Trip to Vrsic pass
You can start your trip to Vrsic by foot, bicycle, car or by motorbike. Choosing Kranjska Gora as starting point you will be rewarded with the best views to the mountain, and a 15km exhilarating downhill ride into the Soca Valley.
The famous winding road to the 1,611 m-high Vršič mountain pass is still a popular topic among road cyclists and mountain bikers. Cycling race to the Vršič Mountain Pass has become a traditional event, organised every year on the first Sunday in September, where over one thousand bike enthusiasts gather to challenge the 12 kilometres of steep and winding course up to the summit of Vrsic. The best cyclists reach pass Vrsic from Kranjska Gora in less than 35 minutes.
From Vrsic pass to the source of Soca river
The road across the Vrsic pass, takes you down 1000 m into deep valley of Soca river. The Soca river and its source below Mt Jalovec is one of must see point. Enjoy view to the clear and perfectly turqouise color of the river.
In the past, the path over the Vrisic pass was used by the people of Trenta when they wanted to do some shopping in Kranjska Gora or Villach or go to a fair or even see a doctor. Also the farmers from the Upper Sava ValIey use the Vršič road to get to their pastures on the Trenta side of the pass. For the people of Trenta the pass was known as Kranjski vrh. Officially name of pass was called Mojstrovka.
History of the road to Vrsic pass
In order for the path to meet the needs of timber skidding and transport, lt was first widened in 1909. When ltaly entered the war and the Soča (lsonzo) Front opened, the construction ofthe road was in full swing. Over 10,000 Russian prisoners of war were engaged in construction of the road.
Aware of the avalanche threat, the prisoners worked under special anti-avalanche fences but unfortunately these were unable to withstand two severe avalanches in the spring of 1916. According to military archives data, the avalanche buried over 300 Russian prisoners and several Austrian guards.
The construction of the road was completed in 1917.
In 1916 the prisoners built a wooden chapel on the Kranlska Gora side of the road in memory of their suffering and the comrades who were buried by the avalanche. The chapel was completely restored in the years 2005-2006. In june 2006, in commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the construction of the chapel, Siovenian government renamed the section of the road between Kranjska Gora (Hotel Erika) and Vrsic the Russian Road.
The mountain road from Kranjska Gora (810m) across Vrisic (1611m) to Log v Trenti (620m) spans 24kilometres of 50 hairpin bends, 24 on the Kraniska Gora side and 26 on the Trenta side of the pass. The road is open an average of seven months per year. In winter, lt is normallY closed to all traffic.
Vegetation on the Vrsic pass
Low-lying parts of the Pišnica valley are covered with the plant association of beech and the trifoliate anemone (TrifoIio-Fagetum). Besides the anemone, the undergrowth 15 adorned by the Christmas rose Helleborus niger), cyciamen (Cyciamen purpurascens), Hepatica nobilis and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtilus). Spruce forests are mostly a result of human influence. Above 1300 m, and up to 2100 m, beech forest cannot thrive due to harsh cilmate conditions, and occasional beeches (Fagus sylvatica) are low, twisted and gnarled. The ground 15 normally covered with dwarf pines (Pinus mugo), an occasional Iarch tree (Larix decidua), rhododendron (Rhododendron hirsutum), dwarf Alpenrose (Rhoclothamnus chamaecistus), and alder trees growing in humid sites.