Country: Slovenia
Mountain: Belščica
Length: 38,2 km
Elevation gain: 1850 m
Maximum elevation: 2000 m
Tehnical difficulty: 4/5
Download GPS Track: Vajnež_Cyclotrail
Date of ride: 04.06.2022.
Suitable for E-bike: Yes (push assistance needed)
Vajnež is the highest peak of Belščica 2104 m high. Few years before, Ivan, Vjeko and me went on Stol (peak near Vajnež) so we actually knew what to expect on ascent. Good amount of that route overlap with ascent to Vajnež, so we changed a little bit of our ascent to explore something new. This is the reason why we were so tired when we were just below the peak.
All three of us are not in very good shape, so we decided it is better not climb to the peak and to preserve little remaining energy for descent. That was probably smart decision, even though I’m little sad that we didn’t climb the peak, specially when we were so close. Upper part of the trail is classical alpine trail with combination of grass and stones.
Some short parts are not rideable, so you will have to climb down the bike and take a walk for a few meters. After reaching the shelter starts more rocky part with switchbacks that transforms into the steep, earth trail with roots and switchbacks. We were very satisfied with this upper part. After some time we reached unpaved road and water. We were not sure if water is drinkable, but we were very thirsty and almost without any water, so we decided to take a risk:).
After reaching gravel road we again turned on some very nice and fast singletrack, but after that singletack becomes some forest road ruined by woodmen. We were not sure if we could maybe try some other turn to avoid so many gravel road, but it was to late and we lost to many altitude to come back and search for the right trail, so we called a day and descended with gravel road.
Even though the upper part was fantastic, and offered us nice views, we somehow expected a little bit more from the lower part, specially when you take into account hard and long ascent that drained our energy. I’m not sorry that i rode this route, but I would probably make ascent easier and use the same ascent we rode when we were going on Stol, even though this had better views, and I would try to find some another trail in lower part to avoid gravel road.
Map of route:
Elevation profile:
