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Western Tatras

Slovakian hidden treasure

By Northern Adventures

October 4^th, 2014

Introduction

(Thu Oct 2nd - Sun Oct 5TH, 2014)

The Western Tatras (Slovak: Západné Tatry; Polish: Tatry Zachodnie) are mountains in the Tatras, part of the Carpathian Mountains, located on the Polish-Slovak borders. The mountains border the High Tatras in the east, Podtatranská kotlina in the south, Choč Mountains in the west and Rów Podtatrzański (Slovak: Podtatranská brázda) in the north. The main ridge is 37 kilometers long and the mountain range contains 31 two-thousanders.

(Undeservedly) less popular and less visited than the neighbouring High Tatras, the Western Tatras may offer off the beaten path hiking experience, especially in shoulder seasons.

We crossed the mountain range during a 3-day long hike back in 2014, enjoying (mostly) solitude and autumn moods of all kinds of weather.

The Journey

From Prague, Czechia the Tatras region may be quite easily accessed by a direct (overnight) train journey (typically to Poprad). Though a car ride is naturally also an option, the comfort of the night train with convenient morning bus connections do the job better.

For overnight stays, we combined a freely accessible hut ("koliba") with two boarding house stays; it's fair to stay that sleeping options are quite limited in the area.

Day 1: From Hrdovo to Koliba pod Pustým

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We set out on the trail during a rainy morning at Hrdovo bus stop - it was raining quite heavily, however the weather forecast was slightly positive for the rest of the day.

It was a long uphill journey through Bystrá dolina valley; the parts along the Bystrá river were really beautiful, and we admired a few nice small waterfalls along the way.

Soon, we got out of the forest, and continued hiking to the north across autumn mountain meadows. After a few hours, we finally reached Bystrá peak (2248m), the highest mountain of the Western Tatras range.

Here, it became really foggy and windy, and from time to time we had to cross patches of snow that fell just recently.

From Bystrá, we continued along the Slovakian-Polish border to the west, meeting a small herd of rupicapra on the way - a lovely and unexpected encounter.

It was already late evening when we climbed Hrubý vrch (2137m) to enjoy one of those spectacular mountain sunsets.

The weather finally cleared up, and views across surrounding mountains and deep valleys were really beautiful.

After sunset twilight comes - and we still had a few hours ahead of us to descent back to Jamnická dolina valley where we hoped to stay overnight in Koliba pod Pustým chalet (a restored old shepherd‘s hut).

It was an uneasy descent - it got dark rather quickly, and we had to use our head torches.

We were quite exhausted and tired when we finally found the wooden hut. It was a cosy affair - and we were really thankful for such an accommodation in the middle of the pristine Slovakian wilderness.

Day 2: From Koliba pod Pustým to Šindľovec

We woke up into a misty morning, however it took the sun just a while to disperse the clouds.

For some time, we backtracked on the path through Jamnická dolina valley, and then we turned to the east to ascent Žiarske sedlo pass. Quite a climb it was - nothing less than three hours of pure mountain hiking in a beautiful sunny autumn weather.

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Soon, clouds started to accumulate in the valley, and we rushed to reach the pass before everything disappeared in the white fog.

The views back to Jamnická dolina valley with a view of Volovec and Hrubý vrch peaks were amazing. Here, in Žiarske sedlo pass, we met a group of fellow hikers for the first time since yesterday morning - quite an unexpected solitude during the first two days on the trail.

From Žiarske sedlo, we continued hiking to Smutné sedlo and then descended to Ťatliakova chata and Roháčska dolina.

It became cloudy and chilly - and we were thankful for the first sunny half of the day we had just enjoyed.

We spent the night in a lovely guesthouse called Šindľovec. And yes, we really deserved all those beers we got!

Day 3: From Šindľovec to chata Račková

The third day started in a cloudy way and we didn’t really know what to expect high up in the mountains we had to return to.

We were about to cross the mountain range once more, now back to the south, climbing Volovec hill on the Slovakian-Polish border on the way and then descend through Jamnická dolina valley.

It was slightly raining for a while, however the weather luckily cleared up a bit at the meadows of Zadná Látaná, where we enjoyed hiking in a beautiful serene autumn setting.

The scenery here was really beautiful - mountain peaks above us, dwarf mountain pines, meadows in fall colours.

Charmed by this tranquillity, we continued hiking in the direction of Zábrať pass (1656m) and Rákoň mountain (1879m).

The views from Zábrať and Rákoň were lovely: almost the complete mountain range of Roháče was sometimes hidden and sometimes fully visible, depending on how the clouds were moving across the valley below us.

We then ascended Volovec peak (2063m), and for a few brief moments we were lucky to see the small Roháčske plesá tarns - Tatra mountains are quite rich of these small lakes.

We were not alone here despite the changing weather - it was Saturday, and quite a few of day-trippers set out on the trip across the northern part of the area.

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Having ascended Volovec, we continued hiking to the south to Jamnické sedlo (1910m). From here, we saw Roháčske plesá tarns for the last time, and kept on descending further to Jamnická dolina.

We then enjoyed last brief moments of sunshine at Jamnická plesá tarns, having stopped for a quick lunch.

In the slowly deteriorating weather, we continued hiking further to the south through Jamnická dolina valley. (Quite interestingly, we spent some time in this valley during each of the three days we were hiking in the Western Tatras - each time, though, entering and leaving the valley in different direction.)

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It started to rain later in the afternoon, and we had to put our raincoats on.

We continued hiking for a few more hours and finally reached Račková hut where we stayed overnight.

Only there we realised that the hut is a rather strange centre of Christian education - thirsty, hungry and pretty worn out after the long hike, we were not really fitting into the overall a bit spiritual mood of the place. The cuisine remained us of the communist era - yet the Pilsner in bottles was at least cold enough to create a nice and pleasant final evening of the trip.

Practicalities

There is not so much to write about practicalities or special tips here; yet briefly:

Public transport works pretty well in the area; trains and buses serve the region sufficiently and conveniently. Naturally, taxi may be also an option, albeit expensive.
Accommodation options are surprisingly scarce; there are no staffed huts within the boundaries of the national park, on the contrary to High Tatras. There are two small herdsman cabins within the area (Koliba pod Klinom, Koliba pod Pustým) - only intended for overnight stays in case of bad weather/emergency. Wild camping is not permitted in the national park.
The tourist paths are perfectly marked using 4-colours system as is the common (high) standard across Slovakia (and Czechia).
Western Tatras are real mountains - weather may change rapidly. Be prepared.
The GPX file of the route available on Wikiloc.

Footnotes

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FootNotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the author.

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