Hey guys!
So I came back from Třeboň and left to the High Tatras the next day! It’s probably not a surprise for you guys anymore, hahaha 🙂 I take it as my getaway place, where I always love to return. I was a little afraid that after exploring Switzerland, I wouldn’t be as fascinated by them anymore, but boy I was wrong. It’s kinda my second home. I even learned Slovak pretty well and even the hut staff didn’t believe me I was actually Czech when I started speaking Slovak, haha:)
This time I decided to climb a mountain called Rysy, because the hut right underneath the peak was finally opened on June 15th, so I finally had a place to sleep. Did you guys know that this hut is situated the highest in whole Slovakia? 🙂
I left Prague at 6 am and at 1pm I was already starting the trek. I started at Štrbské Pleso, came to Popradské Pleso, then continued through Mengusovská Dolina and then steeply up through Kotliny Žabích plies, traversing the waterfall to the hut, where my hike ended that day.
The way up could take me about 4.5 hours, but I chose a relaxed pace, because I had plenty of time. I even sat down for about half an hour and sunbathed. But the way to the hut can be done in 3 hours pretty easily.
In the hut I ordered my favorite mountain food called halušky and went to bed. But that was exactly the night when the huge thunderstorms hit whole Europe and it got here as well. Around 3am, an apocalypse began. The lightning was flashing every five seconds, and the thunder was cracking into the rocks around the hut so hard, that it couldn’t sleep at all. I even heard rocks falling down from the mountains a few times, and I prayed that none of them would fall on the hut. Besides that, the guy next to me was snoring like crazy. Well, I got 2 hours of sleep, there was a hurricane outside and I was stuck in the hut without signal.
Around 6am, I got out of bed. The thunder was still going and the whole hut (as well as my bed) was shaking. I had breakfast and waited.
The rain didn’t stop until 11am, so I started climbing Rysy five hours later than I wanted. The part of the path that is said to be the hardest was surprisingly easier than I thought, however it would be difficult to make it in the winter, when it’s all icy. In an hour I was already standing on the top and was enjoying the view.
That cloudy sky gave the Tatras a mysterious & dramatic atmosphere, which I haven’t seen here before.
There were no people at all, I just met a pair of Poles on the way down. The peak is halfway in Poland, so I got a sms from the operator, welcoming me in Poland, haha :)
The more down I was getting, the more sun was coming up. I got to Strbske Pleso late in the afternoon, so instead of driving back to Prague after 28 kilometers by foot, I decided sleep in a hotel for one night and leave the next morning.
And about you gyus, have you ever been to Rysy? 🙂
E.