Climbing the North Face in Winter

Winter ascents are the most demanding and the most rewarding mountaineering adventures. Tackling the North Face of Triglav isn’t only doable in winter, it’s nothing short of a climber’s delight. The legendary Slovene Route across the giant Wall is always an excellent choice, and winter gives it that additional charm and great respect among alpinists. Grab your ice axes and join us on this exclusive wintertime expedition!  

Dating back to the 19th century, the Slovene Route has become a highly praised climbing route among Slovenes and foreign mountaineers alike. The route’s difficulty level might not be extremely high, but during winter, the ascent certainly requires a considerable amount of prior climbing experience and psychophysical preparedness. This includes the use of ice axes and crampons. As any expert climber will tell you: Good judgement comes from experience. 

Given the right weather conditions, the Slovene Route supplies sufficiently hard snow, offering a superb basis for a speedy and effective ascent. Equipped with ice axes and crampons, you will scale the rugged terrain using a climbing rope. Your guide will make sure that the maximum of two climbers will feel safe and secure as they take on the steep drops, so no prior knowledge of rope techniques is required. 

We approach the Wall in approx. 1.5 hours’ time, depending on the snow conditions. The latter may of course alter the schedule considerably. Then it’s 800 metres of intense climbing the gully, accompanied with fantastic views. The overall duration of our winter tours is highly dependent on snow conditions. The guide will let you know a couple of days in advance what kind of climbing and hiking can be expected given the current weather conditions. 

Interesting fact: Tone Pogačnik, a Slovene Olympian and cross-country skier, was training on the Triglav Glacier in April 1946, when he accidentally skied off the edge of the North Wall in the fog, jumped, and landed on the Slovene Route 100 metres below. He walked away unscathed.

NOTE: The tour can also be extended into a two-day ascent to the summit of Mt. Triglav per request.