Nejc

Nejc Zaplotnik was one of the most charismatic people of the Slovene alpine scene I know of. His book “Pot” (“The way”) is a Slovene bestseller and to this day, after one half of a quarter of a century after the first release in 1981, it still gets re-printed ever-so-often. Nejc and I have been very connected with each other till his too quick and tragic death beneath the Himalayan Manaslu Mountain in 1983.


Nejc Zaplotnik climbing in the Central Eastern Alps in 1976
In the years that followed, the generation which Nejc was a part of, achieved, each time, greater and greater Himalayan goals. 11 years after his death, we climbed all 14 tops of the world, which are over 8000m high and thus achieved the goal, which Nejc fantastically showed us with his expertly climbed expeditions on 3 mountains peaks over 8000m height. And as lucky as I am, I could be a part of many of these expeditions myself. We were so happy, we worked so hard, suffered and also cried. We experienced fantastic wins and tragedies alike. Nejc was no longer able to physically join us in these expeditions, but he was still a part of each climb in our hearts and thoughts, conversations and memories. And every time we managed to achieve something spectacular, a though always accrued in my mind of what Nejc would do even greater, if he were still with us.


On the trail winding beneath Chulu Far East.
The second reason of why Nejc was still so vividly, brightly and purely present to this very day in my head was that I once more began to read his book “Pot” and I began to think about all the adventures we had, of every small detail and memory that I remember oh so colorfully. And although I know his book almost by heart, is sometimes happens that some small detail surprises me and grows into an even bigger adventure which I remembered. In autumn 2015 just this happened; on the 40th anniversary of the first Slovene ascend up Makalu Mountain. The first time we climbed that way up with Nejc, we climbed the expert route on the South Face of this majestic mountain. 40 years later, some of us veterans went to re-live those memories in the Himalayas once more.


The 6059 m high Chulu Far East.
The alpine goal was not so important, as is it common at veteran undertakings, but I still managed to reach 6000m of the steep mountain, now known as Chulu Far East, with a sharp snowy valley at the very top and a pleasant naturally-formed shelter in the last cliffs beneath the top. On 26th October, in the late afternoon, I stood there and watched the clouds, which moved to the west and once in a while, covered the sun, shining on the cliffs and coloring them in bright red-pink. In the rarest occasions like this, I find the mountains very beautiful; even -or maybe because of it- when remembering Nejc, who stood 36 years ago before me, together with Danilo Cedilnik and Aleš Kunaver, who all stood in the same spot and felt the same beauty as me on that day: “…and we still have a pleasant treat waiting: the ascend on the beautiful ridge on the yet untouched 6000m height. A pure white ladder which reaches to the very top and, just beneath it, leads us into a rocky depression, where we can take a break and throw down our backpacks for a second or two. The top of the mountain is formed in narrow horizontal ridge-cuts, which stand there like 2 ravens on a power line and waiting for us to come closer… We offer them cookies, which they divide amongst themselves like true brothers… And so we buy ourselves out with the cookies and the ravens leave, so we can have space to climb up. I would like to stay, roaming through the snow and gliding like the birds in the sky. But it is time to return back home.” Nothing spectacular, nothing historic, just a beautiful moment, a vivid memory of a long-gone friend, which will forever live in our hearts as one of the most precious memories we remember.


The top ridge didn’t change at all, from the times Nejc, Aleš and Den climbed it.