Podnar / Bodenbauer - Prešernova koča na Stolu (via Karweg)

Access to starting point:
We drive to the border crossing Ljubelj and continue to the Austrian side. Soon after that, when 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 intersection after the village Slovenji Plajberk / Windisch Bleiberg, we turn left towards Podnu / Bodental. In Podnu / Bodental, we come to mountain signposts for Celovška koča / Klagenfurter Hütte to the left and right. We head 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 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, spacious 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 to the right (straight at first along and by 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 easily followable track. The track already after a few meters turns slightly to the right and starts first traversing ascending 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 gradually changes to a belt of dwarf pines and bushes, and the increasingly panoramic path, from which we get beautiful views of 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, and from there 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 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, Svačice / Bielschitza and Prešernova koča and continue along the gentle cart track, which somewhat lower turns into a mountain path, which brings us through the belt of dwarf pines to the screes below Svačica. The path ahead traverses up over 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 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 path to Vrtača branches off to the left, and we continue straight downhill. The path ahead first steeply descends through the gully, then turns to the right, where it passes onto spacious screes, across which it traverses ascending. Higher we leave the scree and slightly descend to the nearby junction, where the upper and lower paths and the path from Završnica join us.
Here we continue straight, and the path from the small valley between Srednja peč 1920 m (Srednja peč is a less known peak on the left) and the ridge Orlice (Orlice are a harder to access ridge between the saddle Belščica and Stol) gradually passes onto a larger scree, across which we traverse ascending to the right, then the path gradually passes into a steeper valley between Mali Stol on the left and Stol on the right. Here we continue left (right Stol 10 minutes) and after a few minutes of moderate ascent we step onto the summit of Mali Stol, from which only some 10 steps of descent separate us to Prešernova koča.

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

The trip can be extended to the following destinations: Hochstuhl/Stol

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