Koschutahaus - Cjajnik / Lärchenturm

Access to the starting point:
Cross the Ljubelj border crossing into Borovlje / Ferlach, where you turn right towards the village of Sele / Zell-Pharre. Shortly before the signpost marking Sele / Zell-Pharre, the road turns right towards the Koschutahaus / Koschutahaus. Follow this road all the way to the hut, where you park in a large parking lot.

Path description:
From the parking lot, head south-east following the signs Lärchenturm / Cjajnik, Koschutnikturm / Koschutnikturm. At the start of the trail you will also see a large sign with a picture of Kosuta and the exact trails to Cjajnik and Koschutnikturm. The trail then passes through the forest to the east for some time and leads to a crossroads where you turn right after the Cjajnik markers. Soon you will come out of the forest to a scree slope which you then cross westwards (towards Cjajnik) as you ascend. When crossing the scree slope, follow the red and white markings, but do not be confused by the large yellow markings on the rocks, which lead you up the scree slope towards the gully that leads to Cjajnik's notch.

When entering the climbing part of the route, be sure to wear a helmet and self-protection kit, and climbing gloves are highly recommended. The route climbs steeply from the start and then crosses a steep wall to the right. The route is well protected by a rope throughout, with the occasional rock to help, but much less than one might expect. There are not many steps and a lot of the climbing has to be done by hand. The path then goes slightly to the right for quite some time and climbs almost vertically a few times. Later the path turns left and climbs a slightly easier, slightly vegetated slope. The top of Cjajnik also appears briefly, and then we re-enter the wall. Again the climb is very steep and the exposure is also increasing. The steepness subsides only rarely, then the path turns slightly to the right and leads to a crossroads below the summit tower. We have a choice of two routes leading to the summit, but whichever one we choose, we are in for some very challenging climbing. The left route is marked with difficulty level D and the right route with difficulty level C.

The Austrians rate the difficulty of climbing routes from A to E, with A being the easiest and E the most difficult.

The easier right-hand route first goes around the summit on the right-hand side and then ascends to the summit from the west. The left-hand path climbs vertically from the crossroads to the summit. The climbing is really very difficult here as there are not many holds in the rock. The only help is a few crampons and a vertical rope.
The Cjajnik route is extremely difficult and is only suitable for the most skilled mountaineers with enough strength in their arms and the obligatory self-belaying. The route is among the most difficult in Karawanks and harder than most of the Italian extremely difficult routes in the Julian Alps.

Alternatively, you can descend south to the Cjajnik notch from where you continue to the main ridge of Kosuta and descend to the Slovenian side, or follow the climbing route on Koschutnikturm to the starting point. The route from the Cjajnik ridge across the eastern gully is closed due to falling rocks.

We can extend the trip to the following destinations: Košutnikov turn (1 h 30 min)

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