Tom`s travels: Trebevic (08/02 & 22/02/2025)

As a day hike, we decided to hike up Mount Trebevic, the mountain overlooking the city of Sarajevo from the south. We took the cable car, originally built in 1959, but renewed several times until the latest in 2018, which in a few minutes took us from the city center, at about 600m, to the top of the plateau overlooking the city at about 1170m. Once we got off the cable car, we had a short way downhill to reach an opening where a road runs through, and there is the Hotel Pino. Here was a parking lot which can be reached by car from the city center. Our hike started there, heading constantly uphill. We first had a nice section through a thick pine forest with meandering trails. At one point, though, as we reached about 1400m, we started seeing the occasional patch of snow mixed with ice, and as we continued, the presence of snow became even more prominent. The last section was a bit tricky as the path was fully covered in snow and ice, which made it a bit slippery and uneasy. However, after a bit, we eventually manage to reach the top of Mount Trebevic, set at 1627m. As it is free of trees and faces south, that part, despite a higher altitude, was actually free of snow. We stopped a short while to admire the nice view, looking south east towards the Jahorina mountain, location of the largest ski resort in the country, while to the south and south west, the imposing presence of the Bjelašnica mountain, also featuring a prominent ski resort. As is typical in the region, there was a bit of smog mixed with light clouds covering the valleys and the city below. Right next to the mountain's peak was the 60m tall telecommunications tower built in 1975. Mount Trebevic has had quite a tumultuous recent history. In 1984, when the Sarajevo Olympics took place, the mountain was used for several Olympic events, such as bobsledding. Its history became macabre when the mountain was used by the attackers' Army of Republika Srpska during the 1992-1995 Bosnia War, as it unfortunately provided the besiegers with favorable positions for positioning the artillery that bombarded the city. From the peak we walked a bit along the ridgeline admiring the panorama all around us and then finally started our descent from the northwestern side of the mountain. After a bit of downhill we then reached the Jure Franko mountain hut where both Ania and I had a nice tasty and warming bean soup. After the break we then headed on, continiung our descent, this time back through the pine forest and eventually making it down to the Pino Hotel. We then had one last section uphill to reach the cable car station which we then took to get back down into the city.

On a separate occasion, we headed back up to Trebevic mountain, this time after a few days of snow but on a sunny crip day. We took once again the cable car but this time decided to walk along the abandoned bobsled track. Many sections of the track are still standing and are fully covered in graffiti. Following the tracks downhill we then reached the end of them and then decided to walk further to reach the Bistrik Kula Observatory located on the hill of the same name at about 1000m. It was built on the site of a former Austro-Hungarian fortress and used to be the only observatory in Bosnia and Herzegovina but was closed due to the serious damage it suffered in the 1990s during the siege of Sarajevo. From there we had a beautiful view over the city so we sat on a rock and enjoyed it for a little while. Heading back the way we came we reached the Pino Hotel where we decided to have lunch, I took a dish of klepe, a local type of filled dough in a yoghurt and slightly spicy tomato sauce. After lunch we headed back to the cable car and took the next ride down into the city.