Dr. Kugy was primarily attracted by the mountains mainly because
he was also a botanist. He was almost obsessed with searching for the
Scabiosa Trenta, a plant mentioned about a century earlier
by the botanist B. Hacquet. Although he knew the approximate
location where this plant was first spotted, he walked around with
different guides for months and years without finding it.
But instead, he found the beauty of the Julian Alps, and described
it in his unsurpassed books about the Julian Alps. The most famed
one, `Aus dem Leben eines Bergsteigers' (`From the life of
a mountain climber'; originally in German; see photo) is one of the best
I have ever read, not only from the Alpine literature.
Don't miss a wonderful paragraph
from this famous book. He also wrote `Work, Music and Mountains',
`The Julian Alps in Pictures', `The divine smile of Monte Rosa',
`From the days past' and `Anton Ojcinger - the life of a
mountain guide'.
(Adapted after T. Strojin's Outline of Alpine History.)
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A few years later than dr. Frischauf, dr. Julius Kugy appeared
as the explorer of the Julian Alps. He was a gross-merchant from
Triest, Italy, with enough spare time for the nearby mountains.
Although he was brought up in a German manner, he too (like
dr. Frischauf) was tolerant towards the Slovenians. He sistematically
visited (walked, climbed) practically the whole Julian Alps,
aided by the local guides,
most of them wild hunters from Trenta. He was very careful about
selecting these, and although they were already masters on their
own terrain, he gradually made them first class climbing guides.
