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<\/a><\/p>\nThe beautiful ridge walk from my first full day on the trail. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n What is the Slovenian Mountain Trail?<\/p>\n The Slovenian Mountain Trail stretches 383 miles from the city of Maribor to the Adriatic coast at Ankaran.\u00a0Created in 1953, it is the oldest connecting mountain trail in Europe.The route traverses nearly all major Slovenian mountain ranges, including the Pohorje Hills, the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, the Karawanks, and the Julian Alps (including the country\u2019s highest peak, Mount Triglav), before winding down through the Karst landscape to the coast.<\/p>\n The trail was originally designated to be a circular route starting and ending in Maribor, but it was later changed to send hikers closer to the sea. In the years since its inception, over 10,000 hikers have completed the entire route, collecting stamps from huts along the way as proof of completion.<\/p>\n Many of these huts dot the saddles between peaks. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n My Route on the Slovenian Mountain Trail<\/p>\n In the week I had to explore the trail, I summited Stol and hiked through the Karawanks and the Julian Alps before summiting Mount Triglav and taking the steep descent down from the Ko\u010da pri Triglavskih Jezerih hut to Lake Bohinj. In total, this ended up covering just over 10% of the entire trail. By the end of day one, I already knew I\u2019ll someday be back to complete the rest.<\/p>\n Every single day on this trail brought a new, unimaginable level of beauty. I do not consider myself a stranger to beautiful hikes, and yet I still found myself constantly in awe from the sheer ruggedness of these mountains.<\/p>\n Hopefully, the pictures in this article will do the trail some justice, but if you need more convincing, here are the five reasons I would give you to convince you to plan ahead, pay for a plane ticket, and make your way to Slovenia for the best hiking of your life.<\/p>\n 5 Reasons You Should Hike the Slovenian Mountain Trail Nearing the base of the technical climb up Mount Triglav\u2019s Direct Ridge from the Ko\u010da na Doli\u010du hut. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n 1) Distinctive Geology<\/p>\n Backpacking through the iconic ranges of the western United States\u2014like the Sierra Nevada, the Wind River Range, or the Cascades\u2014means walking predominantly over massive granite batholiths or volcanic basalt. These rocks erode into sweeping, continuous slopes, round boulders, and sprawling meadows.<\/p>\n The Stol-to-Triglav corridor is built on an entirely different foundation. This region belongs to the Southern Limestone Alps, composed of massive, 200-million-year-old blocks of Triassic limestone and dolomite formed by ancient equatorial seas. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates violently thrusted, fractured, and stacked these marine sediments thousands of feet into the sky.<\/p>\n On the top of this ridgeline lies the border between Slovenia and Austria. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n Because limestone is highly soluble, water dissolves it as opposed to flowing over it. This creates a hyper-shattered, bone-white topographies of razor-sharp ridges, chaotic scree fields, and vertical 3,000-foot faces that lack the softer, rounded transitions typical of American granite country.<\/p>\n 2) Amazingly Quick Transition to the Alpine<\/p>\n In the United States, achieving true alpine exposure often requires a long, progressive approach. To stand on a 10,000-foot ridge in the Rockies or the High Sierra, you generally must hike for miles through low-elevation foothills and forests, slowly acclimatizing as the tree line thins out.<\/p>\n The Stol-to-Triglav section completely bypasses this gradual transition. The local valley floors sit at surprisingly low absolute elevations (often just 2,000 to 2,500 feet), yet the surrounding peaks erupt straight up to nearly 9,500 feet. This creates a staggering, compressed vertical relief of 6,000 to 7,000 feet within a short horizontal distance.<\/p>\n We could see the summit of Mount Triglav for the entire hike, and knew we would need to gain all the elevation needed to stand at its summit in under two days. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n While hiking it, this is exhausting. Climbs are frequently incredibly steep, and it was not uncommon to gain or lose well over 1,000 per mile while on the trail, but the payoff was well worth it. Walking the ridgelines from Mt. Stol to the Vrata Valley gives intense, immediate exposure, where a grassy alpine meadow can end abruptly at a sheer, drop-off plunge into a glacial valley below.<\/p>\n The outcome of this is that everything looks so dramatic all the time. Even when meandering through a farmland or valley, you could look around and tell that, any minute, you\u2019d be shooting straight back up to the alpine.<\/p>\n Every time we crossed into the alpine, we would see a handful of ibex there to greet us. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n 2) Lush Vegetation, Abundant Wildflowers<\/p>\n The thousands of wildflowers dotting every single face of the trail were a huge plus for me. My pace slowed dramatically as I kept pulling out my wildflower identification app to ID plants I\u2019d never seen before in the States, and it felt like the flowers were literally everywhere over these lush, high-alpine meadows.<\/p>\n It took until the fourth day for me to finally wonder how everything was so green and so verdant when we weren\u2019t seeing any lakes, rivers, or water sources of any kind.<\/p>\n This whole traverse was dotted with Hogweed, Hungarian Widow Flower, Dark Columbine, and Alpine Pasqueflower. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n The hydrology of this section is a fascinating paradox, as I later would discover. The region receives immense amounts of annual precipitation, mostly in the form of heavy winter snows.<\/p>\n Yet because of the region\u2019s highland karst topography\u2014a highly weathered landscape formed by the dissolution of soluble bedrock\u2014the terrain acts like a sponge, rapidly absorbing precipitation and channeling it underground. Despite the lush vegetation, few lakes or streams are visible at the surface.<\/p>\n How the Peaks Water the Flowers<\/p>\n The limestone bedrock is highly fractured, riddled with vertical fissures and deep underground cave networks. The moment rain falls or snow melts, the water vanishes internally into the mountain. These narrow fissures act as tiny, protected oases. They trap soil, hold moisture far longer than the surface, and shield delicate roots from the harsh alpine wind.