High Tatra - Day 4

Today was the highlight of our stay in the High Tatra - an alpine climbing tour :-). Together with our mountain guide Pavel (many summits in the High Tatra are only accessible with mountain guide) we started very early in the morning and drove to Popradské Pleso (1494m), about half-way up Mengusovska dolina. From there we hiked to the base of Vodia veza where we started our climb.

Volia veza (in german Ochsenrücken)



Hiking to the base of Volia Veza



Volia Veza (in the background)



Pictures taken from the base of Volia Veza





There are several options climbing Volia Veza from which we chose a rather simple route (UIAA 3). When we started climbing the weather already started to turn bad - it got increasingly windy and foggy, but still stayed dry. Climbing itself - though not very difficult - was really great due to the wonderful solid granite.

Pictures taken from the summit of Volia Veza right at the Polish / Slovak boarder





View into Poland



View into Slovakia



Since the weather was really about to turn bad we just took a few picures and quickly started our descent (UIAA 1-2). Back at the lake heavy rain started and even hailed briefly. We were very glad that we managed to climb and descent the most difficult parts while it still was dry.

High Tatra - Day 3

Today we had more luck with the weather and the whole day was warm and sunny :-). Our hike started in Strbské Pleso from where we hiked into Mlynická Dolina.

After a while we reached Skok waterfall ...

... and the saddle Bystré sedlo from where we started our descent down Furkotská Dolina.

To avoid joint bending I took the chair lift from Chata pod Solsikom down to Strbské Pleso (while Matthias walked all the way down).

High Tatra - Day 2

Today we made a crossing of the High Tatra. Our hike started in Javorina, a place in the nord east of the High Tatra close to the Polish Boarder. Unfortunately, the weather was very bad - very foggy and partially raining - and we could only guess the beauty of the surrounding mountains. From Javorina we walked into the 10 km long Javorovà Dolina (Maple) Valley. The first kilometers were rather easy, but it got increasinly steep towards the top of the valley.

At Sedielko (2376 m) - the highest Tatra pass which can be reached by marked route and the highest point of our hike

On our descent we first had to walk down a very steep snow field. Since we did not bring any crampons we were glad that the snow was very soft.

At Téryho Chata (2012 m) - the highest mountain hut in the High Tatra which is open the whole year long - we stopped for a while and got something warm to drink.

From Téryho Chata we hiked through Madá Studená Dolina down to Stary Smokovec which we reached after about 9 hrs

About five years ago huge parts of the High Tatra very destroyed by a heavy storm.

Waterfalls near Zamkovskeho Chata

High Tatra - Day 1

Around noon we arrived in Zdiar, a small place in the Tatra National Park not far from the Slovak / Polish boarder. For our stay in High Tatra we have rented a nice appartment in Zdiar.

Since the weather was not too good we decided to drive to Stary Smokovec and to use the time to get information about different hiking and climbing options in the High Tatra.