Ljubelj - Srednji vrh (above Završnica) (on a slope of Vrtača)

Access to the starting point:
Drive to Border crossing Ljubelj, where you turn left before the tunnel towards Zelenica. Drive over a small bridge, then park in a large parking lot.

Path description:
At the beginning of the parking lot, the mountain signs for Hochstuhl, Vertatscha and Dom na Zelenici direct us to the wide cart track, which begins to climb along the torrent. When the cart track turns left a little higher up, we continue straight on along the mountain path, which continues through the forest and soon returns to cart track. Cart track turns right a little higher up and leads us out of the forest onto the ski slope of the former Zelenica ski resort. There is a short, steeper climb up the ski slope, and then the trail flattens out and leads us along the foothills of the scree below Begunjščica.
The marked trail soon branches off to the right along a service road, and we continue along the "road" to the nearby Hut Vertatscha.
At the hut, the road turns right and we continue straight ahead in the direction of the mountain trail to Zelenica. We continue for a short time under the former single-seater Zelenica II, and then the path begins to climb steeply up the slope, which is partly overgrown by dwarf pines. After a few switchbacks, we return to the service road, which we continue along, overlooking the Šentanski avalanche.
The path ahead takes you along the slopes of the Lower Plot (the summit of which was covered by a sport climbing route a few years ago), then off the road turn right onto a footpath that cuts around a long bend. Once back on the road, we are at the top station of the former Zelenica II single-seater, and it is only a few steps downhill to the Zelenica Home.
After the mountain lodge, continue left and climb halfway up the children's ski lift, then notice the signs for Vertatscha and Hochstuhl on the right, which direct you right into the lane of a forest. A little further on, cross the connecting lane between the children's ski lift and the anchor, then cross the second ski slope.
Continue along the trail to a small boulder and then cross the slopes below the Na Možeh ridge. When the crossing ends, you reach an unmarked valley where the path to Suho dwarf pines branches off to the right (usually there is a cairn at the branch).
From the crossroads onwards, we climb briefly through the forest, and then the path leads us to the slopes of Vertatscha, where we cross some scree on a slight ascent, and occasionally a really short lane of forest. Further on, the path from Dom pri izviru Završnice joins us from the left, and a little further on the path splits. Continue along the slightly narrower lower path in the direction Hochstuhla (right Vertatscha), from which you can already see Srednji vrh. At the next crossroads, continue left down towards Dom pri izviru Završnice (right Hochstuhl and Vertatscha) and quickly descend via lane of dwarf pines to the Šija saddle, from where you can see Hochstuhl.
From the Šija saddle, continue straight ahead (left Dom pri izviru Završnice, right Hochstuhl lower path) and start climbing up the ridge past a small bench. Climb for a few minutes along the ridge, which is surrounded mainly by dwarf pines to the left, but also by occasional unpaved slopes to the right. Higher up, the path turns slightly to the left from the ridge and then ascends through dwarf pines to the summit lookout.
Description and pictures refer to the situation in 2017 (April).

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