Juliske ski-crossing!

Since March I have been working full-time and attending an after-graduate program of International Economics, which is definitely not the best scenario for tons of skiing.. however, when you plan carefully and use all the available holidays - the snow days are still kept alive! Well the first May holidays were infinitely white and spectacular while Mare, Uroš, Leon, Artač and Burek would definitely agree. We started our long ski-crossing in Lepena, where spring has long won the winter battle. However, as we ascended above 1000m, snow started appearing and multiplied into meters - goodbye spring for the next 3 days:) The Krnska Lakes were beautiful in the evening twilight as well as at morning dawn. We had a great time at the winter room, drinking liquor and listening to "courageous" stories of great Burek. We ate like kings and followed our philosophy that food is better-off in stomachs than in heavy backpacks:)

The next morning we ascended through the valley towards Lanževica (2003m) and just caught the best conditions before the strengthening sun softened the snow. We ran across bear footprints that were leading towards a deserted military base - and I guess the bear had to take a good nap after some mountain ski-touring. We quietly continued, not to wake-up the fellow, and jumped on Lanževica. Then came some skiing on wet snow, crossing of Lopučniška Valley; and just before the weather turned its back on us, we reach the comfort of the Triglav Lakes bivouac. Again came the cooking, the liquor and not to forget the "Burek amusement program!"

 
Early morning is an understatement as we started walking before dawn. I was a little surprised that the snow has not frozen over the night and hoped this would change as we ascended up the valley and gained altitude. On around 1900m, the snow hardened and ski-walking across Hribarice towards Kanjavec (2569m) was easy and fun. And the views - WOOOW - let the panoramic picture speak for itself! We then skied Velska Dolina, and reached Vodnikov dom after a short ascent. The original plan was to sleep there and climb Triglav the next morning, however, the winter room was already completely crowded (this meant little sleeping) and we decided that Triglav can wait for next time. After cooking some soup, we ascended to Bohinjska Vratca (1973m) and skied into the glacier valley of Krma. The snow ended only at around 900m, which is definitely a proof that this was one of the best winters in the last 10 years (2005/06 is a story for itself). So we put on our light trekking shoes and began our "short" march towards Mojstrana.

 
When we started walking, I made some quick calculations and realized that we will just miss the last bus - while spending the night at a barn in Mojstrana was definetly not the most convenient thing. I somehow managed to hitch-hike a bigger van, which agreed to drive us to the bus station. The problem was that we were still late and as we descended towards Mojstrana, we saw our bus slowly taking off from the station. No problem for the old rascal, who stepped on the gas and started pursuing the Bus. We were positioned at the end of the van and couldn't see much on the road.. which was definitely a good thing, since those were the most extreme moments of the trip. We caught the bus a few kilometers before Jesenice, bought some cold beer ... and you can imagine the joy as we layed on the soft seats, with cold Laškos in our hands:)

 

Sledding wtih Scouts!

In the past few weeks, I have been excercising my mind more than my body (Microeconomics III+, S4), however I still found the time for a fun sledding trip with Scouts. Together with Jerro from the "wolf" gang, we organized a trip to Valvasorjev dom (1171m) below mountain Stol. Scout trips can sometimes turn out to be very stressful for the organizers (logistics, nauty kids, weather), but this one was just perfect. The first train from Ljubljana was at 9:45, which forced us to sleep a little more than usually:) All the 36 of us made quite a scene on the train, where we disturbed the peace of casual passengers. Well it wasn't that bad;) From Žirovnica, we walked through a few scary tunnels and across a small mountain ridge where we arrived at the lake on the other side. After about a 600m climb we reached Valvasorjev dom, where we had a quick snack and a few practical lessons with the kids. They learned a lot about hiking equipment, snow conditions and about dangers in the mountains. We also showed them how to make a "snow-cut" (checking the snow layers), and we practices the art of searching for snow-buried people with digital avalanche transceivers.
 
The grand finale of the day, was of course the sledding descent, which everybody looked foreword to. Legendary Mihić (the guy who walked Slovenia) and Maja Burja were of course the fastest. I descended with my snowblades (1m long), which I attached to my Alpina winter boots. Of course winter boots are way to soft for good skiing, but after a few funny turns, which ended up in fresh powder, I quickly mastered the boot-skiing technique. The road from Valvasorjev dom has a constant inclination and is just perfect for sledding. After about 30 minutes of racing we almost ran into the lake. When everybody arrived at the bottom, we quickly lit up the torches and marched back to the train. We had lots of fun...and many legends were there!
 

Serious ROT... or maybe NOT?

Last weekend, the old gang went to check out a scout orientation competition (ROT) in the jungle surrounding Celje. The competition is quite serious; however, we were a little less. We had our laughs and good times, joking around and having interesting talks with local village kids. Keber was grumbling again about his injured ankle, however Leon and me quickly diagnosed the problem: "Keber's a Pussy!" In the photo below, check out how Keber reacted to our diagnosis.

Vietnam on Slovenian Grounds

The past two weeks I spent at a scout camp in the mountains close to Tolmin - and each day is a story by itself. Don't worry; I will not bore you too much, instead I will only paint a very graphic situation that happened on the last day before we left. All the kids went home and only us - the older "animals" stayed. It wasn't long before we realized we were all experiencing the Vietnam syndrome. Outside it was unbearable - around 40 degrees Celsius and not a cloud in sight. Above, there were mountains covered with thick forests and next to us a sluggish brown river added to the scenery. We were laying there under military tents, in wheelbarrows full of cool water, with no specific purpose or goal - enjoying emptiness and the simplicity of the moment. We ate when we were hungry, we drank when we were thirsty (mostly beer). Talking about any kind of hygiene would be very optimistic as we ate with our hands, peed wherever we whished and were covered in dirt up to our necks. We were amusing ourselves with an air gun, by shooting and exterminating anything that seemed destroyable and fun. Our activities were also splashing people with water, fighting, talking about girls, etc. When it was the hottest, we ate watermelons with a 40cm machete. So there we were, enjoying long hours in the most unconventional way.. waiting for that attack - that final push - or in our case, for the hard core labor of loading the truck with all the equipment. And finally we were ready to leave home, each quite in his own thoughts - leaving back to another zoo and chaos we so call - civilization!