games and danced. There was no sign of folk entertainment music then. I played folk songs, marches, and old hits. Luckily I had a replacement, so I could spin too. Literally spinning was almost impossible because we were tightly packed in the dining room. My replacement was the versatile musician Borut Lesjak, who managed quite well on my small accordion. The manager was once fed up with our company because we consumed too little. He chased us to Tičarjev dom. When he saw me carrying the accordion, he asked: »Hey, where are you going?« When he realized I was a member of the company he had kicked out, he immediately changed his stance and chased us back.« Peter Muck: Memories of an Old Alpinist