Mt. Stožina in the snow (1,905 m)

The winter has been very mild even in Žabljak, such that the first kilometre of the ring road around Durmitor from the turn-off from the main road to Sedlo was open to cars. The walk from Pošćenski kraj to Sedlo is not very long, so the decision was made to try to climb Stožina, a dramatic-looking hill right next to the road that I had climbed during the late spring of 2015. Once off the road, the snow was quite deep in parts where it had drifted, but still rocks protruded in places. The climb was too steep for snowshoes, but crampons were perfect for the consistency of snow. Much of the hill is grassy terrain, so there was good grip almost all the way up. There was one tricky part two thirds of the way up, where it was very steep and there were many rocks, so in places the crampons were not helpful, in others the snow was very deep in between rocks and we were up past our knees in snow drifts. It took just over an hour to climb, but at the top the wind was bitter, snow started to fall and cloud began to envelop the top of the hill, obscuring what had been a beautiful view over Mt Šljeme. The summit is at 1,905 m, a climb from the road of about 300 m. The descent was very easy and quick, around 20 minutes, there was just that one tricky part that I mentioned on the way up, where we had to scramble backwards.