Window on Niksic

This ridge, the second parallel ridge going northwards after passing Zurim, has featured in many of my hikes this year. However, so far we have either gone eastwards along the top of the ridge, or perpendicular across it towards the next ridge (Mt Lola). This time we decided to go westwards along the top of the ridge towards Bijela and Krnovo. It took about two hours to get from the car parked by Zagaracki katun to the top of the ridge, then another hour or so to the highest point of the peak Trpezarija, not far from where the wind farm on Krnovo starts. It was not a tough walk, but we had to be careful because of the early sunset this late in the year. We wanted to see whether there was a quick route down from the ridge to the valley bottom, but not finding one along the way, we had to return the way we came.

More just for the exercise than anything else, we decided to head over to Durmitor and enjoy the view from the top over all of Durmitor National Park. We needed crampons near the top, as the peak was covered in ice and packed snow. We tried exploring the minor peaks between Sljeme and Bandijerna, but decided that we would be hard-pressed for time and so headed down. The descent took a little longer than we had bargained for, and ended up seeing the sun set as we came down and returned to the car with hardly any light left.

We set out on a cloudy day, hoping that the road would not be covered in snow or ice, and we were fortunately able to get to the katun at the foot of Mali Zurim. A view from Borovnik a week earlier had revealed another way up Veliki Zurim, and it was decided to explore this, even though the entire mountain was engulfed in low cloud and we could not see where our path was taking us to. When we found an animal trail, we followed it up a snaking route to a pass, but given the limited visibility, headed straight up to where we knew the summit to be, which was marked by a canister containing a log book and pen. The way down was potentially dangerous, given that we could not see that far in front, but I trusted to my memory of climbing it before, and we managed to descend without problem, if a little tentatively.