13205

Slovenia: Climbing Šite, Herlec-Kočevar, V-

The last part of mountaineering school in our section is climbing a 500 meter route. They assigned an Alpinist to me and a climbing route. Janez was my alpinist and we had to climb Herlec-Kočevar route in Šite, with a mark V- and length of 500 meters, which was by far the most difficult I have ever climbed. The route was first climbed by Roman Herlec and Rado Kočevar in 1950.

At 3:00 a.m. Janez, Nada and me met in Bistrica pri Tržiču and we drove to Planica. At 4:00 a.m. we started hiking, we passed by Dom v Tamarju mountain hut, 1108 m, and continued in direction towards Jalovec. Somewhere on the way we split up, Nada continued her way to Jalovec, 2645 m, while Janez and me turned left, towards the entrance of the Herlec-Kočevar climbing route to Šite, 2308 m.

We found the start of the route quite quick and 2 more expeditions followed us. First meters were a bit more difficult, especially because of navigating, but then everything run smoothly all the way to the most difficult part, where the backpack became a bit too big, but I managed to climbed it.

 

Planned route

500 meters ahead of us

Start

After the first third

V- behind me

Janez in action, just below the top

View to Tamar valley from the top

We successfully reached the top and after a short break, we started with the long descent, first to South East, followed by an ascent to Jalovška škrbina, 2138 m, and then on a marked way back to Dom v Tamarju mountain hut, where we had a well deserved beer and after that it was time to go home.

Hiking and climbing with Janez