#3. Hiking day - seeing how global warming is wiping the glacier. Flowers instead of ice!

Once a glacier with snow whole year around is now just a pale shadow almost without the snow! Seeing it with my own eyes got me thinking about the changes that lies ahead of us ...

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Anyway we'll get to the glacier little bit later. It was Sunday early morning and me and @darth.gizmo had a nice hiking day in front of us. We decided to climb up the mountain called Ledinski vrh (translation would be something like Icy top). The weather forecast was high temperatures and we were really happy that we took the North side approach because it was in a shadow for almost entire hike. There are a couple of paths leading to the top from this starting point and because we love a little bit of climbing not just walking, we took the hardest one which is still very safe and easy if you are well equipped for it like we were.

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We started climbing and used the steel cables and via ferrata set to protect ourselves from unexpected events.
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Many times i see people without the helmet and via ferrata set on routes like this one. But the main reason why i am using them is to protect myself from the events that i have no effect on, like falling rocks for an example.
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Imagine you get a rock on your unprotected head on a wall like this? Could you save yourself against falling? The news are filled with accidents in mountains and i for sure do not want to be a part of it.
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After 20 to 30 minutes of climbing we reached the shelf above. The view was already amazing and we weren't even high enough.
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A nice view over the Czech lodge as well. If you missed my first hiking day when i visited this lodge, you can see it here: Hiking day Kamnik Savinja Alps
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The fun part of this hike was over and we still had to walk for an hour and a half to reach the top. Just before the mountain saddle we reached the Ice glacier ... or what is left of it.
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This side of the mountain should be covered with ice for the entire year. The photos were taken in the beginning of June. So that's just an early start of a summer in mountains and the ice was already gone. Instead of snow we could watch the entire saddle covered with flowers.

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I won't say it wasn't a pretty view but something just didn't feel right. It seems that the changes are happening fast or maybe it was just this year? I doubt it because the snow drought in Slovenia is more obvious every year. It was normal to have few months of snow every year, but last 5 to 10 years i remember only one winter with a lot of snow. Anyway ... No matter how what we would do, we couldn't save the glacier that day :D so we kept walking to the top. With altitude of 2108 m, Ledinski vrh is not one of the highest but that doesn't change the fact that the view from the top was any worse.

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Nice overview of the Velika Baba mountain. Baba is worse term for woman in Slovenia. But it seems that a lot of mountains here got the name with this word included. An old myth is that baba is a woman with one tooth, one hair and one breast. So please do not call any woman baba or you might get a slap around your face! :)
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I guess this mountain got it's name because of the hard approach from the Slovenian side. I haven't been there but from talking with people that did it's no joke. There is another approach from the Austrian side which should be much easier.

The mountains from left to right on this photo are Koroška rinka (Carinthia Mount Rinka), Kranjska rinka and the most rounded top is Skuta, which is the 3rd highest peak in Kamnik-Savinja Alps. I haven't visited any of these three but they are on my radar for this year. I hope to get the chance to visit them. At least Skuta which is one of the nicest mountain in Slovenia.
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For the end we stopped by the lodge on our way down to drink a well deserved beer and have a nice chat with the caretaker. A really nice person always greeting hikers and chatting with every one of them.

For the end i'll leave you with one of the most photographed mountain view in Slovenia. The view over the mountains i described in the upper picture but from the Jezersko pass where we started our hiking day.

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Thank you for reading! All photos are taken by me and are Steemit exclusive!

If you missed my previous hiking days you can find them here:
#1. Hiking day - Kamnik–Savinja Alps
#2. Hiking day - surviving a thunderstorm on the peak of 2000m high mountain

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I'll upvote back every meaningful comment with few cents

!! Enjoy your hiking and stay safe !!

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