When we were in Slovenia a few years ago, one of the routes which caught my eye but we didn’t get around to was the Klettersteig up Mangart. This was not because it was a particularly special or difficult route, but because it was fairly high, with little ascent and apparently you could see the sea from the summit, an unusual view in most of the alps.
This meant that it was an obvious choice for this trip and it became even better when we found out that you could pre-book a minibus from Bovec for 3 euros per person each direction, which meant neither us nor our friends had to move our vans.
Unfortunately as we climbed up the road in the van, it became clear that there was a lot more cloud than was in the forecast, but we remained hopeful that the weather would clear and give us some nice views. I had also decided to take my paraglider with me as I knew that in good conditions it was possible to launch from the summit, and in any case it should be possible to launch from the main launch near the car park.
The start of the walk was very cloudy which was a shame, however from the col we did have good views towards the north. As we climbed towards the Klettersteig the weather unfortunately closed in even more, which was a real shame as it meant we were missing out on some really wonderful views. The Klettersteig was very easy, so we didn’t really clip into the route at all and overtook loads of people on the way to the summit.
Thankfully as we climbed higher there started to be some breaks in the cloud which gave us fleeting views of the wonderful scenery. As we arrived at the summit we actually had really great views in most directions, however unfortunately due to the cloud we could not see the see. There was even a perfect launch wind for me in the best launch direction, however I made the mistake of eating some lunch rather than going straight away.
As we were eating lunch the cloud rolled back in, however I setup carefully my paraglider anyway on the rocky launch hoping for it to clear, but unfortunately as I was finishing this the valley wind started blowing over the mountain. At this point I was fairly sure that I wouldn’t be able to launch, but decided to wait around for a bit, and out of nowhere the cloud briefly cleared and there was a slight wind up from launch.
Without hesitating I quickly got into my harness, put my rucksack on and launched into the light breeze to enjoy a really atmospheric flight around the clouds back down to the official landing. After landing I decided to see if I could hitch back to Bovec, and after only five minutes waiting I managed to hitch all the way back to the campsite!
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