Republika Hrvatska

How that gets to be pronounced as Croatia beats me. Maybe not the most precipitous range of hills but the Dinaric alps are fine to look at and ascend. I have had a go at a handful recently.

Croatia's highest point is Dinara (1831m P782) although it is not its most prominent one (that comes later). There is a small road towards the trailhead that leaves the village of Kijevo on the D1 road  at N43.96677 E16.36487.

Like other people I started from the unused bus-stop near Glavas hamlet N44.00556 E16.42150 - once upon a time there was a sketch map of the mountain on the side of the shelter, however, this is no longer legible.
The route is waymarked, though, all the way. If you are cheeky enough you could probably drive up through the hamlet to the end of the track by a blue building at 44.01105 E1641936.

From that point onwards the narrow path passes a ruined fortress and negotiates through rocky karst limestone and often through dense vegetation.

At one point I stood on a venomous horned viper - as it hissed and raised its head to seek revenge I whisked it away into the undergrowth with my walking pole. There are a couple of water/voda points and I found a trickle of water coming out of a pipe at N44.02806 E16.40670. I took a risk by drinking some and have lived to tell the tale.
Higher up the vegetation becomes more subdued and the limestone rougher. A number of large sinkholes have to be circumvented before eventually reaching the final pull up to the badly damaged trigpoint on the summit at N44.06251 E16.38288. The effort is well worth it with extensive views into nearby Bosnia i Hercegovina and further away islands in the Adriatic.

I descended more or less by the same route keeping a watchful eye out for the viper. However, all I met was the two very friendly dogs from the hamlet and they accompanied me back to the motorhome. These two dogs have been mentioned in other reported ascents of Dinara.

Dinara

Svilaja is probably the least visited of the three Croatian Majors of this trip. It has the fanciest trigpoint with the mostest information - no mention of the prominence, though. I suspect there are easier routes of ascent than the one I took. The true summit is several metres to the northwest west of the trigpoint at N43.79070 E16.48474.

Svilaja

I left the tarmac road at N43.75106 E16.52328 and drove up a rough track as far as the closed Dom na Orlovim at N43.76891 E16.52381. Shortly further up the track two routes were indicated to the summit. I took the one that left the track and headed up into the trees and karst rocks.

It was obviously not a commonly used path, but I persevered. The route perversely ended up being a switchback ride as it went through the middle of a series of heavily vegetated and deep sinkholes.
The disadvantage of all the vegetation was that it made the going a bit tiresome at times. The advantage was that I had the pick of the plentiful wild strawberries to myself.
Possibly in days gone by these sinkholes could have been cultivated but there was little evidence of that now. Finally the path broke out on the easier upper slopes and then on to the broad ridge, pocked by large sinkholes.

For the return journey I went back to a junction of paths at N43.78405 E16.49425, turned left and descended by a steeper but much more straightforward path through the woods on the northern (allegedly still land-mined) face of the mountain to meet the gravel road at N43.78558 E16.50286 where there was space to park at least one vehicle. There followed a trudge back in the hot sun  and no strawberries round the mountain to the start.

Sv Jure mast

Sveti Jure

Sveti Jure is Croatia's most prominent mountain - 1762m P1164. I thought I would not be able to get to the summit (N43.34204 E17.05384) because of fencing around the comms mast and no excuse about climbing over the high gate as the warning sign said no entry in five languages. However, someone had kindly dug a tunnel under the fence round the back. To tell the truth - the rest is a drive-up, where any exhaustion comes from frequent turns of the steering wheel at the many sharp turns in the road for 21 kilometres.

What's man?

Been a while since I last posted on the blog. Does not mean that in the meantime I have not gone up a hill and came down. On the contrary, I have climbed quite a few - mainly in Scottish Highlands and on Scottish islands. However, as I have now reached Croatia in my 2014 European tour I thought I ought to resume. Having driven through seven countries to get here there has been rather more motoring than summit bagging. Nevertheless, there have been a few hills on the way.

Watzmann rockery

Firstly, there was Watzmann (2713m P953) a Major and the highest point in the German Berchtesgadener alps that had a very rugged finish, especially with an entertaining section of klettersteig/via ferrata between the subsidiary top, Hocheck and the main Mittelspitze top. It is a long haul to do the whole mountain in one day from Wimbachbruecke and most people stop overnight in the Watzmannhaus hut - not me, though.

Watzmann summit

The next summit was Reisskogel (2371m P1390) the highest point in the Austrian Gailtaler alps. Not as long a walk from the trailhead or as much ascent. However, the route involved some awkward scrambling and following a long ridge that was often less than a metre wide and very exposed on each side. There quite a few black lizards on the upper parts of the trail.

