Planina Blato - Vernar (via Grintovica)
Starting point: Planina Blato (1147 m)
Starting point Lat/Lon: 46.3112°N 13.8501°E
Path name: via Grintovica
Time of walking: 5 h
Difficulty: very difficult pathless terrain
Difficulty of skiing: no data
Altitude difference: 1078 m
Altitude difference (by path): 1230 m
Map: TNP 1:50.000
Access to starting point:
From highway Ljubljana - Jesenice we go to the exit Lesce and follow the road towards Bled and forward towards Bohinjska Bistrica. We continue driving towards the Lake Bohinj (Ribčev laz), where we come to the crossroad, where we continue right in the direction of Stara Fužina. In Stara Fužina at the crossroad at the chapel, we turn sharply left on an ascending road in the direction of the mountain pasture Blato, mountain pasture Vogar and valley Voje. The road ahead brings us to the spot, where the road toll or parking fee has to be paid, we follow it forward to the next crossroad, where we continue left (right Voje). Then we follow the road to the next crossroad (we drive for quite some time), where we turn sharply right in the direction of the mountain pasture Blato (straight mountain pasture Vogar). We follow this road to the parking lot above the mountain pasture Planina Blato.
Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue on a macadam road which past a gate in few steps brings us to a right turn. On the right side of the mentioned turn, we will notice the beginning of the hunting path, which with the help of steel cables leads over a shorter very steep slope. The path soon passes into the forest and turns slightly towards the right, where we step on a wide rough cart track (to here possible also on the road, or higher cart track). We follow the cart track to the right (straight continues hunting path towards the mountain pasture Krstenica), and for some time it is steeply ascending. Cart track, from which some dead-end branches branch off, we follow to a little bigger and partly marked crossing, where on one of the trees we notice a caption Grintovica.
Here we leave a wide cart track and we continue on the right a little narrower, which is for some time gently ascending. The path ahead few times slightly descends, and then we notice signs for Grintovica, which point us to the right into a dense forest (here we leave worse cart track). In the forest footpath entirely vanishes, and we continue in the same direction, where we come to a large number of the fallen trees. Here we cross a marked path which leads from the valley Voje towards the mountain pasture Krstenica (because of the fallen trees is crossing almost unnoticeable, but we have to be careful, to not continue on a marked path). On the other side of a marked path we cross a smaller clearing, and the path after it returns into the forest and gradually starts steeply descending. After a short steep descent path flattens, and it brings us on steep slopes, on which we are mostly diagonally descending. During the crossing we walk past few shorter slightly exposed slopes, after that slope flattens, and the path continues with some shorter ascents and descents. A little further, we step out of the forest, where we step on the south part of the mountain pasture Zgornja Grintovica, where we notice the first wooden cottages. The path ahead crosses a lane of a forest and it brings us to a trough with water, by which stands cottage Kefova koča. We still continue, again through a lane of a forest and we follow the path to the upper part of the mountain pasture, where we also notice some old shepherd huts.
On last upper part of the mountain pasture, we will on the right side, near the decaying cottage, notice a wide footpath which goes into the forest and starts diagonally descending towards the mountain pasture Spodnja Grintovica. After approximately 10 minutes of descent, we come on the mentioned mountain pasture, where we also join a marked path from the valley Voje, which we follow to the left.
The path ahead returns into the forest, where it again starts ascending steeper. A considerably monotonous path then brings us into a small indistinct valley (sinkhole Jurjevčeva vrtača), where it gradually flattens. Ahead forest becomes little thinner and the path turns slightly towards the right, where then after few minutes of additional walking, we get to a poorly marked crossing. We continue on the right path (left mountain pasture Planina pot Mišelj vrhom, Malo polje and Velo polje), which again starts considerably ascending. The path ahead is ascending by an indistinct ridge of less known peak Na Zagonu (1824 meters), and then it flattens and in few steps of additional walking brings us to the spot, where we join the significantly better beaten path from Pokljuka.
We continue in the direction of the mountain hut Vodnikov dom and we continue the ascent on a gently sloping path, which crosses slopes of Tosc. The path ahead crosses also some smaller scree (in the early summer are here still possible snow fields), then quickly brings us to the mountain hut Vodnikov dom na Velem polju.
At the mountain hut, we continue right in the direction of Krma (straight Triglav) on a steep path, which at first ascends by botanical garden, and then it is ascending over relatively steep, mostly grassy slopes. Higher, the path passes into a smaller indistinct valley, through which we in few minutes of a steep ascent ascend on a saddle Bohinjska vratca.
From the saddle Bohinjska vratca we continue left on an unmarked footpath which leads on a grassy slope upwards. Grassy slope is becoming increasingly steep and especially in wet it is very dangerous for slipping. Steep footpath which runs slightly left from the ridge we then follow all the way to grassy secondary peak at an altitude 2183 meters.
From the secondary peak, we continue on the ridge and at first, we few meters steeply descend on a rocky slope. We continue on the ridge, which becomes quite narrow and exposed. We walk mostly by the left side of the ridge and also few cairns show the direction. Next follows few more very short climbing spots (I-II grade) and we are already on the summit of Vernar.
The starting point - Planina Spodnja Grintovica 1:45, Planina Spodnja Grintovica - Vodnikov dom 2:00, Vodnikov dom - Vernar 1:15.
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