Window on Sunny Mountain
Anabell and Tarragon must traverse the Window on Sunny Mountain to reach the Valley of the 7 Lakes. But will they be able to spot this window from afar and will they make it there in time to reach the other side?
Sunny Mountain draws inspiration from the real-life Mount Prisojnik (2547m), which essentially translates as “the one irradiated or encompassed by the sun”, as its northern and southern faces are orientated towards the Sun.¹ ² It is one of the most spectacular mountains in the Julian Alps of Slovenia. Far from being the tallest mountain, its prominence is due to its massive north wall which faces the Vršič pass and Kranjska Gora. The Irish mountaineer and journalist Fanny Copeland called it the “Cyclops of the Julian Alps”.³ She added that “Some mountains are gods, but this one is a titan”.
On the upper edge of the northern wall is the famous western/front window, 80 metres high and 40 metres wide. Each year on November 9th around 11 am and on February 1st around noon, this window is illuminated by the sun when looking up towards the window from the Vršič pass.
Prisojnik is also known by another common name: Prisank. Marijan Lipovšek makes it quite clear that Prisojnik is its original name and proper name. Fanny Copeland, Čudovite gore, trans. Marijan Lipovšek (Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1985) 147-148.
Ibid. 74, 147.
Ibid. 74.
Ibid. 78.
“All of a sudden I was standing in front of the window. Like a gigantic gully, it is drilled in wide curves through solid rock twenty-five meters thick, or perhaps more. Of course, this is the work of water, but when and how? Was it eaten away by the roaring waves of the tides when the mountain was only a coral reef in the sea? Hardly. Compared to those days in the misty past, this is a new creation. Someday I will ask a geologist how it was formed. I can understand the little dents and cavities, but this thing is huge and I’m not going to beat myself up over it.”
Credit: Luka Esenko https://lukaesenko.com