Bohinj and Up!

When you spend a winter vacation in Bohinj with girls and receive meters of snow, sunshine, adventure and skiing - there's simply no room for complaint. On Thursday we did a quick warm-up on Komna, which offers great "golaž" and a breath-taking skiing descent on the narrow path through the forest. My dog Bella was so excited that she kept running up and down the whole way and I hypothesized that when we make a 1000m ascent she makes at least three times as much. (next time I will test my theory and fasten my altitude watch to her necktie:)

 
Friday was the day for some more serious business! There is so much snow around Lake Bohinj that I could start walking on my skies right at the doorway of our apartment. Together with all my girls (Mom, Ana, Bella and sister - Lucija) we enjoyed a beautiful walk across Hudičev Bridge and through the valley of Voje. We split at the waterfall where Ana and I started our steep ascent towards Vodnikov Hut (1817m). The sun was shining like in the middle of summer and we were quickly topless when we stopped for a short snack on the Grintovica meadow. We didn't meet a single soul on the way and I have a feeling that nobody has walked this path for at least a month. This is quite a surprise since the path is almost perfect for ski-touring and it's also one of the most beautiful regions of our Alps. Well later it proved that the path has a few unfavorable spots, however we still enjoyed it very much.

 
After around five hours we finally reached the hut and found it almost completely buried under meters of snow. The problem was that I had no clue where the winter room was located. And so we started digging - first the woodshed then a privet little house that was completely sealed. The thought of spending my first night in a snow-hole was not very pleasant. We then remembered to call Kredarica, where an alpinist told me the exact position of the winter room. We followed his instructions and skeptically started digging a hole in the snow. After some serious digging the door miraculously appeared right in front of us - check out the photo at the bottom (a tiny aluminum shovel can really do magic and from now on, I'm not going anywhere without it!). The winter room was completely intact - and had soft beds, warm blankets, 0 degrees and all the other luxuries one can imagine after a serious threat of spending the night in the snow. We made some warm tea, hot soup, changed clothes... and words cannot explain the happiness we enjoyed.

 
Never before did we sleep so well in a winter room - thanks to a long three hours of digging and to our new downy sleeping bags. We woke to a beautiful morning and climbed Bohinjska Vratca (1979m) - Tirglav and greater plans are postponed for the next time. After some great skiing to the valley of Krma we decided this was a good time to end our adventure and we concluded that we enjoyed every single moment - even the moonlight digging!