By: Sara Kovač / Nova24tv
Slovenian mountains are still not clean after the “contamination” of the Friday’s cyclists, who apparently suffered a severe setback when they, with Tea Jarc at the helm, shouted and littered on Kredarica during their espionage campaign for Prime Minister Janez Janša and Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs. Not only were they yelling, pouring their frustrations out and upsetting other hikers, but they also violated basic etiquette and rules in the mountains. As if they are some bandits, they polluted the mountain trails with garbage, stuck stickers to the signposts and even destroyed some of them. Boštjan Gortnar, who paints blazes on mountain trails, let us know that seven volunteers were cleaning the mountain trail after the protesters left, and they were unable to clean everything, so there is still some work left for the caretaker of the mountain trail.
“On Thursday and Friday, I led a work campaign to repair the mountain trails around Triglav. Seven volunteers were present at the campaign. Since ‘Friday’s protest cyclists’ were also on Triglav at the time, I ‘met’ them at the mountain hut on Planika and noticed that they were sticking stickers with their logos on the mountain signposts and poles around the hut,” Boštjan Gortnar, who is an instructor of painting blazes on mountain trails, told us.
On his way back to Pokljuka, he noticed that most of the signposts in that direction were also covered with stickers. “The stickers were also put up over the inscriptions, which provide basic information about the mountain trail and its difficulty.” He removed the stickers wherever he was able to, and some still have to be removed. This work will probably have to be done by the caretaker of the mountain trail. After the incident, Janez Janša also said that during their descent from Triglav, he and his team also cleaned up after the protesters. “We disinfected the rocks and Aljaž’s tower after yesterday’s contamination and performed the mount Triglav baptism with our friends from Hungary,” he wrote on his Twitter profile.
Dangerous and also criminal acts in the mountains
Since the stickers even covered the inscriptions on the signposts, this act could be considered extremely dangerous, as the signposts contain basic information and direct the mountaineers to the mountain trails. It is forbidden to put any other markings on them or to damage them, which is also stated in Article 25 of the Mountain Paths Act, and violations are also punishable by a fine.
The actions of the protesters also show disrespect for the voluntary work of the people who help maintain mountain trails in good condition. Volunteers had to carry heavy poles and equipment on their shoulders for hours in order to install all these signposts, and then someone behaves like a vandal and does something like this; Gotnar was outraged. “The signposts are also not a negligible cost, and most of the mountaineering associations finance them themselves. Many foreigners also walk these mountain trails, and I can only imagine what they might think of us when they notice these stickers on the signposts.” Tv show host and journalist of Nova24TV, Luka Svetina, who has been hiking all of his life, also commented on what happened, writing: “I was taught to take all rubbish I bring to the mountains with me, back to the valley. I also expect the fighter for a green future to be able to do that.”
As we have already written, the ideological leader of the protest march to Triglav was obviously Miran Hladnik, a professor of Slovenian literature at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana who also documented his travelogue. Does he consider it appropriate that he and Tea Jarc and other protesters in their organised action so loudly polluted the Triglav National Park, destroyed and put stickers over important information on signposts, and are they aware that this is a criminal and unacceptable act, inappropriate for supporters of the “green,” we asked them. We are still waiting for a response.