Snowshoeing on Velika Planina Slovenia

We loved our first snowshoeing experience last year and this year bought our own snowshoes. Here’s how we got on snowshoeing on Velika Planina, Slovenia.

It’s fun and great exercise

We tried snowshoeing for the first time last year (2022) and loved it. We rented the snowshoes and poles and spent 4-5 hours exploring the Pokljuka Plateau, loving the freedom snowshoes offer you to just wander ‘off piste’ and explore beautiful, silent snowy forests.

It wasn’t as hard work as we’d expected and gives great stability and traction in conditions that would otherwise be impossible for walking. It’s also great exercise – a full body work out!

Buying the gear!

So, with reckless abandon, and huge amounts of googling to find the best option for the lowest price, we took the plunge and bought our own snowshoes. We bought the TSL Highlander Tour Snowshoes and they’re great.

So, off we headed to our holiday home in Slovenia, with one large hold bag almost exclusively taken up by the new snowshoes, and consequently only two outfits each (exclusively ‘outdoor wear’).

Here’s a a quick checklist of what you need for beginner snowshoeing:

Snowshoes (surprising that)
Walking poles (or ski poles) with snow baskets
Good walking boots with ankle support
Gaiters
Rucksack
Water bottle and snacks
Hat, warm gloves and neckwarmer
A physical map (and the ability to read it!)
Maps.Me on your phone
Battery pack and cable (just in case you get lost)
And, lots of layers depending on the temperature. If you’re going properly ‘off piste’ you also need avalanche training & gear, but at our level and for the routes we describe that’s really not needed (they follow marked trails and are almost flat).

Velika Planina is a high karst plateau in the Kamniske Alps in Slovenia, where in the spring herdsmen (and women) still take their cattle to graze on wildflower-strewn meadows for the summer.

Still being ‘amateur snowshoers’ (if such a thing exists) we decided to go to Velika Planina. It’s all very ‘Heidi’ and exceptionally beautiful, with stunning views across to the Alps. But sadly not on the day we went snowshoeing. We could see the clouds from the bottom of the cable car but optimistically (and completely wrongly) decided they’d ‘soon clear up’.

We piled into the cable car along with many brightly clad, chattering Slovene families clutching sledges, skis, poles and dogs (warmly wrapped in dog coats – Slovene dog coats are not the fashion accessory they are in the UK!) Some families also carried huge rucksacks and carrier bags full of provisions – you can rent one of the tourist cottages on Velika Planina and stay for a night or two – we’ve never done so, but it really appeals because it’s a magical place. The most ‘luxurious’ ones are these…

We were wrapped up in our warmest layers, and many of them, but realised while on the incredibly slow chair lift from the top of the cable car that we weren’t going to be warm enough without keeping moving – it was minus 12°C and snowing. So, move we did, with a brisk 3 minute trot to Zeleni Rob – the warm, welcoming, mountain hut at the top of the chair lift – all pine and red & white gingham curtains. Surely nothing can beat the welcome of a Slovene mountain hut on a cold winter’s day – a true refuge against the elements. However, the power was intermittent and so we could only pay in cash – but we had the sum total of 20 euros for the whole day (be warned, always have plenty of snacks and cash!) and so we shared an apple strudel and two lukewarm coffees (due to the aforementioned power cuts)

Unable to put it off any longer, we donned our last spare layers and headed outside to find complete ‘white out’ conditions – when the sky, air and ground are all the same colour and it’s impossible to see anything. Thankfully we’ve been to Velika Planina many times and so broadly knew which direction to go in – they also put poles along the marked hiking trails and as you reach each one you can dimly make out the next in the fog. The snow was about a metre deep but technically we didn't really need our snowshoes as we had to stick to the packed down path to avoid being lost forever. We did venture off it a few times though and definitely needed them then.

Mystical and magical

Snowshoeing through whiteout conditions on Velika Planina was really mystical and magical once we’d warmed up – we soon reached the herdsmen’s settlement where the beautiful shingled, circular huts loomed out of the mist – almost completely covered with snow and with icicles hanging off the roof.

We continued on to the Domzalski Dom – a large mountain hut located towards Mala Planina (Velika = big, Mala = small). It’s a great hut, not at all cute but often seems to have a distinct ‘party vibe’. This time was no exception – it was rammed with groups and families chattering, laughing, eating, drinking and basically having the time of their lives. Racks of steaming clothes hung around the huge ‘Krusna Pec’ – a traditional, tiled Slovene oven used for both cooking and heating, while rather incongruous orchids filled the window sills and the enticing smells of traditional Slovene food filled the air.

The atmosphere was fantastic, and we were reluctant to tear ourselves away but needed to catch the 2pm cable car as they only run once an hour in winter, and we were due to meet a good friend. So we snowshoed back across the plateau in visibility that hadn’t improved in the slightest – it was still very atmospheric though. Sadly we didn't snowshoe fast enough and missed the cable car by three minutes – aaaghhh!!!!

We consoled ourselves during the subsequent hour’s wait with a vroca cokolada in Skodla – the little café/bar at the top of the cable car. If you ever go to Slovenia in winter you really must try vroca cokolada – it’s hot chocolate but not like anything you’ve ever had in the UK. A tall glass cup of steaming, silken, molten, rich, deep, intense, melted chocolate, often topped with whipped cream. It is worth every single calorie. And then some.

And we’d also definitely recommend a visit to Kraljev Hrib – near the bottom of the cable car. We had our best-ever goulash there (and we’ve had many) – it was absolutely beautiful – chunks of tender venison simmered in a sauce of deep, rich, intense flavours, and served with homemade herb bread and cranberry sauce. Yum!

A short history of Velika Planina

Man has been present in the upland plateau of Velika Planina since prehistoric times. Back then, people built simple shelters out of wood or created bivouacs. Archaeologists have found coins, whetstones, sharpened tools, nails, pendant, rings and pottery, along with numerous clappers and bells which tell us they had cattle with them. Velika Planina is first mentioned in historical literature in 1538 as ‘die Gross Ross Albenn’ – ‘Great Horse Pasture’ – so one has to assume they had horses as well!

The architecture of the traditional herdsmen’s huts is unique: they had an oval tent-like, pine or larch shingled roof hanging low over a simple central room, with an open chimney-less fireplace and no windows. In later years, windows were added, and a division created between the herdsman’s and cattle’s quarters.

Sadly, all the original huts were burnt down by German troops during the war, including the tiny wooden chapel ‘Our Lady of the Snows’ which was designed by the celebrated Slovene architect Jose Plecnik. A new chapel wasn't built and consecrated until 1988. Preskar’s Hut was authentically renovated into a museum which you can now visit, plus the rebuilt herdsmen’s and tourist huts are still all in the same style, with some new additions such as solar panels.

We’d recommend a visit at any time of year, although it gets very busy with tourists in July-August.

Snowshoeing on Velika Planina, Slovenia