The Kanin adventure

»An adventurer is not made. An adventurer is born. This cannot be taught, because there is no school in the world who would teach it. You are simply adventurous and that is that.«

                Metod Humar

We Humars really must have adventure genes in our bodies. The constant drive to live out something new is present within me all the time. In these days the water in the canyons is a bit too heavy, so we decided to do other things to liven up the mood, things which all have to do with H2O. And this adventure is just at the back of the house, I can almost grasp it with my own hands.

“The early bird catches the worm.” Kanin which lies just under my weekend house, is bragging with its glory and might early in the morning and bathing in its sunlight. It was -12°C that day, so I eagerly put on some warm clothes. “I won’t be cold like this”, I said to myself. As I was going through Bovec, I gathered up the gear and soon we were sitting in the Kanin cabins in the ski lift. It nearly costs us 5,9 million to get our ski lift running again, one which is the highest of them all in Slovenia. It was not cheap, but hey it was worth it…

 

Apparently successful people set themselves goals in life. So I set one for myself: to go on top of Kanin with the ski lift, and then racing down the steep slope till point B. And maybe some skiing along the way while we were at it, so we can maximize the tickets (because we are true people of Gorenjska) and get the most out of it.

On the C point of the lift we met Tajčr (a former football player Primož Zorč), who roguishly said: ”How are you? Oh! So you did not come here to work your asses off?” Just because we didn’t come here at 8 a.m. straight… If I knew that I can’t even make a coffee break in the morning, and if they knew that we took our time to drink coffee, we would have been known as the laziest people of Bovec ever…

 

 

The local gurus here do not hold back with their wisdom, which says that safety is most important, because there are constant fears of storms or avalanches. So, just to be sure, we waited for the snow to lie down a bit, and then we made our way onward. We, as in being lazy, would have gone with the “Preval” but apparently it wasn’t working due to it being covered in deep, deep snow. Oh well, a few steps extra won’t really hurt us… There we took some photos, waited for the chief organizer of the slopes to show up, and together we skied down to Krnica.

 

At the stop Prevala, a snow machine threw the snow out of the way. We didn’t dare to go close to it. And when the driver listened to the radio station and stopped for a moment, we took our opportunity and quickly went around it. The driver did look at me in a weird way. But who could blame him. These people leave their heart out on the snow to do their jobs. They even spent up to 6 days straight on the mountain to prepare the slopes, carry away the snow, and clean roofs… They are tired, but satisfied. True heroes and busy bees, ones that a really good ski resort like this deserves.

 

At Prevala we could also see a whole new view of Krnica. This year I drove through it with my trusty mountain bike and I have to say I wasn’t really pleased with the ride down. It really shakes you to the core, as if you were driving with a station wagon in the Wild West, and it was so steep that I sometimes though if I would rather hit the brakes than go on. And in those moments I really wished for enough snow to fall, so I could ski down that same road. And soon my wishes came true. Skiing is really something special, because you feel like you are somewhere completely different, far away from other people and civilization. I think people do need more ski trips like these, to turn off their head for once and a while.

 

And with is also comes a pinch of adrenaline, because there is always fear and danger of avalanches. Well, more like deep respect than fear, because the predictions for that day didn’t show any danger for the day. The snow was partially covered in ice, but also soft and really nice for doing all sorts of curves and figures here and there. You could even see some cliffs raging out of the snow, which I always tried to avoid at the last second and succeeded. And the sheer panic, where I tried to avoid those, you can’t get that feeling anywhere else than when skiing.

 

The more we came down the mountain, the more the snow cracked. And my skies at the end… well, they looked like I was skiing on pure rocks. But we still arrived at Planina, where the view was sheer beautiful. And just a few meters away was the zip line. We put on our belts and we were at the line where Anja, which is always in a good mood, showed us how this thing works. Pure 3200 m adrenaline awaits.

 

The descend down the zip line was really pure adrenaline, because we had so many things with us that even the most experience hoarder would be jealous. We were screaming of pure joy, and at the same time enjoying the amazing view from above. The emerald green Soča, which once more gained back its deep color. And at the back Kobariški Stol. Somewhere in between all these mountains also lies Piranski zaliv, which looks from the very top of Kanin, like it was just a few steps away, bathing in pure golden sunlit colors.

 

But because the day didn’t end there, we got back on top of Kanin and made few extra turns. On the height of 2200m the temperature again steeply dropped beneath minus degrees. We drove to Skripi and before we transformed into ice cubes, made our way back to the valley. In the meantime, the Kanin boys and girls already prepared the slope for a new day. The snow machines were working overtime, the chief was in midst of his new battle plan for tomorrow. 2 days remain till the end of last battle with the snow on the station under the snow at Prevala, and then the connection between the Slovene and Italian ski resort will be officially open, for the first time this season.

Just think about it… For such an adventure, in which many neckties living in the city would gladly say no to, many people put in all their effort to make it happen. Today we take everything for granted and we forget, that for every thing, a human being had to put in their work to make it happen. Sometimes not everything goes as well as we would like to, but we try to appreciate the effort those people put into. That is why, my dear Kanin boys and girls, I bow before you!

 

And to all of you dear readers, I wish a merry Christmas, a happy New Year and all the luck in the world!