Bjelolasica

At 1,533 metres, Bjelolasica is the highest peak of the entire Gorski Kotar range and — historically — the training base of the Croatian Olympic ski team. The mountain hosts Croatia's largest ski resort, opened in 1985, with 8 km of pistes and Olympic-standard training slopes; sadly a major fire in 2011 destroyed the main hotel complex and the resort has only partially reopened for winter sports, so summer is now the mountain's real season. A well-signed hiking trail from the resort base climbs steeply through beech forest to the summit cross in about three hours; the panorama includes the entire Kapela range, glimpses of the Kvarner Sea, and on clear days the peaks of Slovenia's Kamnik-Savinja Alps. The trail passes several dramatic karst dolines and the atmospheric ruins of the wartime partisan hospital, hidden deep in the forest and now a small memorial. In autumn the beech and mountain ash forests glow red and gold; in winter, when the ski lifts run, you can ride to 1,300 m for a shorter final push. The name means 'the White-Weaseled Mountain' — referring to the ermine that turn white for winter here.