Trail Running in Koroska, North Slovenia
On a long weekend in June I decided to run across a few of the peaks I’ve not visited since I’ve uprooted and left Slovenj Gradec; Peca, Raduha and Oljseva.
Less visited than Triglavski Narodni Park, the North Slovenian mountain paradise, Koroska region offers plenty of beautiful woodland trails, hilly ascends and fast, soft descends to enjoy.
Famous for the mountain bike park in Topla (near Crna na Koroskem) and the abandoned lead mine in Mezica (you can visit and even cycle through), this region is home to the K24 challenge - a self supportive 90km run/track across all the peaks of the region. A kind of Bob Graham Round of Slovenia with about 5000m of altitude gain.
Run 1
Robanov kot, Raduha, Oljseva (Govca), Koprivna
Length: 33km
Difficulty: Very hilly, at times technical
GPS Track: Here
You begin this run in Robanov kot and continue up a very steep slope all the way to Raduha. This part of the run was a bit crap when I did it with a lot of fallen trees and really bad trail markings – I would suggest taking an alternative route to the top instead.
The top of Raduha is somewhat flat on one side with nice soft grass and a drop on the other. Not really dangerous and plenty of mountain beauty to take in.
You continue down via a small technical section followed by a windy gravel mountain road where the path starts to climb again.
The second peak is Oljseva or Govca. This one is more of a ridge. Quite steep to get up to it, but then flattens out and offers amazing views both ways.
At the top, a friendly bird joined me whilst I took a few photos and ate my cliff bar.
The last section (to Koprivna in my case) is all downhill through the woods. I didn’t really follow a path and went straight but would highly recommend doing so (more running, less scrambling through bushes). All in all a fun run, lots of altitude gain, lots of work for your quads.
Run 2
Kumer - Peca - Crna na Koroskem
This run was shorter (crosses only one mountain), but the trail was in much, much better condition. Very few fallen trees and really well marked.
I started this one right at the border between Slovenia and Austria, near Kumer making my way up the steep path to Peca.
I got to the ridge quite quickly so I decided to visit a few of the Austrian peaks to the left of Kordezeva glava first like Koncnikov Vrh. This is only a short detour, but well worth it.
Continuing, I’ve passed Kordezeva glava and the rolling clouds that swirl underneath it. The top is quite flat, with 360º views of both of the countries.
On The way down there is a nice technical descend followed by a few of the mountain cottages/reguges, single track woodland trails and then a small chunk of road from Zerjav to Crna na Koroskem, where one can stop for food & drinks afterwards.
Fast pace, high intensity, super fun this one.
Happy days!
Urslja gora in the distance
