Bodenbauer - Vertatscha/Vrtača

Access to starting point:
We drive to a border crossing Ljubelj and ahead on the Austrian side. Soon after that, when on the left side of the road, we notice a smaller church road towards the village Žabnica / Bodental branches off to the left. At the crossroad for village Slovenji Plajberk / Windisch Bleiberg we turn left towards Žabnica / Bodental. In Žabnica / Bodental we come to mountain signposts for Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte left and right. We go left and drive on the road to the end of the asphalt, where on a parking lot near the grazing fences we park.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we go on for the traffic closed forest road with signs »Marchenwiese«. Walking forest road through the forest in a gentle ascent brings us to a pleasant meadow, where a beautiful view opens up towards the northern walls of Vrtača and Palec. Further, we cross a meadow on which the footpath is hard to follow and on the other side, we look for a cart track which goes slightly upwards into the forest. After few minutes walk on a cart track blazes point us to the right on a footpath which soon crosses a torrent by which it then ascends. The path then withdraw from the torrent a little to the right and brings us on a smaller clearing, where the marked path point us even a little more to the right. The path ahead ascends steeper and after a good 30 minutes of walking, it brings us to a crossing, where we continue left (right mountain pasture Vgrizeva planina 5 minutes).
Steepness here decreases and the path passes out of the forest into dwarf pines. Next follows a crossing of the scree, and then with the help of steel cables we descend slightly downwards. From here ahead the path is exposed to falling stones. Further, a well-secured path starts ascending on a steep rocky slope. On the top of this easier climbing part we come to an inscription box. The path after that isn't difficult anymore and in diagonal ascending we come to a saddle Vrata. The path ahead starts descending and in few minutes brings us to a crossing, where we continue straight (right Ovčji vrh) and in few minutes of light descend we come to the mountain hut Celovška koča.
At the mountain hut, we go left in the direction of the mountain hut Prešernova koča na Stolu. The path ahead at first crosses grassy slopes, and then it slightly descends on a small indistinct saddle. The path ahead starts to ascend steeply on the scree to a little grassy part of the path. A little further while crossing a steeper slopes we get help from a steel cable, but this part of the path in dry doesn't cause problems. Further, we are again ascending on the scree all the way to the border.
From the saddle Belščica, from where the path on Svačica branches off to the left, we continue straight and we continue in the direction of Vrtača, mountain hut Prešernova koča and Zelenica. Few minutes we cross grassy slopes, and then we get to the spot, where caption on rock for Vrtača points us left (straight downwards Stol). Next follows few minutes of relatively easy walking, and then we get to a short but steep grassy slope, on which we diagonally descend. When the descent ends, we get to an ample scree, over which we start in a semicircle ascending. Further worse beaten and on many spots to falling stones exposed path higher few times steeply ascends, and then it turns a little more to the right and brings us on southwestern shoulder of Vrtača, where we join the better beaten path from Ljubelj and Završnica.
Here we continue left and we start ascending steeply on very steep and for slipping dangerous slopes. Higher, the path brings us on the main ridge of Karawanks, where it flattens. Next follows approximately 20 minutes of walking on and by the ridge, which is in parts slightly exposed, and in the entire part dangerous for slipping. This panoramic path we then follow all the way to the top of Vrtača.

On the way: Vrata (1714m), Klagenfurter Hutte/Celovška koča (1664m), Sedlo Belščica (1840m)