Dovje – Mojstrana alpine club

CONTACT

Savska cesta 1, 4281 Mojstrana

MOUNTAIN HUTS

Today, the Dovje-Mojstrana Alpine Club owns and manages the Aljažev dom lodge in Vrata (1,015 m), the Šlajmerjev dom lodge in Vrata (1,003 m) and the Gustlnov dom lodge in Vrata (1,010 m). With combined modern facilities, they provide overnight accommodation for 120 mountaineers. During the winter period, when the Mojstrana-Vrata road is closed due to snow, the Winter Room (400 m away from the Aljažev dom lodge) is available for visitors.

In the geographical territory of the Dovje-Mojstrana Community there are also mountain lodg- es that are managed by other clubs. These are the Triglavski dom lodge at Kredarica (2,515 m), the Staničev dom lodge (2,232 m), the Pogačnikov dom lodge at Kriški podi (2,050 m), the Bivak at Rušje (1,980 m) and the Bivak at Jezera (2,118 m).

In this context, we should also mention the many local people who, as porters and builders, helped to construct most of the above-mentioned lodg- es. Particularly well-known in the area is the Lipovec (Psnakova) family from Zgornja Radovna, who provided horses with which to service the mountain lodges in the Triglav area up until 1995, when a helicopter took over the servicing of the mountain lodges.

MOUNTAIN TRAILS

From Mojstrana, Dovje and Zgornja Radovna, numerous mountain trails lead through the Vra- ta, Kot and Krma valleys to Mount Triglav and other surrounding peaks. The Dovje-Mojstra- na Alpine Club services and maintains 62 km of these trails, which are of varying levels of difficul- ty. The maintenance is carried out by the mem- bers of the marking section of the association.

MOUNTAIN ACTIVITIES AND MOUNTAIN RESCUE SERVICES

Both activities were established in 1947 and 1948 as part of the organised activities of the Club. The most successful period in the field of mountaineering was in the 1970s, when members of the Climbing Section were part of the expeditions to Annapurna II (1969), Istor-o-nal in the Hindu Kush (1971), Makalu (1972 and 1975 - the first ascent via the South Face, where the local Janko Ažman was the first Slovene to cross the 8,000 m altitude lim- it), Yosemite (1973), Kangbachen (1974) and Yeru- payo Grande (1977). They also made numerous other ascents in the Himalayas, the Andes and other mountain ranges. The pioneers of this outstanding wave of mountaineers (Klavdij Mlekuž, Zvone Kofler, Janko Ažman and Janez Brojan) were nicknamed the “Mojstrana Squirrels”, and were lat- er joined by Janez Dovžan and Miha Smolej.

MOJSTRANA MOUNTAIN RESCUE SERVICE

With the establishment of the Mountain Rescue Service station in 1947, under the leadership of Janez Brojan Sr. the people of Mojstrana slowly shook off their subordination to the Jesenice mountain rescuers and embarked on the path of independent rescue. Over the years, they have carried out numerous rescue operations in the Triglav mountains and are one of the busiest sta- tions (now mountain rescue associations) in Slovenia. Initially, there were an average of 3.4 rescues per year in the period 1946–1955, which increased to 22 rescues per year in the most recent period. This ranks the service third in the country in terms of the number of rescue missions and the number of people rescued. In 2007, following the example of other mountain rescue stations in Slovenia, the mountain rescuers decided to go their own way within the Mojstrana Mountain Rescue Association.

SPORT CLIMBING

Two of the pioneers of sport climbing in Mojstrana were Martina Čufar and her father Martin, a mountaineer and mountain rescuer, who sadly lost his life in one of his rescue missions. Martina Čufar’s climbing career began in the 1980s. She soon became one of the best Slovenian sport climbers and was the 1994 national champion. Under the guidance of the renowned Slovenian mountaineer Tom Česen, she progressed to the top of the World Cup rankings – with four victories and an overall win in 2001. Once she retired from competing, she turned to rock climbing and became the world’s first woman to climb routes of 8b+ difficulty.

THE CLUB’S YOUTH SECTION

Since 1968, a youth section has been operating within the Alpine Club, initiated by the long- time president Stanko Kofler and Miha Kersnik, who founded an Alpine group at the Mojstrana Primary School. With the help of hard-working teaching staff and the support of the Alpine Club and the Mojstrana Mountain Rescue Service, the education of young mountaineers is also successfully under way through the organisation of various excursions and hikes. A special feature is the annual organisation of the Alpe Adria Alpin youth camp, which is organised alternately by the youth sections of the Alpine Clubs in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the Austrian Kärnten region and in Dovje-Mojstrana. The meeting was initiated by Sepp Lederer from Kötschach-Mauthen, Giulio Sammassa and Mauri Romano from Forni Avoltri and Janez Brojan Jr. from Mojstrana. The first youth camp was held in Kötschach-Mauthen in 1989, and since, the regular annual meetings have only been in- terrupted by the Covid-19 epidemic.

THE WORK OF THE ALPINE CLUB IN PRESERVING HISTORICAL MATERIAL IN THE FIELD OF MOUNTAINEERING

In Slovenia, the first ideas for an Alpine museum emerged as early as the beginning of the 20th century. The museum was to be located in Ljubljana, but despite various initial activities, this never happened. For this reason, members of the Dovje-Mojstrana Alpine Club, under the leadership of Avgust Delavec, began collecting historical material from the field of mountaineering in the 1960s and organised exhibitions in various places in Slovenia. All this resulted in the establishment of the Triglav Museum Collection in Mojstrana, which was opened in 1984 and focused on the history of mountaineering in the Triglav Mountains. It was on this foundation that the Alpine Club continued its efforts to establish the Slovenian Alpine Museum in Mojstrana. The project was led by Club member Miro Eržen, and with the support of the newly established Municipality of Kranjska Gora and the Alpine Association of Slovenia, the Club was able to purchase the necessary land, prepare the building plans and obtain a building permit in 2007. This meant that the conditions for the transfer of the investment to the Municipality of Kranjska Gora were fulfilled, while the Club member Miro Eržen continued as project manager. The construction of the Slovenian Alpine Museum was completed in 2008 and, with the cooperation of the Gornjesavski Museum in Jesenice, the museum concept was developed in 2009/2010 and it was opened on the municipal holiday of 7 August 2010. With this, the Dovje-Mojstrana Alpine Society, which today has 510 members, honoured all the Alpine enthusiasts, mountain guides, lodge builders, mountaineers and mountain rescuers who have shaped not only the local, but the entire Slovenian mountaineering history.