VELEBIT
Expedition · Winter 2026
Where the ice sings. Seven days along the winter ridge, from Baške Oštarije to Zavižan.
01 — Expedition
In winter, Velebit turns into a cathedral of ice. The bora grinds the ridges, snow hides the trails, and the silence is so deep you can hear your own heart.
We set off in February: three climbers, seven days, one ridge.
The expedition in numbers
The route
Seven days. Three summits. One bora.
01 / 06
DAY 01 · 18 KM
Baške Oštarije
We set off in the dark with headlamps and 24 kilos on our backs. First light finds us above Kiza, while the bora is still asleep.
02 / 06
DAY 02 · 21 KM
The ridge opens
Knee-deep snow and three trail-breakers swapping every two hundred metres. The route draws itself — wherever the wind leaves a hard crust.
03 / 06
DAY 03 · 9 KM
The bora
Gusts up to 110 km/h. Nine kilometres in eleven hours. We talk only with our hands, the wind carries every word to the sea.
04 / 06
DAY 04 · 16 KM
A night at −24 °C
A tent dug into the drift, a stove melting snow for two hours. Above us, the kind of sky you only see when the air itself is frozen.
05 / 06
DAY 05 · 22 KM
The frozen tarn
The ice cracks under our crampons like glass. We stop only to measure it — forty centimetres, enough for all of us.
06 / 06
DAY 06 · 26 KM
Zavižan
The last climb at dawn. On the summit nobody says a word; the ridge behind us is finally quiet.
Journal
Frames from the ridge
Next up —