Some time ago I started telling people Darline and I will
climb the Kili. When I mentioned this to our Slovenian friends we were
immediately invited for a training session on the Triglav. Me, who’s normally
very thorough, did not think this through or research this for one second. I
just said yes, sure why not! The long way or short way I was asked, since we
will be walking many hours every day on our trip, I opted for the long way.
And this is how we set out last Wednesday for Slovenia,
already from the airplane I fell in love with its beauty. The stunning lakes,
mountains, forest, castles, quaint little houses, gingerbread cookies, I
absolutely loved it. On Thursday we spent a relaxing day around lake Bled.
Sipping my cappuccino whilst overlooking the clear blue lake my thoughts
drifted to the next day when we would do our hike. I had yet to see the Triglav
at that point, as it turns out, it was going to take a while to see it in all
its splendour. In the evening we had a safety briefing, I had been told to
bring climbing rope and clip but never did I consider I would be needing them.
I had assumed it was just to teach us how to use them in case we run into
trouble on the Kili. Everyone agreed to be ready the next morning at 5:30am.
The idea of the trip was to test our equipment, our
determination and perseverance. And so we set out through the forests, laughter
and chatter could be heard and everyone was full of energy. We would hike to a
cabin where we would have a coffee break. Estimated time to the Triglav was six
hours on the sign, the cabin about 1.5 hour but as it turns out, Slovenians
have a different sense of time. A Slovenian half an hour is in fact nothing like
our half an hour, you can double or triple it. The walk to the cabin was fun,
surrounded by green fields filled with beautiful wild flowers, clear blue skies
and the sun kissing our back I fully enjoyed the views and the clean air. From
time to time there was a dodgy part but all in all it was fun.
After crossing a snow filled ravine, the cabin was a welcome
break, coffee and a warming Slovenian fortified wine, quick update via WIFI and
we were ready for part two and this, my friends, is where the real work began. The
paths became narrower, the drops steeper, sometimes there were no paths and we
had to work with iron bars and iron supports and we walked and walked... And
suddenly the path was gone.... we missed it somehow and noticed it was much
higher than we were so we made a shortcut up. We passed many hikers and all
said half an hour, whatever you asked, it was half an hour away... it turned
out not quite like that. As we rounded a corner, our friend pointed up to a
tiny building way up high and said this is the hotel where we will sleep. I
turned and looked at Steven (Darline’s better half) and I could see from the
look on his face we were thinking the same thing... half an hour my ass... that’s
hours away! But there was no choice but to go on and so we walked and walked
and climbed and walked and slowly inched our way to the hotel.
As we took a
break to catch our breath we could see the Triglav in all its glory, I squinted
my eyes and thought are those people I see hanging there?!? Yes indeed, there
is no path up to the summit, it’s a rocky climb and my resolve just
disappeared. No way I said, I need to
think about this, I am not a climber, I have never in my life climbed anything,
I’ve run and walked and done other stupid things but not THAT!
We all agreed to
get to the hotel, have lunch and think it over, by that time we had been
walking a long time, 7 hours to the hotel. I had a warming traditional
Slovenian lunch, sauerkraut with beans and some kind of soup... in hindsight
not the best food to eat when there are people walking behind you (sorry
Darline ;) but at least we are now used to each other’s less pleasant smells
;)) My brain was going crazy, I kept thinking of what was left to do and
suddenly our friend got up, clapped his hands and said OK time to put on the harnesses
and helmets and get moving before the weather turns bad. Nobody protested, it
was as if we were all on automatic or perhaps some of us wanted to get away
from the foul smelling toilets (honestly the worst toilets I’ve been to in my
life!).
The sign said 1 hour to the peak, well by that time we already knew in
our case that meant 2 hours. By the end of this trip I was convinced the signs
were for mountain goats and not humans like us.
To get to the big Triglav we had to pass the little Triglav.
