Podnar / Bodenbauer - Vertatscha/Vrtača (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 Poden / Bodental. In Poden / 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 pasture 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 Mlaka / 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 Mlaka (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 the ski touring path branches off to the left, and we continue straight through a smaller torrent gully. Some 10 steps higher we leave the gully, as the blazes direct us right (straight at first along and by the gully, higher a rough partly pathless track leads across ample 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 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 easily followable track. The track already after a few meters turns slightly right and starts first traversing uphill through the forest. Higher, the track starts steeply ascending through the forest, which after some time starts to thin. A little further ahead, the forest is gradually replaced by a belt of dwarf pines and scrub, and the increasingly panoramic path, from which beautiful views open onto the walls of Palec, Zelenjak, Vrtača and nearby Svačice, 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.
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 begin 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. Somewhat 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 somewhat lower turns into a mountain path, which through a belt of dwarf pines brings us to the screes below Svačica. The path ahead traverses uphill across the first scree, then brings us to a short steep section, where a steel cable assists at 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 in the direction of Vrtača, Prešernova koča and Zelenica. We cross grassy slopes for a few minutes, then arrive at the place where the inscription on the rock for Vrtača directs us left (straight downhill Stol). A few more minutes of relatively easy walking follow, then we arrive at a short but steep grassy slope, across which we descend traversing. When the descent ends, we arrive at ample screes, across which we begin ascending in a semicircle. Further, the less trodden and in several places exposed to falling rocks path ascends more steeply higher up several times, then turns a bit more to the right and brings us to the southwest shoulder of Vrtača, where we join the better trodden path from Ljubelj and Završnica.
Here we continue left and begin steeply ascending very steep and slippery-dangerous slopes. Higher, the path brings us to the main ridge of the Karawanks, where it levels out. Approximately 20 minutes of walking along and beside the ridge follow, which is locally somewhat exposed and dangerous for slipping throughout. We then follow this panoramic path all the way to the summit of Vrtača.

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

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