Page 59 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

heading up towards the treeline and the alpine tundra that lay beyond it.
The trail we walked was well used by locals head- ing to Triglav – our eventual destination – and so wildlife was a common sight along our route. Alpine marmot, hares, mouflon and predatory birds all appeared in the glades that bordered our route, right until the green faded into alpine greys and lakes of glacial melt. The temperature had reached 32 degrees while we walked, and at such height there was no cover from the sun or wind that came through the valley, so around midday we stopped for a swim in one of the lakes to wash off the sweat and grime.
After another hour or so we headed off again uphill, accompanied only by the occasional heli- copter passing low overhead at
the limit of its altitude to deliver
stricted but for the distant horizon. We stayed perhaps half an hour or so, absorbing the sights and signing a small book held in a rusted steel container atop a pile of rocks, documenting the many visitors to that place, before heading down to our actual hut.
We started off day three of the expedition in hut 13 (Koca na Dolicu) at 2152m. The weather was clear with no wind and high temperatures throughout the day. The hut was located in a tributary valley that looked down upon another larger valley. At around 0900hrs after breakfast we headed north up a well-defined path that at first contoured around the corner of the val- ley, and then began to zig-zag up the steep valley face. After 30 minutes of climbing and a few hundred metres of ascent we came to a
water to the mountain huts dot- ted throughout the Slovenian valleys. At around 1600hrs we made it to the hut, perched atop a ridgeline in the far distance as we crested another series of dif- ficult rocks – until we realised that this wasn’t our hut. Our hut lay another 1-hour walk over the mountain adjacent – Kanjavec.
Alpine marmot, hares, mouflon and predatory birds all appeared in the glades that bordered our route...
change of scenery. This area resem- bled more of a lunar landscape; shin- gle and white rock with no vegetation, interspersed by the occasional small remnant glacier. We continued along defined paths for around another 2km with little ascent before coming to the base of the Triglav summit itself. This was a large spur of rock with at least 300m of vertical ascent left.
Peaking Kanjavec was, however, entirely worth the struggle. The mist was long gone by then from the entire valley system surrounding us, and the views were staggeringly beautiful; unre-
We cached our bags, taking only water, food and ropes with us. The route here wound up the rock face and in places was more of a scramble than a hill walk. The path then followed around to the back of the sum- mit, up a steep shingle face and another small
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