Rugged mountain playground on Grintovec

Somehow, the Hut Master at Cojzova Hut convinced us (me) that we would be able to hike a knife's edge trail marked as difficult with a giant ⚠️ as a warning. And, in general, Slovenian trails at baseline are tough. So, we decided to go up and over Mount Grintovec, the highest summit in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps at 2558 meters, and do a big loop in the mountains anyways. Needless to say, I was approaching this hike with some trepidation.

We got a fairly early start, hitting the trail by 6:30 am. It was still quite cloudy, but we had hopes of it clearing up as the day went on. About 1 hour into our hike up Grintovec, it began to downpour and hail with strong winds. We quickly put on our rain/winter gear and begin to consider the possibility of just doing an out and back on Grintovec rather than a big loop along an exposed via ferrata knife' edge.

Just as we begin to near the summit of Grintovec, some of the clouds begin to lift and we got some views. It was even a little undercast - so awesome! After the downpour, this definitely lifted our spirits.

Many of the 2,000 m summits in Slovenia have a stamp that people collect (you bring your own stamp pad) - a cool idea. After appreciating the views on the summit of the highest peak in this mountain range, we scouted out our next move - the trail with the giant warning 😬 ⚠️ The whether looked like it was trying to clear, so we decided to go for it.

Along the via ferrata, I took time to appreciate the tough Alpine flowers

Check out this lunch spot!

Good thing we had ice axes

We turned around on this snow field as the consequences of a fall were too great and the angle of the snow was too steep to risk it

Turns out, the via ferrata trail was super fun - all of that worrying was for not. After the via ferrata, we continued along another trail that crossed several snow fields. We changed our route after checking out a steep snow field that did not seem worth the risk to continue. This meant that we would not be doing a second summit (Skuta), but we both felt like this was the right call. We were able to "bushwhack" to another trail below where we continued on in this incredible mountain playground.

Taking a break with Skuta behind me, the mountain that we did not end up summiting

Fueled by Haribo gummy worms

The trails are well marked

We crossed many snow fields and this one we sort of "skied" down

It was Father's Day, so I gave Dan his Father's Day card at this spot - our kids are so lucky to have landed Dan as their dad.

We saw a bunch of ibexes along our route

A cool bivouac along the route that sleeps eight people

Inside the bivouac

I left Dan at the bivouac so that he could have a nap while I zipped off for a small peak called Kogel. Because it was not an actual trail, it was fun navigating to the top. Dan and I did not see anyone all day, but there was actually a guy on the summit of Kogel. After chatting for a while, I found out that he is an erotic masseuse. Needless to say, I peppered him with all sorts of questions about this and learned a lot.

On top of Kogel

Alex, the erotic masseuse, who I peppered with questions

Cool patterns left in the melting snow

Dan was well rested after his nap in the bivouac

More ibexes - these animals are incredible the way they navigate cliffs

Even melting snow in the shape of a heart

On our hike back, the hut was totally out of the clouds

The view from the hut - complete with window boxes with flowers 😍

Eating dinner in the hut while watching the Slovenian team play in the Euro cup '24. They tied Denmark!

Sunset from the hot

The Hut crew, plus an Austrian woman, with whom we shared some local Slovenian wine from the Hut Masters home. 

The day ended with us watching the Slovenian soccer team tie Denmark (what they thought would be a "national disaster", but ended up being a draw). It was so odd to be watching TV in a mountain hut, but also super cool to be able to experience rooting for the home team with locals. The hut crew invited us to enjoy some wine with them and chat. They were proud and happy to share with us lots about Slovenian culture. The Hut Master even showed us a slideshow of his beautiful photography. What an unbelievable day!