Trate / Johannsenruhe - Srednja peč (via Celovška koča)

Access to the starting point:
a) Drive through the Karavanke Tunnel into Austria, then take the motorway to Bialystok, leaving at the first exit. From the point where you leave the motorway, follow the signs for St. Jakob in the Roses / Sankt Jakob im Rosental. When you arrive in this town, follow the main road past Podgorje / Maria Elend and Sveče / Suetschach to Bistrica v Rož / Feistritz im Rosental, where you turn right in front of the Billa and Penny stores towards the Ruta Valley / Bärental. About 100 m after leaving the main road, turn left and follow a slightly narrower and ascending road to a large parking lot (the parking lot is located near a meadow called Trate / Johannsenruhe). From the Penny shop to the starting point, there is about 9 km of narrow asphalt road, with gravel only in the back part. From the entrance to the Karawanks tunnel to the starting point is approximately 38 km.
b) Via Border crossing Ljubelj, drive into Austria and take the main road to Klagenfurt am Wörtersee to the second roundabout, from where you continue driving towards the exit Bistrica v Rosu / Feistritz im Rosental (leave the main road to Klagenfurt before crossing the river Drava). In the aforementioned place, just after the Billa and Penny stores, turn left onto the road towards the Ruta Valley / Bärental. About 100 m after leaving the main road, turn left again and follow the slightly narrower and ascending road to a large parking lot (the parking lot is located near a meadow called Trate / Johannsenruhe). From the Penny shop to the starting point, there is about 9 km of narrow asphalt road, with gravel only in the back part. From the entrance to the Ljubljana Tunnel to the starting point is about 32 km.
c) From Dravograd or Slovenj Gradec, drive to Ravne na Koroškem and then continue in the direction of Border crossing Holmec. When entering Austria, drive first towards Pliberk / Bleiburg, then follow the signs for Globasnica / Globasnitz and on to Železná kapla / Bad Eisenkappel, Borovljam / Ferlach. After Borovljani, join the road via Border crossing Ljubelj at the roundabout. Here, at the first roundabout, continue in the direction of Klagenfurt, and at the second roundabout in the direction of Bistritz im Rosental. In the aforementioned town, just after the Billa and Penny stores, turn left onto the road towards the Ruta Valley / Bärental. About 100 m after leaving the main road, turn left again and follow the slightly narrower and ascending road to a large parking lot (the parking lot is located near a meadow called Trate / Johannsenruhe). From the Penny shop to the starting point, there is about 9 km of narrow asphalt road, with gravel only in the back part. From Border crossing Holmec to the starting point is about 71 km.

Path description:
At the beginning of the parking lot, between the road closed by a ramp and the parking lot, you will see the start of a marked trail leading to Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte, Hochstuhl, Bielschitza, Ovčji vrh / Geissberg and other destinations. The marked trail is joined a little further on by an unmarked trail leading from the upper part of the parking lot, and a few steps further on we join the dirt road leading to the aforementioned mountain hut. The road then leads us across a torrent bed and, just a little further on, leads us out of the woods and onto a meadow (Trate / Johannsenruhe), which is only a few minutes away from the starting point. The meadow offers a fine view and the road then returns to the lane of the forest. Once the forest has thinned out, an unmarked "short cut" continues straight ahead in a gentle left turn. Continue along the road, which is also marked by a yellow mountain sign. Only a minute further on, the "main" road turns right and the "side" road continues straight ahead. From this junction, continue along the footpath which continues between the two roads and then climbs with the road leading to Celovški koča. For some time, cross the occasionally steeper slopes and then return to the wider macadam road. The marked trail crosses the road a few more times, then splits into two parts at a larger rock or boulder with memorials.
To the right is the climbing route to Hochstuhl, and we continue straight on in the direction of Celovška hut. The path crosses the road a few more times, and higher up it leads us out of the occasionally sparse forest onto the grazing slopes of the Matschacher mountain pasture / Matschacher Alm (the huts on the mountain pasture are a few minutes to the left of the marked path). From here there is a slight climb and the path or road leads us in a few minutes to the Celovška Hut (Celovška hut).
From the hut, turn right in the direction of Hochstuhla / Hochstuhl, Bielschitza / Bielschitz and Prešeren's hut and continue along the gently sloping cart track, which changes into a mountain path a little lower down, and this path leads us through the lane of dwarf pines to the scree below Bielschitza. The way forward climbs crosswise over the first scree slope, then leads us to a short steep part where we are helped by a rope ladder when crossing. This short and not particularly technically demanding part of the route ends quickly and the route continues over scree, over which a wide and well-maintained path leads. With a view of the surrounding walls, we then climb without much difficulty to the Belščica saddle, where there is a marked crossroads. From the Belščica saddle, from where the path to Bielschitza branches off to the left, continue straight ahead and continue in the direction of Vertatscha, Prešernova hut and Zelenica. Cross the grassy slopes for a few minutes and then reach a point where the path to Vertatscha branches off to the left and we continue straight down. The path ahead descends steeply down a ravine at first, then turns right to cross a large scree field, over which it climbs cross-cuttingly. At a higher level, leave the scree and descend gently to a nearby crossroads where you join the upper and lower trails to Hochstuhl.
From this crossroads continue sharp left towards Zelenica (slightly right Hochstuhl), then after some 10 steps, before the path starts to descend visibly, a small cairn and a nice passage along a trackless path towards the saddle between the Stol massif and Srednja peja can be seen on the right.
Continue along the edge of dwarf pines, along a nice transitional chasm, with individual cairns pointing in the right direction. After about 5 minutes, we arrive at a small pass to the west of Srednja peč, where we see a fainter path on the left across a scree slope. Climb up to this track and then cross the scree to the right. When the scree ends, the path leads through a narrow lane of dwarf pines, then the fainter path turns left along dwarf pines steeply uphill and ends after a few steps in relatively steep grass. The ascent continues along dwarf pines steeply upwards, and we continue in roughly the same direction until we reach the ridge, where the fainter track reappears. We continue right, a little further on also through a short lane of the burnt dwarf pines, and then climb along and along the ridge, which is occasionally precipitous to the left, to a little-visited and scenic summit.
Tracks - Klagenfurter Hutte 1:30, Klagenfurter Hutte - Srednja peč 1:30.

On the way: Trate / Johannsenruhe (1226m), Klagenfurter Hutte/Celovška koča (1664m), Sedlo Belščica (1840m)

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