<\/p>\n This also allows for things to grow shockingly high on the steep, rock walls where, in America, we may be used to more grey of the stone showing. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n If you look closely at a seemingly barren karst plateau, the vast majority of the wildflowers and grasses are growing straight out of these hidden cracks, creating thin, striking ribbons of green and purple cutting through the white stone. As you cross the high karst plateaus toward Triglav, you enter a lunar landscape of bare, polished white rock completely devoid of surface water, streams, or vegetation.<\/p>\n Near the summit of Mount Triglav. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n 4) The Luxuries of a Hut-to-Hut Experience<\/p>\n The Slovenian Mountain Trail doesn\u2019t allow for backcountry camping, with hikers instead booking stays at this web of backcountry huts. Amenities differ from hut to hut, with some offering WiFi, some offering showers, and some offering a hole in the ground behind the hut for any necessary bathroom business. I really do love camping, but even I was shocked at how wonderful it felt a the end of a long day of hiking to fully change clothes, sit within four walls, order a beer, and just relax.<\/p>\n There was no need to cook myself dinner. I did not have to set up (or even carry) a tent or sleeping pad. All of the huts had pretty unbelievable views of the surrounding mountains and, thanks to how hard they were to reach, none of them felt crowded or overstimulating. Also, the history of these huts is absurdly cool.<\/p>\n The view from my bunk bed the evening before summiting Mount Triglav. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n The History of the Slovenian Mountain Trail Huts<\/p>\n The huts along the Slovenian Mountain Trail were built as weapons in a late-19th-century geopolitical proxy conflict.<\/p>\n When the Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled the region, the dominant German-Austrian Alpine Club began building exclusive stone lodges and marking trails solely in German to strengthen German influence in the mountains.\\<\/p>\n In response, a patriotic Slovenian priest named Jakob Alja\u017e privately bought the summit of Mt. Triglav for one gulden in 1895 (probably around 20 USD today), erecting a steel storm shelter to permanently claim the peak for Slovenians. He then purchased the surrounding high plateaus to build competing Slovenian lodges \u2014 like the Triglav Hut at Kredarica in 1896 \u2014 to block German expansion.<\/p>\n The small, metal structure at the summit of Mount Triglav. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n Following World War I, these huts were seized and converted into heavily fortified border garrisons by the Italian military. It wasn\u2019t until 1953 that the Alpine Association of Slovenia connected the structures by designating the Slovenian Mountain Trail \u2014Europe\u2019s very first continuous, long-distance trail \u2014 transforming former nationalistic havens into communal mountain refuges.<\/p>\n 5) Combining Traditional Hiking With the Adventure of Via Ferrata<\/p>\n In some ways, the hiking of the Slovenian Mountain Trail is easier than much of the hiking in the States. In other ways, it\u2019s harder. However, in almost all ways, it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n Perhaps the clearest and most jarring shift for the American hiker is when they first encounter the via ferrata networks \u2014 routes equipped with fixed steel cables, iron pegs, and ladders pinned directly into vertical rock faces, making technical rock-climbing terrain accessible to hikers without climbing skills or equipment.<\/p>\n While some via ferrata routes do exist in the US, the country\u2019s strict wilderness management philosophies and liability laws make such infratructure a relative rarity. In the United States, any terrain this steep generally requires\u00a0a technical climbing harness, a rope team, and a wilderness permit.<\/p>\n A look from near the summit of Triglav of our route down, which would take us over the prominent hump shown called \u201cMali Triglav\u201d. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n Slovenia, however, operates under a classic European alpine tradition where these systems are viewed as a democratic way to make highly technical, majestic peaks accessible without requiring advanced mountaineering skills. In fact, Slovenia\u2019s first president, Milan Ku\u010dan, famously reiterated the sentiment that every Slovenian must summit Mount Triglav at least once in their lifetime.<\/p>\n Summit Ease vs. Hiking Ease<\/p>\n While the via ferrata network makes summiting otherwise-technical peaks far easier, the hiking itself tends to be far steeper than many American trails. American long-distance trails, especially in the West, are masterclasses in engineering, meticulously graded with switchbacks designed to keep the incline gentle enough for pack animals. Slovenian trails discard this entirely.<\/p>\n The trail, in about a mile, shot up to the notch between the two cliff walls, gaining almost 2,000 feet in elevation. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n These trails were often mapped out by locals taking the absolute shortest, most direct line from the valley floor to the summit. Without switchbacks to soften the blow, the trail forces you onto punishing, near-vertical ascents where you regularly gain well over 1,000 feet per mile.<\/p>\n Whenever the trail gets too steep and exposed, at least you often have the option to clip yourself into a via ferrata for peace of mind.<\/p>\n Each day on the Slovenian Mountain Trail, I found myself comparing some small stretch to a trail back home. \u201cThis reminds me of Idaho,\u201d I said of the steep, grassy hills just north of Stol. \u201cThe rock here looks like the Sierra,\u201d I said while hiking around the base of Mount Triglav.<\/p>\n Yet there is really no equivalent to this trail in American backpacking. The only way to go truly experience the scope of these mountains for yourself is to book yourself that flight to Ljubljana, Slovenia.<\/p>\n Have I convinced you?<\/p>\n Sunset at the summit of Stol. Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n Featured image: Photo via Katie Jackson<\/a>. Graphic design by Zack Goldmann<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
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