Podnar / Bodenbauer - Hochstuhl/Stol (via Karweg)

Access to starting point:
We drive to the border crossing Ljubelj and continue on the Austrian side. Soon after we notice a small 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 Poden / Bodental. In Poden / Bodental, we reach the mountain signposts for Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte to the left and to the right. We go left and drive along the road to the end of the asphalt, where we park on the parking lot near the pasture fences.

Route description:
From Podnar near which we park on the widened road, we head onto the macadam and for public traffic closed forest road in the direction of Mlaka / Märchenwiese and Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte. The road, which starts gently ascending, soon brings us to the first junction, where the path to 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 Mlaka (flat, spacious and panoramic meadow).
Here the road turns slightly to the right, and we continue straight along 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 small junction, where the ski touring path branches off to the left, and we continue straight through the small torrent gully. Some 10 steps higher we leave the gully, as the blazes direct us to the right (straight at first along and beside the gully, higher a rough partly pathless track leads across spacious screes 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 first traversing upwards through the forest. Higher the track starts steeply ascending through the forest, which after some time starts to thin out. A little further ahead the forest gradually gives way to a belt of dwarf pines and scrub, and the increasingly panoramic path, from which we have 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, from there further to the nearby junction at the pass Vrata / Matschatcher Sattel.
At 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 descends slightly. 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 the gentle cart track, which a little lower turns into a mountain path, which brings us through a belt of dwarf pines to the screes below Svačica. The path ahead traverses across the first scree, then brings us to a short steep section, where a steel cable assists during the crossing. The short and technically not particularly demanding section of the path ends quickly, and the path continues across the scree, along 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 saddle Belščica, from where the path to Svačica branches off to the left, we continue straight and proceed along the path in the direction of Vrtača, Prešernova koča and Zelenica. For a few minutes we cross grassy slopes, then arrive at the place where the path to Vrtača branches off to the left, and we continue straight downwards. The path ahead first descends steeply down the gully, then turns to the right, where it passes onto spacious screes across which it ascends transversely. Higher we leave the scree and descend slightly to the nearby junction, where the upper and lower path and the path from Završnica join us.
Here we continue straight, and the path from the valley between Srednja peč 1920 m (Srednja peč is a less known peak on the left) and the ridge Orlic (Orlice is a harder-to-reach ridge between the saddle Belščica and Stol) gradually passes onto a larger scree, across which we ascend transversely to the right, then the path gradually passes into a steeper valley between Mali Stol on the left and Stol on the right. Here the path ascends steeply, then gradually flattens and brings us to the marked junction, where the path to the nearby Prešernova koča branches off to the left (5 minutes), and we continue right and in 10 minutes of further walking ascend to the highest peak of the Karawanks.

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

We recommend: trips from the same starting point, similar trips, panorama, summit register