In 1893, Joža Čop was born in Jesenice, an industrial town surrounded by the peaks of the Julian Alps and the Karavanke range. One of twelve children, Cop climbed Slovenia’s tallest peak, Triglav, when he was just eight years old, and the mountains remained his spiritual home for the rest of his life.

Like most residents of Jesenice, Čop worked at the local ironworks. In his spare time, however, he became one of the best mountain climbers the country has ever had. Known for his almost cat-like climbing style, he was unusually agile on difficult terrain and even on ice-covered surfaces. (He was one of Slovenia’s first winter climbers.) It is said that his factory job made his upper body exceptionally strong.

Čop was the first to climb 24 different routes in the Julian Alps. One of those routes, a difficult ascent up Triglav’s North Face, now bears his name: Čopov steber (Čop’s Column). He climbed it in 1945, right after the end of World War II, with an intrepid female climbing partner, Pavla Jesih. The two needed five days to complete the climb, long considered one of Slovenia’s most difficult. When Jesih got injured during the climb, Cop even organized a rescue party for her, but she recovered, and they both made it to the summit.
During his life, Čop climbed Triglav’s challenging North Face more than 300 times. There was hardly a route in the Slovenian Alps that he did not successfully tackle, and Čop became a symbol of Slovenian mountaineering prowess. His fame even got him two acting roles in Slovenian films – both times playing a Slovenian mountain climber.

He was so committed to the sport that his prenuptial agreement specifically guaranteed that his wife would not prevent him from climbing – even with women he liked.

Čop was also active in the Slovenian mountain rescue service, and participated in a number of difficult rescue operations. One anecdote, however, caught the public attention, revealed Čop’s down-to-earth personality, and is still remembered to this day.
As Yugoslavia’s leading mountaineer, Čop was invited to hand a symbolic relay baton to President Tito in Belgrade. Čop practiced his formal speech for hours, but when he went on the stage to hand over the relay to Tito, he forgot his lines. Instead, he came up with his own original greeting: “May you be healthy like a mountain goat!”

At first, the assembled crowd didn’t what to make of Čop’s unusual greeting. Everyone looked at Tito for his reaction. Would Cop’s comparison to a mountain goat make the Communist leader angry?

Fortunately for Cop, Tito loved Čop’s statement. He laughed, hugged the Slovenian mountain climber, and told him that he liked people who didn’t talk much.

After his retirement, Čop ran a mountain hut along with his wife. He died in 1975, at the age of 82. He is buried in the mountain village of Planina pod Golico, in a cemetery with spectacular views of the mountain peaks that he loved so much.