MAGIC MOUNTAIN HUT NA DOLIĆU

VIA ALPINA DAY 08  – MONDAY 29 JUNE 2026
MOUNTAIN HUT KOMNI TO MOUNTAIN HUT NA DOLIĆU

DISTANCE HIKED: 16 km
ELEVATION GAIN: 1,280 m

TOTAL DISTANCE HIKED: 201.7 km
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 10,474 m

So nice to lie down last night and almost immediately fall asleep.  No energy for writing the summary of our day.  I woke at 4.30 and while Hammer slept in,  I completed the trail summaries. 

The hut manager was an Australian from Mareeba in Queensland. His grandfather was from this region and he came to visit and ended up staying. He recommended the breakfast.  We stayed for the 7am breakfast at the hut hoping that having some food early in the day will better help us to get through the day. 

Balancing having not too much food and hunger as a combination of full stomach, heat and exertion does not sit well together. Although with this heat, hunger has not been a problem. Access to water has been our major limitation as there is so little water in the high country due to the limestone formations of the Slovenian Alps.

The breakfast did not disappoint, plenty of coffee, muesli, fried eggs and  bread and jam.

We had a wobbly start, when a short way from the hut I realised, we were on the wrong trail. Not a long diversion, lucky we picked it up early. Back on trail it was a slow uphill slog, occasionally stopping to take in the view of the rocky peaks we crossed yesterday. From here it looks impossible that anyone can walk  up there.

After a bit of  up and down over pleasant  terrain, thorough pine forest  we arrived at Mountain Hut Triglavni  Jezerić  There was a large group of American on a NOLS hike trip of the Slovenian Lakes. They were having difficulty with the heat and looked like they were not going anywhere.

Here and later on the trails along the lakes seemed a very popular hiking destination. The section of trail  from here is probably the most beautiful  we seen so far. This may explain the number of hikers we’ve seen so far today. It was easy hiking along emerald green lakes surrounded by soaring mountain peaks. So very beautiful.

For us the lakes soon gave way to a  karst hellscape as we left the lakes behind.   A vertical climb up a rocky mountainside that leveled off then rose again before an almost vertical descent on loose rocks on the other side.  It was a very slow ascent, baking in the afternoon sun. It felt like it went forever. I stopped so many times to distract myself by taking photos of flowers growing in crevices.  The descent was no less diabolical. All I could think of was thank God there is no snow on the ground.

We got to the Mountain Hut na Doliću just before 4pm to learn that it was not yet open for the season. The staff were helicoptered in  today with tonnes of equipment and supplies to open for the season on 1 July. It was so very generous of them to agree to give us accommodation for the night, along with 4 other hikers who arrived just a bit after us.

While we waited outside for rooms to be prepared, it was windy and started to got very cold. Time to pull out some of that cold weather gear we’ve been carrying. The hut sits at an elevation of 2,150m and is on the path to trails that lead to the Mt. Triglav summit.  This afternoon, it felt like early winter conditions at this hut.

The staff prepared us dinner, sausages with bread and will also serve breakfast in the morning.  If we’ve been a day earlier, there would have been nobody here and  we would have been forced to walk another 12km to Trenta, down in the valley without any water. As Hammer is fond of saying “the universe provides”.