Vršič - Jalovec (via Jalovška škrbina)

Access to starting point:
From Kranjska Gora we drive towards Bovec or vice versa, but only to the Vršič pass, where we park.

Path description:
From the parking lot at the Vršič pass we head in the direction of Trenta, where we quickly arrive at a small intersection, where a road closed to public traffic branches off to the left towards the nearby Tičarjev dom and which leads further to the Poštarski dom, but we go right, where next to the wooden cabin where they sell various souvenirs we notice the start of the marked path that leads towards Jalovec and Zavetišče pod Špičkom.
The path already after a few steps brings us to the foot of the scree under Mala Mojstrovka, we keep slightly to the left, where the path through a belt of dwarf pines leads us to the foot of the cliffs, along which we descend a bit. In the continuation the path is still quite scenic and brings us in a few shorter ascents and descents to a shorter, steeper part, where safety cables help us at two more difficult places, which come in handy when the path is wet or slippery. After the mentioned part the path gradually begins to descend transversely, and we descend for quite some time, so we get the feeling that the path will lead us into the valley and not into the area around Jalovec. During the crossing we occasionally have a nice view of the mountains above the Trenta valley, when the path returns to the forest we arrive at a marked junction near the hunting lodge in Rutarska Trenta, which is set a bit off the marked path.
We continue right in the direction of Jalovec (left downhill Zadnja Trenta, straight Zavetišče pod Špičkom) along the path that ascends relatively steeply, first still through the forest, higher on increasingly scenic slopes under Goličica, Lopa and Šite.
On this part we mostly ascend on the southeastern slopes, which higher become increasingly rocky, when we arrive at about 1950 meters above sea level an unmarked path branches off to the right leading towards Šite, we continue on the marked path, which turns slightly to the left and ascends a bit higher to the marked junction under Jalovška škrbina.
Here we go left in the direction of Jalovec (straight Jalovška Škrbina and Tamar valley) and traverse the slopes to the entrance into the Goličica wall.
Before entering the climbing part we put on the helmet, the sign informs us that we will continue the ascent on a very demanding path.
The first part of the ascent along the Goličica wall we do in a slight traversing ascent to the left, then the path turns right and begins to ascend up the wall. The path in the continuation becomes increasingly exposed, the safety cables are really only at the most difficult places, otherwise we have to do most of the ascent without safety cables (this part of the path is especially very dangerous for slipping on the descent).
Higher the steepness eases and we arrive at the scree south of Goličica along and by which we then ascend transversely to the left.
The increasingly scenic path then through Vratca into Ozebnik brings us to the place from which a nice view opens into Jalovčev ozebnik and towards the Tamar valley, the path through the ozebnik has been closed for several decades already.
We continue on the less steep path, which via Jalovško sedelce brings us to the junction at Jezerca, to which we arrive in a slight descent.
Here from the left joins also the path that leads past Zavetišče pod Špičkom and which is a little better secured than this one over the wall of Goličica, but still very demanding, we continue slightly right in the direction of Jalovec.
The path ahead again begins to ascend steeply and with the help of only a few safety cables we ascend on the sometimes quite exposed path to the main ridge of Jalovec, where the steepness of the path eases a bit, but it is still very exposed in many places and often precipitous on both sides.
Also on the main ridge, which is sometimes quite narrow, there are mostly no safety cables, we follow the exceptionally scenic path to the next junction, where the path from Kotovo sedlo joins us.
We continue straight and in a few minutes we reach the 2645 meters high summit, which many also call the king of the mountains.

Vršič - Rutarska Trenta 2:15, Rutarska Trenta - junction under Goličica 1:30, junction under Goličica - Jezerca 1:20, Jezerca - junction on the ridge of Jalovec 0:45, junction on the ridge of Jalovec - Jalovec 0:05.

On the way: Rutarska Trenta (1546m), Razpotje pod Goličico (2070m), Vratca v Ozebnik (2327m), Nad kuloarjem (2371m), Jalovško sedelce (2394m), Jezerca (2390m), Razpotje na grebenu Jalovca (2613m)