Podnar / Bodenbauer - Bielschitza/Svačica (via Karweg)

Access to starting point:
We drive to the border crossing Ljubelj and continue on the Austrian side. Soon after noticing a smaller church on the left side of the road, a road branches off to the left towards the village Poden / Bodental. At the crossroads after the village Slovenji Plajberk / Windisch Bleiberg, we turn left towards Podnu / Bodental. In Podnu / Bodental, we reach the mountain signposts for Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte, one to the left and one to the right. We go left and drive on the road to the end of the asphalt, where on a parking lot near the grazing fences we park.

Route description:
From Podnar near which we park on the extended road, we head onto the macadam and for public traffic closed forest road in the direction of Mlake / Märchenwiese and Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte. The road, which starts gently ascending, soon brings us to the first junction, where the path towards the farm Vgriz / Ogrisbauer branches off to the right, and we continue straight in the direction of Celovška koča. The road goes a little further into the forest and splits into two parts. We choose the left marked road, which after approximately 30 minutes of walking from the starting point brings us to Mlake (flat, ample and panoramic meadow).
Here the road turns slightly to the right, and we continue straight on the parallel but somewhat less visible marked path, which continues across the meadow. On the other side of the meadow, the path returns to the forest and gradually starts moderately ascending. After a short ascent, we arrive at a smaller junction, where a ski touring path branches off to the left, and we continue straight through a smaller torrent ditch. Some 10 steps higher we leave the ditch, as the blazes direct us to the right (straight at first on and along the ditch, higher through ample screes a rougher partly pathless track leads towards the saddle Belščica) onto the path, which a few meters higher joins the forest road. When we step onto the road, we follow it to the left, but walk along it only to the first right bend. At the end of the bend, we leave the marked path, which initially continues along the road, and continue sharply left onto an unmarked but easy-to-follow track. The track already after a few meters turns slightly to the right and starts ascending transversely through the forest. Higher, the track starts steeply ascending through the forest, which after a while begins to thin. A little further ahead, the forest is gradually replaced by a belt of dwarf pines and shrubs, and the increasingly panoramic path, from which we get beautiful views of the walls of Palec, Zelenjak, Vrtača and nearby Svačica, brings us to the place where we return to the marked path (the marked path is somewhat longer and technically more demanding, but well secured). When we reach the marked path, we first ascend along it to a small spring, and from there to the nearby junction at the pass Vrata / Matschatcher Sattel.
On the mentioned pass, a less trodden unmarked track branches off to the left, which leads "directly" to the saddle Belščica, and we continue straight and start descending towards Celovška koča. On the section of the path where the track widens into a cart track, the marked path to Ovčji vrh (Kozjak) / Geissberg branches off to the right, and we continue further along the path, which gently descends. A little further, the cart track splits into two parts, and we choose the right one, along which we arrive at Celovška koča in a few minutes, from which a nice view opens towards Stol and Vajnež.
From the hut, we head left in the direction of Stol / Hochstuhl, Svačica / Bielschitza and Prešernova koča and continue along a gentle cart track, which a little lower turns into a mountain path, which through a belt of dwarf pines brings us to the screes below Svačica. The path ahead ascends transversely across the first scree, then brings us to a short steep section, where a steel cable assists us at the crossing. The short and technically not particularly demanding section of the path ends quickly, and the path continues across the scree, over which a wide and well-maintained path leads us. With views of the surrounding walls, we then ascend without major difficulties to the saddle Belščica, where there is a marked junction.
From the mentioned junction, near which there are Austrian mountain direction signs, we continue left (straight Stol, Vrtača and Zelenica) in the direction of Svačica (on the sign Bielschitza). The path ahead first crosses the slopes to the left, then brings us to the ridge of Svačica. Here we continue slightly left and further along the initially still gentle ridge. Some 10 meters higher, the path, which continues along the ridge, starts to ascend very steeply. In the continuation, we steeply ascend along the ridge, which is somewhat precipitous in places, but since we have a belt of dwarf pines on the right side all the time, the ascent does not pose major difficulties. Higher, the ridge narrows, and from the right side a somewhat less steep unmarked path joins us. A shorter gentle ascent follows along the locally exposed ridge, and the path brings us to the panoramic and precipitous summit.

Along the route: Vrata / Matschatcher Sattel (1714m), Celovška koča/Klagenfurter Hutte (1664m), Sedlo Belščica (1840m)

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