Mountains

The winter season at most Slovenian ski resorts is drawing to a close this weekend, but there will be skiing to enjoy at least until early May at Kanin, the country's highest. Although visitor numbers did not top last year's excellent figures, ski lift operators are happy with the season.

The town of Črna na Koroškem north Slovenia hosted its annual snow sculpting competition this weekend. Unlike in recent years, there was plenty of snow and temperatures were low.

The event, known as the Castles of King Matjaž, evokes the legend of a righteous king sleeping under the nearby Mount Peca, which competitors as a rule explore as the theme in their sculptures.

The Vogel ski resort, located above Lake Bohinj, is planning substantial investments as part of the efforts to attract even more visitors year around. They are planning to build a new panoramic cable car, as well as a bike park and an archaeological hiking trail.

The latest measurements of the glaciers below the Triglav and Skuta peaks have shown that the only two remaining glaciers in Slovenia have shrunk and thinned significantly this year due to the unfavourable snow and temperature conditions, and that they are under threat of disappearing.

 Slovenian mountain huts are looking back at a record season, having reported 120,000 nights spent by hikers by the end of September 2022, which the Alpine Association of Slovenia says is slightly above the record figures posted in 2019.

Beijing – A sample of the Triglav glacier that has been shipped to Beijing in an awareness-raising campaign has reached its final destination in the Olympic Village, where it will now gradually turn to glacier water to highlight the perilous state of glaciers worldwide.

Jezersko – An Austrian climber has fallen to her death on the 2,540-metre Mount Jezerska Kočna in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. She slipped traversing a snow-covered stretch and died sliding down the mountain on scree, Kranj Police said.

On September 23, two Elbrus climbers were reported to be in intensive care, according to the regional ministry of health on Friday.

"Yesterday, 11 victims were transported to the Republican Clinical Hospital by the disaster medicine brigade; two of them, including a guide from Karachay-Cherkessia and a tourist from St. Petersburg," the agency's interlocutor said.

Turkey's first female ultramarathon runner, Bakiye Duran, 62, is set to run in the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) that will be held Aug. 23.

Duran will run in the 300-kilometer UTMB, first held in 2003. The race will cover France, Italy and Switzerland and competitors will circle Mont Blanc massif in the Alps.

Erden Eruç, a Turkish adventurer who was the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo using human power, has started a sailing expedition from California towards China to break a new record and raise awareness about the environmental crisis caused by human activities.