your boots. Remember especially to carry a hat, gloves and a spare pullover or fibre-pile jacket.
A phenomenon of autumn and winter weather in mountainous areas is that of inversion. On windless days the cold, heavy air streams down from the mountains into the plains, pushing the warmer air up into the mountains, where it may stay for several days. This can make the temperature in the mountains, up to an altitude of around 1800m, warmer than that in the plain by up to 10°C (18°F). This also results in a layer of cloud at the level where the cold and warm air mix, so that there is sun in the mountains when it is gloomy in the plain.
Cross-border walking
As described in ‘Border controls’ (page 33), restrictions on crossing the border between Poland and Slovakia have been lifted, and normally everyone can now pass freely, although there may be times when checks have to be made. Unrestricted crossing of this border has, in fact, been the norm throughout history, but in 1981 tensions between the two countries resulted in the establishment of strict controls. They were eased slightly in 2001, when walkers were allowed to cross at the summit of Rysy, then in 2007 both countries joined the Schengen Convention, which requires that there should be no border controls between its members.
This means that there are now many places in the Tatras where walkers can, at least in theory, walk from one country to the other. In the High Tatras, as well as Rysy, they include (showing names in their Slovak and Polish forms) the main frontier point at Lysá Poľana/Łysa Polana, Hladké Sedlo/Gładka Przełęcz and Sedlo Chalubinského Vrata/Wrota Chałubińskiego. Those in the Western Tatras include Volovec/Wołowiec, Končista/Końcisty Wierch and Gáborovo Sedlo/Gaborowa Przełęcz. Plus Suché Sedlo/Sucha Przełęcz, which lies in either the High Tatras (according to the Slovak view) or Western Tatras (according to the Poles).
The magnificent ridge walk in the Western Tatras from Voloviec/Wołowiec to Vyšné Hutianské Sedlo/Wyżnia Huciańska Przełęcz is accessible at ten points from one side or the other, but difficulty of access means that in practice it would be a two-day expedition requiring a long descent into a valley for overnight accommodation.
Indeed, apart from Lysá Poľana/Łysa Polana, any cross-border walk involves a long day (possibly with a night at a refuge) and a fair amount of planning. The crossing point at Rysy offers the most practical option. Even though it may be possible, you should not just turn up and decide on impulse to carry on across the border, otherwise you may find yourself with no means of getting back to your base and stranded overnight in the country for which you have no accommodation or currency.
The routes starting from Javorina and Ždiar in Slovakia are easily accessible from Zakopane, so you could walk in the White Tatras by starting from one and finishing in the other via Kopské Sedlo. From the Slovak side, you could take a bus to Lysá Poľana then walk (or horse-drawn bus) up the Biaľka valley in Poland to Morskie Oko. Another practical proposition – albeit requiring a long day with an early start and a long journey by public transport, or hired taxi or minibus – is to follow Yellow Route 8851 from Podbanské to Suché Sedlo in Slovakia and continue down to the top station of the cable car at Kasprowy Wierch in Poland. You can then either return by the same route or descend the cable car to Kuźnice.
As well as local services to Lysa Poľana/Łysa Polana from either side, the Polish company Strama operates a service from Poprad to Zakopane via Starý Smokovec, Tatranská Lomnica and Ždiar (tel 018 206 2700, email [email protected], www.strama.eu).
Do not forget your passport and currency for the other side, although euros are often accepted in Poland.
If undertaking a cross-border walk in early summer, or in autumn, check snow conditions on the far side with the mountain rescue service, as they may be different from those on your side. Further advice is given in the relevant walk descriptions for each country.
Mountain photography
Neither of the authors is an expert on photography, but we gladly pass on some hints gleaned from friends who are, and hope that this may be helpful.
With traditional photography, shots taken in the mountains exaggerate the ultra-violet glare, giving a bluish effect. This can be overcome by fitting (preferably) an ultra-violet filter, otherwise a blue one will do. A filter of any kind will help to protect your lens from getting scratched. In winter a grey filter absorbs the extra light reflected from snow.
Two to three hours after noon is a period to avoid for photography – at this time the ultra-violet is at its strongest, and there is no shadow, so the picture lacks depth.
To avoid fuzzy or blurred pictures, either carry a lightweight tripod or monopod, or rest the camera on a rock for steadiness.
With digital photography, for most people it will be sufficient to point and shoot. Photographic computer programmes should make your pictures good enough at least for the post-holiday slide show.
More general tips: use a wide-angle lens for better panoramas; keep your camera in its case in case you slip; take close-ups of flowers and insects; use a zoom lens for wild animals at a distance; keep notes of what you take – you are sure to forget where you took some of your best shots.
How to use this guide
Sections 3 and 4 describe the details relevant to walking in the Slovak High Tatras and the Polish Tatras respectively. Within each section, first comes some later history, then an introduction to walking in the region, followed by route suggestions, then path descriptions, tables of selected timings and highest summits, information on travel, diversions, shopping and local services, other useful information, and finally a gazetteer of places of interest. Section 5 consists of six appendices devoted to various aspects of travel and other useful information.
Some route suggestions are circular, others start and finish at different points. All the starting and finishing points are served by the very efficient local public transport system, so you can use any of these routes, wherever you are staying.
Detailed path descriptions are shown separately – this avoids tedious repetition within the route suggestions, and allows you to string together your own routes if required. Summary maps showing the route networks can be found on pages 2–3 for Slovakia and 4–5 for Poland.
Although they are no longer used locally, we use for convenience the four-figure route numbers that used to exist on the Slovak side, in which the Red routes start with 0, Blue with 2, Green with 5 and Yellow with 8. We have invented our own numbering for the Polish side, following the same policy but with three figures, and as there are no Black routes in Slovakia we start those in Poland with a 9. Unlike skiing, the route colour does not reflect its difficulty but only serves to distinguish one from another.
The Slovak path-numbering system generally runs from west to east, and we generally follow the same principle in both the Slovak and Polish sections. The path descriptions are usually written in the uphill direction, so if you follow them downhill you will need to reverse the instructions. We have divided the longer paths into sections by suffixing A, B, C, etc., to the path numbers.
Within the path descriptions, rather than interrupt the flow with notes on places of interest passed along the way, some of which occur on more than one route, such places are shown in bold type, and can be looked up in the gazetteer at the end of the section.
All the route suggestions and path descriptions give the following information at the beginning: start/finish points (or a general name) and main points of interest, altitude range, grade of walk (see page 64), approximate distance, average gradient, height gain and/or loss, average walking time, whether open in winter/spring.
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