Borovlje / Ferlach - Borovski vrh (Žehtar) / Sechter (Raketensteig)

Access to the starting point:
Via Border crossing Ljubelj, drive into Austria, then follow the main road towards Klagenfurt, but only as far as Podljubelj / Unterloibl, where you turn right towards the Hofer store and the police. At a lower level you arrive in Borovlje / Ferlach, where you cross the railway line and a little further on go right towards Bajdiše / Waidisch. Turn right after the Eurospar shop and park in the parking lot next to the Borovlje / Ferlach railway station.

Path description:
From the parking lot go back a little, where on the west side of the Eurospar shop you will see yellow mountain direction signs for Borovski vrh / Sechter and Ferlacher Horn / Ferlacher Horn. At first you walk along the asphalt road that crosses the railway line, then you pass a few houses, fields and meadows and walk up a slight incline to Šajdnik / Schaidabauer, where there is a guesthouse.
Continue straight on, passing the garages of agricultural machinery. Pass the first garage on the right and the second on the left, and then the path passes into the woods, where the markings reappear. The trail continues through the forest, passing a road reflector and a boundary stone, and a little higher up the trail splits.
Take route 659 in the direction of Grlovec and continue climbing through the forest. Crossing a macadam road, the path becomes steeper and steeper and for a few minutes it is very steep. After the steep part, the path is laid and then crosses a worse road. After the road go left with cart track, where you climb up an overgrown clearing, and higher up you go through the woods, where you cross the road once more. When you reach the road again a little higher up, follow it to a serpentine to the right, where you see the continuation of the waymarked path on the outside of the bend. The path climbs along the edge of the next cutting, and when you reach the end of the road, follow it down to the right for a few steps, then take a sharp left onto the footpath, which again becomes steeper. This is followed by a climb in longer serpentines, crossing a large (in height) overgrown coppice several times, where the path is made more difficult in several places by overgrowth or fallen trees. Such a climb, which also offers beautiful views, takes just over 1 hour.
After leaving the clearing, you also leave an area of extensive raspberry and wild strawberry growth, and the trail continues gradually from the northern slopes to the western slopes of Borovski vrh, where you cross steep slopes. There is a cross-climb that offers occasional views to the west, and the path reaches a ridge higher up, linking Borovski vrh with Grlovec.
At the ridge, where the abandoned and sometimes protected Ho-Tschi-Minh Pfad trail (the above-mentioned trail has been abandoned, what is left of the fixed safety gear trail has been damaged, the ladders have fallen apart, and the crossing of the erosion-prone trail is a life-threatening hazard), we leave the trail towards Grlovec and continue on the ridge, taking a sharp left and continuing our walk. The ridge trail climbs moderately at first, but steeply higher up. Just below the summit, we emerge from the forest and quickly climb up a very steep path to the summit.
Description and pictures refer to 2019 (July).

On the way: Šajdnik / Schaidabauer (537m)

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