Take the Chair, please

Stol, German Hochstuhl. “The Chair”, this is what the name of this mountain means. It certainly feels good to sit down on its top.

I was reminded of it this summer when we were driving home from our lovely day at Lake Bled and I took the photo above from the speeding car. Which peak looks more like a chair to you?

My first internet=>flesh friend Alenka was the last to spur me into hiking, but now I’m far and she has little control. This was seven years ago, and while my friend has not stopped climbing mountains since, I have become much more sedentary.

The last thing she managed was take me to discover Etruscan trenches when she visited us, and when we visited her in Slovenia she made us walk for full ten minutes to the lovely Rinka waterfall. For the next year she already promises a lake and a castle. Thank you for taking care of me. 🙂

This was an approximately 3-hour hike (one way) over the mind-blowingly gorgeous terrain, as you can see below, with views of surrounding mountains and Lake Bled. You can park quite high up, above 1000 m, so that it’s only another +1000 m of vertical distance to the top at 2236 metres (or 7,336 feet).

This is how you conquer Stol, the highest peak of the Karawanks mountain range on the border between Slovenia and Austria. And when you return, you can restock the calories at Lovski dom Stol restaurant. Great memories, and not just of the food.

The views are so crazy that you forget to get tired. The Sava river below, I guess.

Lake Bled, I presume. Some people would get very excited naming all these towns and peaks. I’m not some people.

Well done, Alenka, for making me do this.

I look almost ready to set a camp.

Views were changing at every step.

It’s likely that there is the highest Slovenian mountain in the distance. And then again maybe not.

I was much fitter in those days. I’m even wearing one of those solar-lunar-whatever gadgets.

Whereas Alenka is the champion.

What a strange planet we’ve got here.

Another path, possibly from Austria.

The most strenuous part of the hike.

Yep, up there it is!

A rest before the final ascent.

Another kind of flyer.

Just a little more…

Views are unforgettable. Of exactly what, as we’ve discovered, you’d need to ask somebody else.

The very top was very windy.

Lake Bled. Now I’m sure because I can see the island.

Well-deserved! At Lovski dom Stol restaurant.

A bit rolled over but happy. Weirdly enough, somehow missing this feeling. Sometimes. Rarely, really.

Photo: a © signature mmm production (+ the four of me by Alenka. Thank you!)