Sljeme upside down: start at the top and the climb waits for you at the end

You climb Sljeme from below. You sweat your way up, eat something, then coast back down to the car. This time we turned the whole thing upside down. We left the car up at Puntijarka and set off - downhill.

The plan was simple: down the Bikčević trail to Bliznec, then back up the Leustek one, so we would not walk the same path twice. We prefer loops.

It is remarkable how easily a person fools himself.

Down the Bikčević trail

Three and a half kilometres, not a metre of climbing, a path dropping through beech woods with the sun falling through the canopy in stripes. The forest was warm, but cooler than the city shimmering in the haze below.

The knees understood first. Going down is not a free ride - constant braking on a steep path tires you faster than climbing, just differently. Your legs start shaking when you stop, not when you push.

The bottom

Bliznec met us with tarmac and the building of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service. Above us the cable car cabins slid by without a sound, carrying people up.

All that height we had just spent so cheerfully on the way down was now standing in front of us, and our legs already had an hour and a half in them.

Up the Leustek trail

The Leustek trail does not forgive you from the first metre. The steady climb begins through tall pines.

We took the first break at about 430 metres. Five minutes, just enough for water. The second at about 560 m, and that one lasted seven. Out of three and a half hours, twelve minutes of standing still. That was not discipline but arithmetic: we knew how much was still above us.

At one point the trail runs through fallen beeches. Trunks lie beside it and across it, their root plates torn out of the ground. A scene straight out of Judgement Day.

The third hour was the hardest: three kilometres and almost 300 metres of climbing. A wooden shelter beside the path arrived exactly on time.

Near the end the forest thinned and Zagreb finally opened up, seen through dry, barkless beeches standing out of the green like masts.

We got to the top at 18:50, at 944 metres. 720 metres of ascent in total.

The lesson is simple and as old as hiking itself: attack a mountain from below. Start at the top and the climb waits for you at the end, when your legs no longer listen the way they did at the start.

A beautiful but fairly demanding walk. Worth repeating. 😉