Slovakia and crossing West to East Tatras

Switchbacks and 3/4 way up the storm hit us first here

Boys will be boys, playing with the floating icebergs

Nasty mountain storms

Storm clouds down upon us

Gerlachovsky Stit (2654m) Slovaks highest

Cooking breakfast, cloud inversion below amazing

Lee high on an exposed rock

cloud inversion

Summit Smiles

Resort towns by the mountains probably sums up the entire Slovakian side of the Tatras. We headed straight for the tourist information and mountain guides centre where we met a fascinating old man “Yaza” who had worked for 40 years for the mountain rescue, and climbed regularly in the Tatras. All too happy to go through routes and information for climbing, we could have spent all day chatting to him and almost did due to his enthusiasm.

What we did realise was the ban on walking before the 15^th June appeared to be more for safety of tourists that didn’t know how to handle the snow conditions. We were advised due to our equipment and experience we would have no problems heading in.

A stop at the lake Strbske Pleso with our map and books in hand, we looked like tourists pulling out our picnic blanket and lunch to sit down and relax. We watched people doing bungee jumping from the ski jumps they use in winter and decided we’d like to do the West to East Tatra hike over the coming days, with the view of checking out the surrounding mountains for climbing possibilities.

With the huts booked as we still weren’t allowed to camp we got out kit together at a campsite where we’d leave the van.

West to East along the Tatras

Day 1

Easy 2 hour hike up to Pobranske Pleso hut there before 10am and were surprised to see a band playing local music and loads of mountain rescue folk. It’s the 60^th Anniversary of their existence and they were having a celebration. We decided we’d like to go for a further hike up to the lake Velke Hincovo Pleso. Again surrounded by big snowy peaks and still easily accessible floating ice bergs (which Lee happily played with for a bit) it was really pretty. After some lunch we continued onto Vysne Koprovske Sedlo at 2180m it was a steep series of switch backs that lead us here. Across a few snow patches and we were headed to the peak of Koprovske Stit but turned back just before the summit due to the threatening roar of the thunder, lee’s watch showing the air pressure suddenly dropping and the think band of clouds moving in. Annoyingly once we reached the saddle again the sun actually came out and the storm never eventuated, just a lesson for us on mountain weather and to watch conditions more closely before heading high on peaks.

Day 2

This was supposed to be the hardest and longest of the days. What the weather forecast hadn’t let us know was that a big storm was about to erupt. Straight out of the valley we climbed up on to the saddle of a ridge being forced suddenly to stop, with only moments to put on our waterproof jackets before being pummelled by hail, wind and ducking in a very exposed area due to the close range of the lightning strikes.

As that settled we continued up, hoping the other side of the ridge would be calmer but alas it wasn’t. We barely reached some shrub cover before the next storm hit us, more hail, more lightening and we decided we needed to sit this one out, cooking porridge to keep us warm. Another break and we only got less than half a km before it started again, trying to get footage of the storm to show what it was like and how close the lightening bolts were, but didn’t quite capture it.

The storms then seemed to pass, we were once again searching for the big peaks as this was to be our recce trip for possible climbing in the future. We were lucky the sun came out when we approached Gerlachovsky Stit (2654m) and could see some possible routes up though it looked very daunting, a massive granite peak nestled in amongst many other high granite peaks. Most of the day it was just the 2 of us on the tracks until we came across a film or TV crew filming a fake rescue scene complete with their own smoke machine, quite a funny site to see.

The hut of Zamkovskeho Chata has been our favourite. It’s a real climbers hut, complete with old photographs, ice axes and skis from the early days. We spoilt ourselves with these delicious fruit dumplings cooked at the hut, Yum!

Day 3

We set off early as usual and hiked on through the low cloud for a couple of hours before eventually breaking up into the sun and above the cloud. Breakfast of porridge and fruit with a rare cloud inversion as company set us up for the rest of the day. We continued up to summit Velka Svistovka and then headed down to Zelene Pleso. The steep downhill took its toll on Lisa’s feet causing painful blisters and Lee’s knee so the pace dropped somewhat. From here we still had a 2 ½ hour walk out down a valley and through a forest hammered by the storms of 2004. Eventually, sore, tired and hobbling, we limped back into the campsite for well-deserved showers and dinner out at a pizzeria.

The pizzeria (recommended by Lonely Planet) turned out to be a most costly meal so far. Not in terms of money but in that we both got horrible food poisoning from 2 different pizzas. We are both still suffering as we write this now in a campsite in Warsaw. Lee is about to fly home for a friends wedding and is scared for the safety of the other passengers around him as he is still in a, lets say, volatile state.

On the way up to Warsaw we dropped a little deeper into Slovakia to visit Spis Castle. One of Europe’s biggest castle complexes is almost in ruins but very impressive none the less. It sits perched up on a lonely hill and dates back from 1209. Driving just a few km's away from the resort towns and we went past a shanty town, complete with kids playing in the dirt and dogs locked up in small cages, one time to make sure the van doors were locked and we played nice with the locals.

Lisa has a few days to explore the toilets of Warsaw and hopefully some of the sights too before Lee heads back on Sunday and we head off to the Polish Great Masurian Lakes for some watersports and fishing with Lee’s new toy, his first ever fishing rod.