Thursday, February 21, 2008

Snow digging - white ecstasy!


For almost a week, the weather was "showing off" with no wind and cloudless skys. And when Ana finally passed her exam, it was time to capitalize big plans and seek the white powder in the Bohinj Mountains:) Some heavy snowfall in the beginning of February turned the area into a winter wonderland. Ana and I were half in ecstasy, when we obliviously drove up the snowy road...and if we were older and wiser, we would leave the car a couple hundred meters lower. However, we are not! In fact, we are both still extremely young and naive:) And so we drove higher and higher, until we finally got stuck in soft snow. Of course we didn't have chains nor shovels with us, and so began the white Calvary of saving my car. We were digging with our hands, feet and my skies for almost 5 hours.. and I won't even try to paint the picture, because the English vocabulary simply doesn't allow it. Let me just tell you that when we finally brought the car back on its tracks, we were probably the happiest two digging white moles on the planet!!!

Ok.. so the day was almost over and there was no way we could reach the hut at the end of the Triglav lakes. So we jumped to the first meadow Jezero, where we spent the night in the winter room. Even though there were beds and blankets, it was still not exactly like home. Outside it was -15 degrees, while in the room it was constantly 0 degrees. However we had the ultimate weapon.. a tiny cooker that could do magic - melt snow, make hot soup, warm our hands. And believe me, that hot soup meant more than the fanciest dinner Ljubljana can offer. We slept quite long, until the morning sun warmed the meadow. It was a perfect day and we quickly reached Dedno Polje. From there on, we had some unfinished business from the january attempt! This time the mountain pass Vratca was inevitable - Ana was equiped with snowshoes. Walking up the valley behind Kopica was like poetry! We lost the tracks and were walking on totaly fresh snow, the view was endless and the mountains before us were bragging with their mightiness. A pack of wild mountain goats even came to say hello and they were the only life that we saw in the whole two days. We reached the pass (2200m) around 3 o'clock and then enjoyed skiing the sunset. We came to the car in pitch darkness.. and here comes again our young naivety. But ohh well.. we had the time of our life!

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