European Mountains, Slovakia
Kriván (2495m), July 8 2013
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The route (Google Earth)
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It was our 4th and last day in Starý Smokovec - a small village at the southeastern foothills of the Tatra mountains. Gerlachovský štít, Slavkovský štít and Rysy had been paid a visit by some eager Norwegians, and there was time for one last peak before departure - Kriván . Given the past 3 days of activity and the early start (I needed to be back before checkout at noon), Anne decided to sit this one out.
I left our base-camp at Villa Gerlach at 5am and reached my chosen trailhead at Biely Váh (1210m) 25 minutes later. I was on the path 5:30am after leaving the car alongside the road. I'm not quite sure what my trail expectations really were, but I was kind of disappointed. The path was narrow and the grass was wet from morning dew. And I had learned that the path was now in a really good shape after a hurricane had left trees all over the place...
And for some reason, I had thought that Kriván would be a quick hike, and I considered to reconsider this thought when I finally got Kriván in view. The summit seemed so far away...
Kriván - in the distance
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I kept a reasonable pace and at 6:12am I joined the trail from Strbske Pleso at Odbocka. 0,4km down road to the west, I reached the Pri Jamskom Plese trail fork where the mountain trail to Kriván began.
Motived by the fact that I was now on the final leg to the top, I kept a fairly good pace. And suddenly - out of the blue - I was overtaken by another hiker - a young man - who seemed to be in a far greater hurry than myself. Hola! was the only dialogue between us as he passed.
Overtaken!
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This guy clearly had no idea who he was messing with! The penalty for overtaking me on the trail is normally eternal embarrassment after my retribution has been fulfilled and while I was hiking up the beautiful Tatras with amazing views on a gorgeous summer morning, I had only one thing on my mind;
Your a$$ is mine!!!
Yeah you are cute, but I am in a pursuit...
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I adjusted my pace to his pace and I started to look for signs. Any fatigue? Not yet. The pursuit went on for a few more minutes and - wait! Did he just touch his thighs with his hands? Ha ha! Gotcha! I decided to make it painful for him and increased my pace just a notch. He clearly noticed that I was tightening the gap and I was convinced he was moving into the panic zone.
5 minutes later, he gave up. He seemed to have some important shoelace business to attend to, and I just hola'ed him as I passed. I didn't turn around for the next 20 minutes. You could say that my pace was well above reasonable at this point. And when I turned around, he was so far behind that I could safely use the word history. And now I could enjoy the views again...
Lower northern Tatras to the east
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As I passed 2000m, the trail turned rocky, but still easy to walk. I noticed hikers coming up along the "green route" from Tri Studnicky. I had been thinking about this route during my planning, as it seemed like the shortest route from a trailhead to the top, but for some reason I ended up at Biely Váh.
I reached the top of Kriván at 7:55am - approx. 2,5 hours after leaving the trailhead. The hiking distance was 7,4km and the vertical gain was 1285m. And when I saw the Tatra peaks to the east, the word "Holy!" was the only thing that came to mind. That was however a poor sentence, so after running through a couple of alternatives, I ended up with "Cow!" Yup - that was the sentence I was looking for...
Holy Cow!
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The other bloke arrived on top at 8:10am. We hola'ed, and then the guy asked me to take a picture of him with his camera. The nerve! But since he was doomed to eternal embarrassment, I granted him his last wish. A shame really, as he seemed like a really nice guy.
2 minutes later (8:12pm), I was heading down the mountain trail and texted to Anne that chances were good that I would reach check-out in due time. The hike down was uneventful. The marmot that had been seeking my company during my ascent had grown tired from waiting and had disappeared.
I returned to the rental car at 9:38am (a little more than 4 hours after leaving) and given that the drive to Starý Smokovec would only take me 25 minutes, I found that I was in very good shape for check-out at noon. On my way back to the village, I could - for the very first time - enjoy the Gerlach massif from the highway. And my thoughts wandered back to our EPIC scramble and climb across this mountain 3 days earlier.
Gerlachovský štít
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We checked out of Villa Gerlach well ahead of plan, drove to Krakow (Poland) and found the rental car company in the middle of the town almost right away. Good navigation job, Anne! And back at Hotel Europejski - where we stayed 4 days earlier - I figured I had earned a bear.
Enjoying life in Krakow
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We returned to Norway the day after. Many thanks to Krakow, Poland, Slovakia and the Tatras. We had a mighty good time and we do not mind coming back!
Tatras seen from Kriván
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