I Hike the Mountains and Learn About Them
When venturing out to the mountains, we are guests of wonderful yet sensitive nature which should remain after our visit as we had found it.
The first man in Carniola to be punished for plucking out the Edelweiss was Janez Rekar from Mojstrana, nicknamed “Roža in Jaga” (Flower and Hunting). The District Administration of Radovljica sentences him to 6 hours in prison. (Planinski vestnik, 1899)
The natural features of Slovenian mountains were formed by the compression and lifting of the Alps’ mountain range resulting from the collision of the African and European tectonic plates, a process that has been ongoing for over 100 million years. The formation of sediments, the predominating bedrock in this area, started more than 300 million years ago south of the Earth’s equator. When the African continental plates moved, sediments were pushed far to the north to their present location. The bold relief was created by selective erosion of non-cohesive bed materials and is conditioned by the tectonic composition of the Alps. Resistant rocks make up mighty summits and rock faces. Where the bedrock is less resistant, deeply-gouged glacier and river valleys and gorges have formed, interchanging with meadows and forests. Over millions of years, high limestone plateaus have undergone heavy karstification, creating high-altitude karst plateaus (“podi”) with systems of underground caves and deep abysses. Highup in the mountains, waterways start out as brooks, streams, and waterfalls that are a valuable reservoir of drinking water.
In the mountains weather is more changeable than in the valleys, precipitation more frequent and heavier, winds stronger, temperatures lower. At high elevations, it can often snow in the summer.
Every trip to a mountain starts on a brightly coloured meadow or, more frequently even, in a forest, which is the most common and best-preserved ecosystem of the Alpine territory in Slovenia. Slovenian mountains with their diverse relief and an interesting geographic position, where the cold and harsh continental (alpine) climatic conditions meet the mild and warm Mediterranean climate, are a true botanical paradise.
The number of visitors to the mountains is increasing. Besides considerable global climate change and pollution, mass visitation is another factor that causes significant environmental problems. Urbanisation and development of infrastructure, traffic, noise, water pollution, and waste are some of the problems where also mountaineers can make a difference. To achieve this, all mountain visitors should be conscious of the environmental principles and committed to nature protection measures. These are centred around protected areas – parks, generally understood to embody nature protection principles. In this respect, the Triglav National Park, one of the earliest parks in the Alps and one of the greatest treasures of Slovenia, plays a very important role. The primary aim of the park is to ensure nature protection and conservation of cultural landscape, as well as research, education, and experience of nature.
When going to the mountains, we enter a most sensitive part of natural ecosystems, which provides a habitat for a number of plants and animals. Coming in contact with the nature, cultural landscape and the people living at the foot of these mountains is an exceptional experience; still, we should never fail to observe the main objectives of nature protection.
