Zakopane: Part 1

Last weekend (Sept. 11-13) I was in the beautiful mountain town of Zakopane (Zack-o-pahn-eh), in the Tatra Mountains. Here is part one of the story:

The Bus there: The ride there was uneventful. The traffic was better than I had expected, so the trip only took a little over 2 hours. I saw lots of Polish fields, most of which were some sort of grass or grain. There were many support systems that were used to hold the plants for drying. When covered, they look like high stooks, but there were naked ones that revealed the wooded supports.

Naked Stook

Covered Stooks

The Hotel: Serviceable. The showers had doors and the beds were comfy, which felt like luxury to me.

Drinking Beer with Raspberry Syrup and cloves the night before the climb.

We watched “Poland’s got Talent” (called Mam Talent, which actually translates to “I have talent”) in Polish, but I only caught one acne-scarred singer (who got through), and some kind of torture group (who didn’t). One of the group’s (called Infinity Pain) pieces involved throwing darts at a person’s back. One of the judges stood up and went to the stage, professing that she could do that (I’m guessing, of course). So they threw a dart at her back too! It was crazy. But she brushed it off like it was nothing, and the group was unanimously voted off. Then (Natalie, Lisa and I) sort of watched “Two Weeks Notice” in Polish. There is basically one guy who does all the dubbing for Polish television, directly over the English track. He does everyone’s voices in the same tone (which is a little soporific), and if you listen closely you can hear the English underneath. I say “sort of watched” because I was also knitting, Lisa was writing in her journal, and Natalie was reading a book. And we talked to each other a bit as well. This was the second night, after climbing Zakopane, so we went to bed fairly early.

The Climb up:

Giewont (pronounced Gee-uh-vont) is the most famous peak near Zakopane. Though not the tallest (at only 1894m, to Rysy (2499m, Poland’s highest peak) or Gerlach (the highest in the Tatras, on the Slovakian side), Giewont is one of the most popular peaks. This is because from Zakopane it looks sort of like a man sleeping on his back.

I have helpfully marked the point I climbed to on the picture above (I know it is little, but you can click for bigger), which approximates to Giewont’s chin. Giewont is also called the sleeping giant, as the legend dictates that when Poland is in trouble he will awake and save the day. I think that perhaps if the Nazis weren’t trouble enough, then he isn’t waking up.

"Tourist: You have to remember - The Mountains are only for Clever Ones!"

Almost the entire group decided to tackle the more difficult climb of Giewont. We left shortly after 9:00, and started the walk to the national park. After about an hour of walking, we reached the park and were able to start the walk to the trail entrance. About 15 minutes later, we reached the gate and paid the fee to enter (only about 1.5zl). A sign warned us that there might be “Bears!”, and thus began the real hike up the mountain.

The first little while the path was a fairly wide and made of gravel, and it ran beside a mountain stream. It wasn’t particularly steep, but the group quickly broke up into faster and slower groups. I alternated between groups, but did most of the walk with Melea, Lisa, Holly and Jenelle.

The group looking just a little daunted...

Next the path started moving upwards more steeply. It was basically a staircase made of boulders that ran through tall pines. We were getting a little discouraged when a Polish woman coming down the mountain told us it was really close.

View from the path... still less than halfway there

Gorgeous views though...

I’m not really sure why we believed her. We had been hiking for over an hour with semi-frequent breaks, but we were nowhere near the top. It seemed like every impossibly long flight of stairs ended with a turn, and we expected to see the peak after every turn.

Could this be the top?

This isn't it.

How about after this one?

Eventually we broke through the tall trees and reached the scrub brush. We could finally look out on the rest of the mountain range. Well, we could for a while, as the clouds were quickly rolling in. The next stage of the hike was a few almost horizontal plateaus mixed with steep climbs. You could do the steep climbs with no hands sometimes, but sometimes you needed a hand for balance.

Finally able to look out over the landscape

There were lots of mountain flowers - here is a Scottish (Polish?) Thistle

Another hour of this, and we reached the beginning of the one-way climb to Giewont’s peak. The sign indicated that it would be only 20 minutes! Excitement began to build as we took a short lunch break. I had packed a banana and granola cereal to eat, but I was supposed to share it with Audrey, who was nowhere in sight. We were unsure how far Audrey was behind, or even if she was still on the trail, so we continued on.

The one-way climb was the most dangerous part of this hike, and there were lengths of chain fixed into the rock. Everyone moved slowly and carefully, making the climb slow and fairly easy (physically easy, anyways). The clouds were fully around us by now, and you couldn’t see very far down.

Me on the Chains

Eventually we reached the top! Success was ours!Giewont is topped with a large metal cross. I worked my way to the base, and climbed up for a picture. And the mountain was won!

I'm clearly not good at this thing...

Looking up at the cross

A better picture when it was clear for a second

Melea and I claim victory!

Stay Tuned for the Climb down!