Tadej Bolta - Recent messages

Evening access to bivouac II. Snow starts at 1500m, to the bivouac it is tracked and frozen until the sun hits it. From the bivouac onwards snow is untracked. The normal route to Middle Rokav is snowed up, only due to the untracked snow are the two jumps harder than in normal conditions.

Prijakt consists of two peaks - Hoher (high) 3064m and Niederer (low) 3056m. Between the peaks rises a very pronounced steep and narrow gully, through which the Nordrinne route (500m, M4 - rating on planetmountain) runs. Over the wall itself there are a few more routes that have been frequently climbed in recent days due to excellent conditions. Prijakt is one of the most attractive mountains in the so-called Schober range, which rises above the Austrian town of Lienz. If there is no snow under the mountain, the approach is very easy. You can drive the car almost to 2100m high, so it's only an hour's approach to the route entry. With Urban we left the car a bit lower, at the official parking lot, where we also bivied, and the approach to the wall extended to about three hours.

The entry into the route a bit resembles the entry into the Gully on Skuta. Around 80° steep consolidated snow, which takes you about 20m into the gully. Follows about 500m ascent up the gully of 60° incline, which is evenly interspersed with nicely filled jumps (80-90°). Like climbing Teranova, only all this happens in the wonderful ambience of a narrow and steep gully. Not to mention the fantastic conditions - squeaky snow from bottom to top! The only real jump was 90° thin and slightly rotten ice, where we belayed on rope for a few meters.

Upon exiting the gully we had ten minutes to the summit, from which opened a wonderful view of the Hohe Tauern. At the summit warm sun and practically no wind awaited us! We descended via the SW ridge, which due to crampons, mix of large rocks, grass and snow patches, was a bit awkward. After good nine hours we thus reached the car. What an overture to winter!

terribly wintry. 20 cm snow. I understand London stops at that amount of snow. Not some alpine valley.

And who knows how much the fine is if you don't pay the parking fee in Vrata, but just park?

Has anyone been up there in the last two or three days? Is it dry from planina Kuhinja? Thanks.

I have a harder question. Because I'm looking for a location I once heard a lecture about... Somewhere in TNP in the middle of a wall there's a meadow surrounded by cliffs and they used to lower small cattle with a rope to that meadow so it grazed there over the summer...

Schareck

Today on Begunjščica via central. Conditions super, firm to the top, so it's a real pleasure to walk because nothing sinks. Cornices at the summit are minimal. Bigger cornices on Šentanc, so safer to descend via the descent gully there. Flew to the valley

This weekend it'll be full of people from Ljubljana up there...

...at 3am there aren't many flights either. Projectiles come during the day, when the sun hits the slope.

comet watching from the summit and waking to wonderful morning.

most lights were on Viševnik and Triglav, VDV I had to myself....

before shift hike and fly

On Sunday there was too much wind for flying, so I went to explore some unknown areas of our western Alps. Because above Log pod Mangartom rises probably the most magnificent wall among us - Loška stena - and since I want to climb it in winter, I went on a scouting tour to walk the descent from the top of the wall.

I started late from Bavšica valley (at 11am), but the cooling the day before ensured it wasn't too hot for me. After two and a half hours I was at the summit. On the ascent I went a bit too far towards Morež, so a small jump awaited me on the ridge.

Descent is quite tedious. Great steepness and all grass, so out of caution I progress slower than on the ascent. Past the boulders there's lots of grass again, with the trodden path barely visible.

Wonderful tour. The whole day I met no one (except at the parking), only ibexes, a marmot and bearded vultures kept me company. People were probably crowding Triglav, Vršič, Jasna lake, etc. May it remain so in the future

On Saturday short German with Zimmer Jahn. Too little snow, so lots of scratching on rocks with ice axes and crampons, but still enough snow that you don't have to climb in rock shoes. Up to German bivouac the snow is beaten, further not.

To Turkish via Tschad route, descent through gully. When terrain steepens, snow becomes hard and ice-covered, offering great climbing conditions but poor belay conditions. Where flatter, quite some powder on processed base. Turkish gully messed up towards bottom.

The Kamniške have some special microclimate that I experienced again on Saturday... When conditions are marginal (somewhere between sun and clouds), Skuta with surroundings loves to be fogged in, but a few peaks away you have clear sky... Our goal that day was the Rinka-Skuta ridge.

Around 1600m the first sun appears to us, 200m higher the first snow starts - crusty. At the bivouac the weather was a bit mixed... Some sun, some clouds, but when we bite into the slope towards the Rinkas, fog. We walked a bit by memory. When we reach the indistinct summit, we are at Mali Rinka in fog. Poor visibility took our will, the mountain will wait, so we descend.

I browsed a bit through Mihelič and the book Northern Approaches, where I spotted the tour from Srednja Ponca to Vevnica. Since Jalovec isn't far either, I connected all three peaks into one tour.

Start at 6:30, fog in the valley, but as I bite into the slope, I soon reach the sun. Alone at Srednje Ponce, I continue along the long ridge to Vevnica. Path not maintained. Cables are poor, new ones installed only at two or three difficult spots. Three of us at Vevnica summit. View of Jalovec, Mangart, Kotovo sedlo right there... Start descending to bivouac below Mangart, thought path to Kotovo sedlo would be formality... but not quite. Had to drop 400m first to Log pod Mangartom, then climb back up (direct route from Vevnica to mini saddle then left to Kotovo sedlo - II degree climbing, no protections, no markings).

At Kotovo sedlo I hesitate if to go to Jalovec... Since it's right ahead, good hour to top, I go for it. Two of us at summit. Descent through notch, back to Tamar in two hours.

From Planica over all peaks back to Tamar in 10 hours. Not bad.