I've recently seen a picture on facebook of one my friends standing on top of the highest Slovenian mountain, Triglav. That brought back memories of my own hike to that mountain many years ago. So I decided to write a short post about what mountains (and Triglav in particular) mean to Slovenian people. It is said that you are not really Slovenian before you climb this mountain. So when I turned 12, my parents were like,

"Daughter! We've fed you and bred you long enough! It's time for you to step on your own feet. You're no longer a child. You've flowered and you're a woman now. You're fit to bear children and not before long there will be handsome lads knocking on our door asking for your hand. But before we give you away, you have to undergo a special initiation ritual." 

And I was like,

"Eeerm, is it gonna hurt?"

"Well, only a little bit. It's an ancient ritual, you see. Ever since King Samo united Slavic tribes in 623 AD, our people dreamt of conquering the top of Triglav because of its strategic importance ... (I wasn't really listening here) ... and so in 1895 Jakob Aljaž bought the mountain from Austrians for n goldinars, were n is an integer between 1 and 5, according to different internet sources and you could buy about three bottles of wine for 1 goldinar at that time ..."

"Yes, yes, but what's all that to do with me?"

"Climbing Triglav is considered a great honour and you are not really a Slovenian before you step on its peak. The time has come for you to do it or die trying. Since we've already climbed the mountain from the nicer southern side when your two older brothers went through the ritual, we're gonna access it from the northern side this time. Northern side is much steeper and more dangerous, only scrambles and scree slopes and the sun only shines for about 3.5 hours a day."

And I was all like,

"Yaay, can't wait. When do we go?"

"You will need proper mountain boot for that so we are going to buy you a pair of Alpina mountain boots and then we're ready to go!"

And so they bought me a pair of Alpina mountain boots (which were really really good boots and I had them for over 10 years! (which speaks of either quality of the boots or my enthusiasm for mountains)). It's worth to note here that before climbing this, I've never really been to "the real" mountains. By "the real" mountains I mean nice rocky Alpine mountains, at least 2000 meters high, often above clouds and with patches of glaciers here and there. Not like Lake District or Snowdonia. No "real" mountains there. (BTW, I never ever miss a chance to insult English "mountains".)

And so we got up on some idle Friday at 5 am or something and drove to two-hours-away Triglav national park, parked our car, had breakfast, got caught in the storm, almost gave up due to bad weather, decided that we're not giving up since it was my Slovenianhood at stake, put rucksacks on our backs and went on an adventure!

Well, I admit it. I really enjoyed it. It was quite hard for me back then, also a bit dangerous at some parts but beautiful views, wild ibex and tiny little flowers, peaking from between the rocks outweighed the trouble. We spent the night at Kredarica mountain cottage. From there it's only an hour or two to the top, but you have to climb most of it and there were hordes of other mountaineers so we basically walked in a queue.

But the most curious thing happened when I got to the top. It was the "only hurts a little bit" part of the ritual. Of course, it didn't seem anything special back then because I knew what was coming and I found it perfectly natural. But looking at that from a reasonable distance, it really seems quite weird. To satisfy your curiosity: when you get to the top of Triglav for the first time, you get spanked. It's not really painful, it's nothing kinky or perverted, you just bow a little to expose your bottom and then one of the people who are not there for the first time spanks you with a piece of rope. Sounds Bizarre? Yes, it is. But it's a great tradition, as old as mountain boots (which is around 60 years, according to my guesstimation). I have no idea where this weird custom came from, I've never even heard of any attempt to explain the origin of it. But I stood there and I was spanked and I can proudly introduce myself as Slovenian ever since.