Triglav means 3 heads. The only thing I saw were the rocks in front of me and
my feet, my brain was completely empty from anything else. There were iron
ropes to secure ourselves in many places but there were parts without anything.
It was clear we were beginners as many people passed us without any security
which personally I thought was insane, regardless of how much experience you
have. We passed remembrance plaques, five people died here, one person there
etc... it was anything but encouraging. When we got to the top of the little
Triglav Steven had had it. He was tired and afterwards it transpired he was
just worried that one of us would freak out and he would not have enough energy
left to help us get down. It was decision time, going on or turning back. We
were so close ... it would be like turning around 100 meters from the
Uhuru Peak, I searched deep inside, I
looked up and remembered my dad, no quitting little one... and so I decided to
move on. There was hesitation for Darline, I could see she was torn between
staying with Steven or coming... in the end she came J And so I crossed the ridge,
it was narrow, no ropes, big drops on both sides and from the other side a guy
came skipping (yes skipping) over, I looked at him and thought you gotta be
kidding me as I shuffled along.... two hours after we set out from the hotel we
reached the peak. And as I was sipping my cold fanta (there was a guy selling
drinks on the top) I looked around and it was breathtaking. We made it, we did
it and slowly I came the realisation that in fact I had to go down the same way
I came up and I thought I was going to die.
Going down is much worse than going
up but again there was no choice and so at 7pm I was back at the hotel and I
cried. I was tired, scared, happy everything at once. I crashed on a bench
outside and our friend brought over an older mountain guide who had been to the
Kili... he grinned and said you’ve been up to the Triglav? You will be OK on
the Kili J
In the evening we sat in the cabin, ate pancakes and drank
tea with rum and we looked at our videos and pictures and realised we had done
a completely insane thing. Exhausted we headed to our rooms and crashed but
nobody slept well. It was noisy and I was filled with adrenaline so after maybe
3 hours of sleep throughout the night, we got ready for the descend. I was
worried about it, I had stressed about it the whole night and rightly so. I
skidded, fell on my butt a few times, my knees were killing me and I was afraid
of going down a ravine.
And now that Darline has written her post I can add a few things here. As I was passing a particular point, I thought to myself gosh it's narrow here. It was a flat piece but just narrow with a grassy ravine with big rocks on the side. Suddenly I heard screaming and as I turned around I saw my biggest fear come true but it wasn't me going down the ravine it was Darline. My heart stopped as I watched in horror. Darline had listened well to the safety briefing, if you fall turn over on your tummy immediately and she did, managing to stop from going down even further. I was stunned but we all made eye contact and nodded to each other as if saying, let's not make a big deal out of it or it will make things worse. The rest of the descent was mainly in silence with even more concentration and in deep thoughts of how fragile we really are.
What would take an experienced mountain hiker 2.5 hours
took us 4 hours or so.
At one point our friend said, Heidi we are so close, from
now on it’s only downhill... yeah it was like the Slovenian half an hour, I
rounded a corner and there was a steep part going up but it was just too funny
not to laugh about it. Our friend at the end had run ahead to get the car
closer, such a welcome sight as by that time I was exhausted and nauseous.
Our trip has taught me many things, whenever I think I have
reached my limit it seems I can go just a bit further. My body can still handle
12hours plus of intense activity. My equipment is holding out well but most of
all I can’t think of a better person than Darline to climb the Kilimanjaro
with. Caring and encouraging and as determined as I was, only altitude sickness
can stop us from reaching the Uhuru peak. It has also taught me that some challenges are perhaps not cut out for me and that it's not worth the risk so where I am sure I will be doing a lot more in future, rock climbing will not be one of them ;) It also showed me that rock climbing and manicures do not go well together and I broke about 5 nails in the middle, you can't look good on a mountain.
Special thanks to Katja and Mitja, our Slovenian friends,
they are once in a lifetime friends, the kind everyone wished they had. I could
write many more things about Slovenia but in fact you should go and discover
this country for yourself, I can assure you, you will be very pleasantly
surprised!
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