Finally it's there, The Skuta Shelter erupts ahead of us. Needles to say that after a classic 3 hours of 'slovenian-straight-up' scrambling in the scorching afternoon sun we're happy to see it. We have made plans to continue higher up towards Skuta Mountain but the wind has picked up and we hear a distant roar of thunder…

A team of ambitious Harvard university students, Slovenian architects, mountaineers and a lot of volunteers thought it was time to have a brand new hut on the saddle below Skuta Mountain. It wasn't going to be easy. This place is remote. So remote in fact that the slovenian army had to airlift the finished structure.

Our friend & acclaimed alpine guide Marko Petek confirms that thunderstorms are in the forecast for our area all throughout the evening. We cancel our afternoon jaunt instead pop the jet boils out and start cooking our 3 star dinner. What's on the menu tonight? Cured meats and dehydrated mushroom soup -“gobova juha” in Slovenian. Now I won't get into the infamous "gobova juha" incident of 2018 but let's just say that someone I shall not name (Marko Petek) managed to totally burn an instant mushroom soup and tried to brand it to us as a 'smoky flavour seasoning, slovenian specialty!'.

Marko Petek on a deep moment of reflection after the tragic mushroom soup event.

Besides this long forgotten incident, we had a blissful night on our 1800m high perch, rocked to sleep by the thunderstorms and the wind pushing against the walls. One thing I’ve noticed in the Julian or Kamnik Alps of Slovenia is that the altitudes don't sound that high. Hell! Even the tallest peak in the country is under 2900m high. However from these mountains you can see all the way down to the Med' and it kind of feels that you’re looking at the world from an airplane window.

The next morning was clear, the storm had passed and we could see all the day down into the fields. The valley was waking up, we could hear the hum of life in the distance. We expedited breakfast, loaded our packs and booked it straight down. The hum of the valley getting louder with each step. Spirits are high, we’re even looking forward to today’s objective -Mt Triglav.

This mountain is an absolute classic for any moderately fit person who visits Slovenia and even for the locals - a legend says that for Slovenian people to ‘really’ become Slovenian they have to summit the Triglav. I’ve asked taxi drivers and waiters here if they’ve done it and the majority reports that they haven’t done it but they ‘will one day’. Us on the other hand were looking forward to becoming Slovenian today. We could have picked a better day to acquire another nationality because the temperature must have been above 35 degrees celsius (95f) on some of the scree fields. Sweat and dehydration was at its finest. We kept filling water bottle after bottle from any creek we’d find.

You see most people climb this mountain over 2 days. The guide books recommend 14 to 16 hours of uninterrupted climbing. We’re no athletes but we’re doing this in 1 day, actually half a day. We left at 2pm and need to summit before sunset. So we press on.

One of the comforting things of Euro-Style climbing is that you don’t really need to worry about food. In the high seasons there’s always a manned hut with a smiling cook waiting for you. Wether you like that or not it is quite convenient. By 7:30pm we reach the Kredarici hut which seats 400m under the summit of Triglav. We order an abundante portion of macaroni bolognese and a couple of beers and coctas - the slovenian coke. Under normal circumstances I love food but here, with a 360 view and 5 hours of climbing behind me I’m adoring it.

With dinner formalities behind us, we get back on our tired feet and start walking again. We have about 1.5 hours of daylight left. Because we’re climbing in the evening, there’s no-one on this wall. I love catching sunset from these high places because it goes so much against ‘mountain common sense’ you always have the place to yourself. And how many people can say they’ve seen the sun set from the summit of Triglav? Not many according to Marko.

We’re tired but we’ve made it. We’re Slovenian now (Joel and I, Marko already was).

The long way down from Triglav - we will reach our overnight hut at 2:30am.

I have a bit of a crush for Slovenia. Ever since I visited in 2015 I've been coming back pretty much every year. And I spend most summers in France which means the Alps are within easy reach. Yet I decide to cross half of Europe to this tiny country in the shadow of Austria and Switzerland. That's what I love about it: The more known destinations around Slovenia act as a filter and only the motivated travelers end up here, the others stick to the Alps.

Slovenians have resiliency, a can-do attitude and a friendliness I have yet to find in neighboring countries. Their past is rocky at best, they only broke free of socialist Yugoslavia and became a country in late 1989. Yet they display a an exemplary approach to conservation of their wilderness, which traditionally ‘richer’ countries do better. They may lack the infrastructure of say Austria but they more than make up for it with their sense of community, sustainability and protection of their nature.

Visiting Slovenia is like making a statement that says: know I can go to Chamonix but instead I'm opting to go where fewer go, where I'll encounter flashes of previous times (like the domo vinkovic tractor, or a derelict ski lift), where you can show up at most mountain huts without reservations. That's what makes the charm of this place, you didn't end up here by accident, you meant it.

Slovenia - The Places That Impacted Me Most