Olseva/Uschowa

Mountain/Rock

Olseva/Uschowa

Page Type: Mountain/Rock

Location: Karavanke, Austria/Slovenia, Europe

Lat/Lon: 46.44990°N / 14.68980°E

Activities: Hiking, Mountaineering, Scrambling, Skiing

Season: Spring, Summer, Fall

Elevation: 6328 ft / 1929 m

Page By: Vid Pogachnik

Created/Edited: Oct 4, 2002 / Jun 8, 2008

Object ID: 151247

Hits: 4565

Page Score: 87.94% - 8 Votes

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Table of Contents

In Slovenian language č, š and ž are pronounced like ch, sh, and zh. Our mountain is written Olševa.

Overview

Olševa from the SW

Olsheva/Uschowa is a special mountain. Not because of it's height or big walls, but because of a few special treasures it hides. The mountain has a shape of a long ridge, with the following summits (from the W to the E): Obel kamen, 1911m, Govca, 1929m, Gladki vrh, 1850m.

First of the 'hidden pearls of Olševa' is a cave on the altitude of around 1700 m, named Potočka zijalka (115 m long, 20-40 m wide). It wouldn't be so special, because in limestone caves are frequent, if there in past so many relics of old stone age men weren't found. If you are watching from the cave entrance towards the warm south, enjoying broad panorama, you can easily imagine how thousands of years ago men gathered here around a camp fire, how they lived in the interior and how they monitored a broad hunting teritory around from here. Besides men made tools also some hundreds of cave bear skeletons were found here, indicating that Potočka zijalka was an important hunting point at the dawn of humankind in Europe.

The second pearl are beautiful stone arcs (Skalna vrata, Felsenthore). One of the side ridges on the northern side is all perforated. All right, this is not the Arches Park, but by all means it's worth visiting. That's may be why E. E. Huesler in his Bergwander Atlas Alpen chooses the tour through these limestone arcs as one of his favourites in Karavanke/Karawanken mountain group.

These two natural and archeological treasures plus a beautiful panorama from the top of Olševa are reasons why the peak is often ascended from the Slovenian and also from the Austrian side.

See also the links chapter!

Getting There

Hunkan - On the southern terrace

The southern (Slovenian) approach is enabled by the panoramic road, going from Savinja valley (the town of Solcava) to the terrace of Podolševa (Sub-Olševa), where several beautiful, separated farms lie. Near the Sveti Duh (Holy Spirit) church there is a mountain hut Koča pod Olševo (The hut under Olševa), 1232 m. You can park on the trailhead of any of marked paths, leading on top from the southern and eastern side.

For the northern approach, you take the road through the valley of Remšenik (Remschenig), which you enter near the Eisenkappel / Železna Kapla on the Austrian side. At the end of the valley, you park near the church of Šmarjeta (St. Margaret), 925 m.

You can see a detailed map on:

http://www.austrianmap.at/.

A Slovenian map: Kamniške in Savinjske Alpe, 1:50000, Planinska zveza Slovenije.

Routes Overview

Olseva/Uschowa and its (marked) paths

Marked paths:

From the mountain hut to Potočka Zijalka (1 h, 30 min) and to the top (1 more hour). Easy, but steep on some places. Only a short passage is secured by pegs.

From Podolševa. Where the road from Solčava arrives on the mountain terrace, a marked path climbs steep grassy slopes and reaches the main ridge east of the main peak. 2 h 15 min to the top.

From Remšenik. We first follow the marked path towards the east (by the valley), before reaching the border between Austria and Slovenia we turn right, where the marked path crosses beech woods far to the right (SE). Reaching the rocks of the side ridge the path climbs up, bringing us to the crossroads. The left path climbs over steep rocks (secured by pegs, hooks and steel cables) through the arches, the right one simply climbs on through the woods. Above, both paths join, climb a little more to the main mountain ridge (still woods), crosses the border and in few minutes reaches the cave of Potočka Zijalka. From there to the top as described above. From the ridge, just before crossing the border another path deters also to the left. It ascends steeply (secured on a few places) and reaches the summit ridge on Obel kamen, 1911m. Continuing by the summit ridge requires scrambling experience.

I would warmly recommend a tour 3, but for a descent you can also use a pathless long scree, which descends some hundred meters west of the main peak to the northern side (also suitable for skiing!). At it's bottom we reach a nonmarked path, which we follow towards the west, crossing the border (no one will be there, believe me, especially since we joined EU) and then descending the Remšenik valley to our car.