The Dream Couloir (Sanjski Ozebnik) on the north face of Triglav is not often climbed because the line rarely has climbable conditions. This January, several rope teams were able to repeat this great Slovenian winter line.
Besides Tom Livingstone and Gasper Pintar also benefited Bor Levicnik, Mikhail Fomin and Naoise Ó Muircheartaigh from the conditions that prevailed in mid-January Triglav north face offered. The definition of “climbable” is entirely in the eye of the beholder.
Hedging is extremely demanding
“The difficulty level is objectively easy if the snow is good, but in the first few hundred meters it started to melt, which made the lead climb very scary and dangerous, as there was almost no protection to put in,” says Slovenian alpinist Bor Levicnik .
As the altitude increased and the temperatures dropped, the snow got better and better. “In the last third of the wall, our ice axes and crampons finally bit into the solid ice, which made the key pitch a real pleasure.”
Decent runouts
The Briton Tom Livingstone has similar memories of climbing in steep ice, snow and firn: "The 1000 meter high north face of Triglav is reminiscent of the Jorasses, but the limestone requires a different approach and is more difficult to secure."
It was better if you switched off your head for a moment during the runouts.
Tom Livingstone
Sometimes you had to swing the ax a few times and carefully test it to find the sweet spot where the pick wouldn't slip, Livingstone said. Nonetheless, they would have been incredibly lucky to find such conditions.
Video: Juraj Koren climbs the Dream Couloir
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Credits: Cover photo and article images Bor Levicnik, Mikhail Fomin and Naoise Ó Muircheartaigh