Koschutahaus - Cjajnik / Lärchenturm

Access to starting point:
Over the border crossing Ljubelj we drive to Borovlje / Ferlach, where we go right in the direction of village Sele / Zell-Pharre. A little before the sign, which marks settlement Sele / Zell-Pharre road branches off to the right towards the mountain hut Koča pod Košuto / Koschutahaus. We follow this road all the way to the mountain hut, where we park on a large parking lot.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we go towards the southeast following the signs Lärchenturm / Cjajnik, Koschutnikturm / Košutnikov turn. At the beginning of the path, we will also notice a large board with picture of Košuta and drawn paths on Cjajnik and Košutnikov turn. After that, the path for some time runs through the forest towards the east and it brings us to a crossing where we go right following the signs Cjajnik. We soon come out of the forest to scree which we then in ascent cross towards the west (in the direction towards Cjajnik). At the crossing of the scree we follow red white blazes, big yellow blazes on rocks should not confuse us, because they lead on the scree upwards towards the gully, which leads towards the notch Cjajnikova škrbina.
At the entrance into a climbing part of the path, we must equip ourselves with a helmet and self-belay set, highly recommended is also the use of climbing gloves. The path already at the beginning steeply ascends and then crosses a steep wall to the right. The path is all the time well-secured with a steel cable, occasionally we also get help from some stemples, but much less than someone might expect. There aren't many footholds and a lot of work at the ascent, we have to do with hands. After that, the path for quite some time runs slightly to the right and quite few times almost vertically ascends. Later, the path turns to the left and it ascends on a little easier slightly vegetated slope. For a short time also the peak of Cjajnik shows up, and then we again enter the wall. We again very steeply ascend and also the exposure is becoming greater. Steepness further rarely decreases and then the path turns slightly to the right and it brings us to a crossing below the upper tower. We can choose between two paths, which lead to the summit, and no matter which we will choose follows a very demanding climbing. The left path is marked with difficulty level D, and right with difficulty level C.
Austrians grade difficulty of climbing paths with grades from A to E where A is the easiest and E the most difficult.
Right the easier path at first bypasses the peak on the right side, and then to the summit ascends from the western side. And left path from the crossing ascends vertically towards the summit. Climbing here is very demanding because in the rock there aren't many holds. We get help from only few stemples and vertical steel cable.
The path on Cjajnik is extremely demanding and it is appropriate only for most skilled mountaineers with enough strength in arms and with mandatory self belaying. The path belongs among most difficult in Karawanks and it is harder than most of Italian extremely demanding paths in Julian Alps.
We can descend on the ascent route (in the upper part on the path C difficulty level). The second option is that we descend towards the south to the notch Cjajnikova škrbina from where we continue to the main ridge of Košuta and we descend on the Slovenian side or on climbing path on Košutnikov turn to the starting point. The path from the notch Cjajnikova škrbina through the eastern gully is closed because of falling stones.

Trip can be extended to: Koschutnikturm (Košutnikov turn) (1 h 30 min)