Zgornje Jezersko - Virnikov Grintovec

Access to starting point:
From the Ljubljana - Jesenice highway, take the Kranj - East exit and follow the road ahead in the direction of Jezersko. At Zgornje Jezersko, at the intersection at the gas station, turn left towards the church of St. Ožbolt at Jezersko (straight ahead to border crossing Jezersko). Further on, drive past the hotel Planinka, but follow the road to the nearby church of St. Ožbolt. Park near the church, or a little lower on the designated parking lot by the cemetery.

Route description:
From the church, we continue on the asphalt road, which moderately ascends and brings us after some 10 steps to the spot where it ends. Here we will notice on a tree a signpost for Virnikov Grintovec, which directs us right onto a footpath that gently ascends along the edge of grassy meadows. The path, which then goes into the forest and starts to moderately ascend, brings us after 15 minutes of walking, immediately after the stream, to the homestead Žmitek, where we also step onto a macadam road.
The marked footpath only crosses the mentioned road, then starts steeply ascending through dense forest. After a few minutes of steep ascent, we join a gentler cart track, which we then follow to a smaller saddle between Olipov rob (other name Žmitkov špic) on the left and Žmitkov vrh on the right.
The cart track here turns into a pleasant footpath, which with some views of the surrounding hills brings us to a forest road. We continue along the road for about 100 m, then the blazes direct us right onto an ascending footpath. To the path, which further ascends diagonally through the forest, the path from Murnovo soon joins, but we continue straight in the direction of Virnikov Grintovec. Higher up, the path completely flattens and turns slightly to the right, where it crosses the slopes of Žarkove peči (1411 m). After a few minutes of easy walking, we step out of the forest onto a larger clearing (saddle Žingerc 1345 m), where the path from the Austrian side joins from the right.
We continue in the direction of Virnikov Grintovec on the path that goes into the forest, which then starts to ascend ever more steeply. The quite steep path brings us higher to the main ridge, where it turns left. On the ridge, from which beautiful views open up to the surrounding peaks, the steepness also eases. We follow this occasionally very scenic and on some spots slippery-dangerous path (in dry conditions there is no major danger) all the way to the summit of Virnikov Grintovec.
Starting point - Žingerc 1:30, Žingerc - Virnikov Grintovec 45 minutes.

Along the route: Žingerc (1345m)

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