Reisskogel waymark

This was followed by two frustrating days trying to reach the summit of an Ultra in the Italian Julian alps - Jof di Montasio (m P). On each day I was forced to give up because of the thundery weather before reaching the infamous and swaying Pipans ladder. As the Jof is a must do I will be back - maybe later on in the season in the hope there will be less old step snow adding to the difficulty of getting to the foot of the ladder.

Jof di Montasio view

Joe and Sophie's wedding

17-08-2013

Occasionally, there are things that are a lot more important than going to the top of a hill. This is one of those moments - the marriage of my son Joe, to Sophie.

Just a few pictures:

Signing on the dotted line

Arriving at the reception

 

The groom's parents - that's me not wearing Scarpa boots

The first dance

The morning after

Two Sues

Back in the UK for a big hill

 13-08-2013

Arrived in Dover with brake problems, which took most of the day to sort. So whilst the garage waited for parts to be delivered I jumped on my bike and went looking for the nearest hill. That is, if you can count this as a hill? Looks more like a ploughed field to me.

Swinge Hill, 173m P62 

 

 
I eventually managed to get back on the road and head home re-learning how to drive on the left. My goal - whilst I was away someone had decided that Northamptonshire had an alternative County Top and that it was also a Hump=.

So, after all those European and African Majors and Ultras I was finally going to tackle a Big Hill (236m). No messing around with fancy names like Pic, Puig, Pico, Jebel, Mont, Torre or Tossa - in England we describe our hills as they are., not.
By the time I got to Daventry it was beginning to get dark. Never mind, I could still have a go at finding both the summit and the Staverton trigpoint 500 metres further on.

Big hill summit - bit less crowded than Sancy

Staverton trigpoint

 

 

 

Perseids? No, Boveids

Overnight in A45 layby, Daventry (142m)

Puy de Sancy on a sunny Sunday

11-08-2013

Approaching the Le Monts Dore, Auvergne from the east it was difficult to believe that one of them could be an Ultra, it just didn’t look big enough. However, from the north in the large ski-resort of Mont-Dore it looked a bit more promising that extinct volcano Puy de Sancy 1885m at N45.52821 E2.81402 could be P1578 and hence making it an Ultra.

Mont-Dore

 

I parked just before the Station du Sancy at (1291m) N45.54356 E2.81784 to avoid having to pay for parking in the station car park. From the station I walked briskly up the ski piste, the Chemin du Sancy – I have driven along worse pistes – that zigzags quickly up the mountain side. At a col at about (1660m) N45.53254 E2.82122 I turned left to go to a higher col below the summit to its east. By now there was a constant stream of people coming the opposite way.

You may be pleased to know that I did not cheat by using the Telepherique skilift to ascend this hill – however, thousands of others did (and do). I will let my summit photo sum up what it was like up there. 

Puy de Sancy summit

Just below the summit

On the descent route to the west the path has been replaced by wooden steps with that really irritating thing of being unevenly spaced so that it is impossible to set up a rhythm, even if you could move faster because of the other people in the way. I avoided going to the upper skilift station because it would have been uneven wooden steps all the way.

The Telepherique top station - and below, the carpark

I carried on over the tops of Puy Redon and Puy de Cliergue – which I discovered have been given the dubious honour of having separate listings on Peakbagger, despite their limited prominence. Many of the people I met on this stretch were clearly wearing inappropriate footwear for the path – the following photos shows the consequence for one of them.

The  normal descent route on the west side

At Puy de Cliergue I decided to avoid backtracking to use an alternative descent route to the start by doing something obviously unorthodox and, possibly, heretical. I left the path and yomped down a steep vegetated slope that ended with a line of crags above the carpark area. I did not find the best way down from, I realised in retrospect – but I found a way down that was not too desperate and I did not end up cragfast. At least, it was more interesting than walking in line with a queue of people - and no-one saying 'Bonjour'

At the foot there were signs saying that rock climbing was ‘interdite’ and it could result in a fine of up to 750 Euros – my defence would have been:

1. I did not see the sign until afterwards (I know that ignorance is not a defence)

2. I wasn’t climbing, I was descending (mmm?)

3. I was trying to avoid the rock.

Good job I didn’t get caught really.

9.43km, 1042m total ascent.

I decided to give the Puy de Dome a miss because it too looked like it would be desperately crowded and I resisted the temptation of the amusingly named Puy de Peyre Arse. So, that's it Puy de Sancy turned out to be the final mountain of the trip - nice to finish on an Ultra - shame about the crowds.

New boots three months ago - need resoling, now

Overnight at L’Eclerc centre, Coulanges-Les-Nevers (211m – is that the sea I can hear lapping at the door?)