I present you with a photo album containing some of the photos I took during my winter hike from Zakopane to Kasprowy Wierch. The beauty of nature at the upper altitudes of Tatra Mountain greatly surprised me. Thus I wanted to share it with other people.

If you fancy climbing Kasprowy Wierch in winter yourself, reading the full article, including my guide (which is included in the URLs), would be an excellent place to start.

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Frozen Flora

A beauty of a natural adaptation, something I did not expect to see.

Natural Adaptation to Subzero Temperatures

These plants can produce antifreeze proteins, which protect their water from freezing in subzero temperatures.

The Subalpine Area, 1,550-1,800m / 5,085-5905ft

In the subalpine area of the High Tatras, all of the flora during winter freezes.

They are alive

Nevertheless, some species of plants proved to be capable of adapting even to these extreme conditions.

Dressing up

The secret to hiking at these heights is the right equipment. It has to hold the heat radiating from your body, but it cannot allow your body to start sweating.

Tatra Mountains

The Tatra Mountains are the highest mountain range in the whole Carpathian Mountains.

Formation of Tatra Mountains

It started to form, when two continents, Laurentia and Gondwana, collided to form a supercontinent Pangea, around 380-280mya. It took 40m years more for the first known dinosaurs to appear.

Sucha Czuba, 1,696m / 5564ft

Sucha Czuba (eng. Dry Crest) is a spectacular hill located on the northwestern ridgeline of Kasprowy Wierch. It contains four different minor peaks, standing there together like brothers.

A Natural Border

The Tatra Mountains are a natural border between Slovakia and Poland.

Snowpack

Getting too close could be the last thing you do.

The Ridgeline

I couldn’t help myself but feel like walking on a ridge like this, makes you feel like a coin landed on its edge. One small beep and it would collapse.

Personal experience

When I was on this hike, I was not in good shape, and I knew it. The climb took almost everything from me, but so from my companions. We stood still, baffled equally, as we saw either people running the same track, or somehow doing the walk-in their casual outfits. To us, it took a fortune to keep walking to the very last steps, which seemed impossible.

“Very soon, this will be over” – I kept repeating to myself for some time, which already felt like a damn millennium. “Just one more step” –that was all I cared. At this point, the coldness made my whole body feel numb, and not as it mattered.

The Last Steps

At these heights, we got entirely surrounded by clouds; thus, there was not much to see. I kept walking barely on my sheer will to finish what I set mind to do. I was not even hearing my friend, asking me to stop and wait. All of my focus was on not falling down as I slowly took one step after another. Every step was a challenge. Putting all of my weight on the feet, excited the particles of snow below it into the liquid state, which in turn, instantaneously turned into ice. I knew if I stop, I won’t finish it. So, even though I kept falling and sliding down, I persisted.

The Peak of Kasprowy Wierch, 1,987m / 6,512ft

It was barren empty once we finally took it to the top. The clouds were still surrounding us, and the sign, marking the top of Kasprowy Wierch, didn’t look that different from any other random sign somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It was upsetting but not as upsetting as seeing all the people who got here with a cable car. What are they going to take out of this? Those people took a ride just to drink a coffee in a hut, built upon the Kasprowy Wierch.

Our case was different. Even if we haven’t seen the High Tatra Mountains from above this time, we knew that what counts is not the destination but the journey.

The Journey Down the Mountain

After taking a rest at Wysokogórskie Obserwatorium Meteorologiczne, where you can find bathrooms, warm drinks, and food, we set out the same way we came here. I was worried at the time. From experience I had, climbing down the mountain might take as much strength as it did climbing up.

Sudden Change of Weather

The route down to Myślenickie Turnie seemed exceptionally dangerous. There was a lot of ice near steep slopes, and we had no equipment for that. It felt like if I started sliding down, I wouldn’t be able to stop. Luckily, the weather conditions got way better, and with better visibility, it turned out to be quite an easy descent.

Dangers of Descending

Carelessness and fatigue are the main reasons for surprising statistics. Way more accidents happen during the descent of the mountain, rather than the ascent.

Having Fun

What I learned that day is that sometimes it is better to embrace the difficulty than try to avoid it. We bypassed every difficult icy part by merely sliding down ourselves, on our conditions.

Kasprowy Wierch Cable Car

Kasprowy Wierch is one of those few places made accessible almost to everybody. A cable car, from Kuźnice to the very top of the mountain, was built back in 1936, just a couple of decades after the dawn of surge of tourists in the area. Still, unless you book your tickets online in advance, as strange as it sounds, but it might be faster to climb Kasprowy Wierch yourself than by the cable car. Due to the extreme popularity of the ride, the queues for it can take more than 3h.

Epilogue

One of the things I love the most about Kasprowy Wierch is that on top of it, mountaineers get to meet the people from the other side of the border. I was caught by surprise, once we met climbers from Slovakia who kindly invited us to join them on their way back from where they came. “The beer is cheaper over there” – that was their argument.

Despite Kasprowy Wierch always being crowded with people that ascended by the cable car, I still think that it is an excellent destination in winter. The hike itself makes the journey worth it, and I’m speaking from my own experience. Due to thick clouds, I’ve seen nothing from the top of the mountain, but I would repeat the journey even if I knew it would be this way. The subalpine area in frozen mountains is just other-worldly.

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