Krn: the front
Another set of mountain pictures from a hike I took a few summers ago. Krn (2,244 meters) is across the Soča Valley from and a bit south of Prestreljenik. The Italians knew Krn as Monte Nero and it was the scene of some of the fiercest, most prolonged and ultimately pointless fighting during the long battles of attrition fought along the Soča (Isonzo) Front.
The hike up Krn starts in a small alpine pasture full of cows and climbs the peak’s dramatically sloped southern flank, which in this picture is hidden behind the rocky ridges down low. In spite of the sign, I quickly lost the trail and found myself clambering up a steep draw where I met and almost planted my hand on a modras, one the three poisonous snakes found in Slovenia. I would have been quite entirely screwed, hiking alone and off-route. From the river to the peak you gain over 2,000 meters of altitude.
After a few hours of steady uphill walking, during which you are ideally not bitten by a modras, you arrive at the koča, or hut, just below Krn’s summit. Bunks, gulaš, beer & wine, and so forth can be had for the same price you’d pay in the valley. Views to the south stretch to the Adriatic; to the north, Austria.
The upper slopes are still littered with the rusty detritus of war. Here is where the Italian and Austrian lines came closest to each other along the entire front; they were only meters apart in places.
The ridge here is the neighboring peak of Batognica, where the two armies carried out “the battle of the mines,” digging mines and countermines in order to blow up each other’s ammo caches. These attempts were successful enough that the summit of Batognica is said to be six meters lower than it used to be.
View from the ruins of an Italian bunker on the flank of Batognica, looking west toward the Soča valley. In addition to the ever-present rusty barbed wire, you encounter lots of shell shrapnel, dud (hopefully) rifle grenades, and lots and lots of weathered shoe leather, along with the occasional human bone.
The summit of Krn in morning light, with an Italian memorial wreath. View to the northwest, toward Austria’s Grossglockner (2,576 meters).
