#2. Hiking day - surviving a thunderstorm on the peak of 2000m high mountain

Saturday night, full moon and a clear sky forecast for Slovenian mountains. A perfect plan that almost went completely wrong!

Just over a month ago, me and my friend @darth.gizmo were sitting on a bench on a local hill above our home town - Ljubljana called Šmarna gora. It was almost 11 O'Clock in the evening. Perfect night, clear sky and a nice view over Ljubljana gave us thought's about doing a nightly hiking tour in Slovenian mountains. We felt for it in a second and the first full moon was this Sunday (9th of July 2017). So we decided to take our first nightly run on Saturday so we can take a rest before work. The weather forecast was looking good. Maybe some light showers in the afternoon and a clear sky at night.

Our starting point was one of the best mountain huts in Slovenia - Valvasorjev dom. It was selected for the best in Slovenia couple of years in a row and the friendliness is something you need to witness to believe it. Anyway it was 8 O'Clock in the evening when we arrived at the place. We put up our hiking gear and started walking towards the highest peak in the Karawanks - Stol. A perfect destination for our trip because of the high altitude (2236 m) and easy route without any dangerous parts. After all it was a night and mountains can not be underestimated!! Everything started as planed. Peaceful nature, beautiful views over the Alps and the lake Bled, it wasn't as hot as it was during the day. Everything was just perfect.

We even saw a deer family feeding on the steep slopes, searching for a grass between the rocks. And what amazed us was the fact, that one deer - i assume it was a pact leader - was watching a guard on us while the baby deer were moving slowly away from us. He stared at us and didn't leave us out of it's sight until the others were far away.

And than just right before the peak, our dream story went on its own course. The clear sky forecast turned out to be a thunder storm heading toward us. Lucky for us, there is a mountain hut just below the highest peak. We arrived at almost 11 O'clock and the house keeper couldn't believe her eyes that someone just arrived! The rain was still light so i grab my camera out and took a few pictures that turned out to be really nice!

I created a little animation of the lightning

But my favorite photo taken was this one

It was the last seconds before the moon was overtaken by the storm - dark consuming the light! And we were on the highest mountain still determined to get down from it in the same night! Lucky for us, the house keeper let us stay inside for two hours.

We were watching the radar picture every 10 minutes, waiting to get that clear sky above us ... It was already Sunday and the rain reduced to the level we could leave the hut. We took a quick hike to the top (10 mins) and because the rain still wasn't over we decided it's time to leave this mountain while we are still in one piece!

Almost at the bottom the rain finally stopped completely and we took some more panorama pictures

Glow above Ljubljana nicely seen from the mountain

The closest town - Lesce

And some other photos from the start of our tour

Valvasorjev dom

View on world famous lake Bled with a small church on it

Still no sign of a storm (the same direction as the first picture)

Shepherd's cottages

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Please check my hiking guide for families and hiking with your dog:
Hiking suggestion #2 - Kofce (Slovenia)