Below: The Vysoke Tatras deserve their name. Here we are, lounging at Skalnate Pleso and hiding our disappointment after frost prevented us from ascending to Lomnicky Stit.
The Vysoke Tatry are aptly named, for the tallest peaks in all of the Carpathians are found in this little pocket of Slovakia. Recalling Mary's profound respect for those whose work involves making moving uphill easier, we planned our mountain jaunts around cable-cars and chairlifts. These were very busy, it being after all the height of ski season and every slope a merry carousel of expectant ascents and exultant descents.
Unlike the compact township of Zakopane, the Vysoke Tatry resorts were strung out along a 25-kilometre stretch. These have been woven by roads, well-marked footpaths, cable-cars and a railway track into a very convenient network. The main resorts were (from west to east) Strbske Pleso, Stary Smokovec and Tatranska Lomnica. All boasted impressive all-round mountain views. We stayed at Stary Smokovec, so we could move easily to either of the other two.
Below: The township of Stary Smokovec, boasting all-round mountain views.
The unfulfilled promise of Lomnicky Stit
Lomnicky Stit, at 2,634 metres above sea level (asl), was the one that got away. Having a cable-car connection to the second highest peak in the Tatras cut at a stroke the gordian knot that I've christened the Mary Conundrum (namely that an attraction has to be simultaneously and sufficiently spectacular and accessible in order to justify a visit). Lomnicky Stit was the reason we set aside three days in the Vysoke Tatry - hopefully that at least one would yield clear blue skies.
Our very first morning, a Sunday, delivered such weather. Fearing that the limited seating on the cable-car would be quickly snapped up by the weekend crowd, we hurried to Tatranska Lomnica. (Mary later slipped heavily on a icy kerb after seeing how I seem to skip lightly across it.) At the ticket office, doom was delivered - there's frost on the cables, the cable-car isn't working.
It was -20°C at the top. But wasn't that meant to be normal for the time of year?
Below (top to bottom): Three rides get you to Lomnicky Stit - the first between Tatranska Lomnica and Start; and then between Start and Skalnate Pleso (and thence to Lomnicky Stit, we don't have a picture and you'd know why by now).
We still endeavoured to get as high as we could. The ascent to Lomnicky Stit necessitated changes at two intermediate stations - Start and Skalnate Pleso. Only the final Skalnate Pleso-Lomnicky Stit leg wasn't working. Skalnate Pleso is the name of a tarn in a little cirque at 1,751 metres asl. Once there we fixed our crampons and took out our hiking poles, though eventually we found them to be of little use. Every laboured step - knee-deep in snow - was a tough lesson in the effectiveness of skis and snowshoes in tackling such terrain. Frodo and his Fellowship had covered far tougher ground on cruel Caradhras with lesser equipment than ours.
Below: Mary quite enjoyed being above the clouds - the sense of being above everything else in the world. I guess it's what one would call, literally, day-dreaming.
Wait, Frodo had a ring, and Gandalf. Our rings we left in Singapore. And the only wizard I ever worked with was called InstallShield.
Life lessons on Predne Solisko
Strbske Pleso was 25 kilometers west of Stary Smokovec. Robert, who owned the apartment in Kosice where we previously stayed, said it was possibly the most scenic spot on the Slovak side of the Tatras.
Below: Strbske Pleso on a cloudy day. Walks around the lake are popular in summer. In winter people walk on it instead.
It was snowing when we arrived, and much of the jagged skyline which would have greeted us on a clear day was lost to cloud. The crowds still turned out - after all skiiers go for powder and not to ogle at mountains.
A chairlift brought us up to Chata Solisko at 1840 metres asl. Beneath our dangling feet, 6-year-olds on skis managed as adroitly as 60-year-olds on snowboards in hurling themselves downslope with reckless abandon. Mary was thrilled, even as the wind clawed the living senses out of our faces. I sat uneasily, gripped only by the fear of slipping off and ending up impaled on a pine tree. The contrast in predicaments was comical, and was swiftly reversed when we touched terra firma again.
Below: The chairlift to Chata Solisko, pictures of which flatteringly conceal our chattering teeth and quavering fingers.
After an unscheduled breakfast of vegetable soup and sausages (while we waited out the clouds), we started walking upwards towards Predne Solisko. On paper it looks like a straightforward ascent of about 200 metres on a zigzag path to the peak. The truth was a familiar story - namely that after the first turn each footfall landed us progressively deeper in snow. Our progress uphill, until we were defeated by a steepening gradient, was a trying story of two scrambles forward three slumps back. When we stopped to turn around, our toes were numb (yes, no garters) and our hair caked in frost (erm, no ski masks too).
Below: Mary looking every bit like a veteran hiker on the trail up Predne Solisko. When we were descending later on, the only veteran thing we felt were our nearly mutinous knees.
We stood under a little oasis of blue in an otherwise grey roof. Here and there swirling clouds revealed to those patient enough tantalising glances of pearly summits. The sky was spotless the day before, but we spent much of it lounging around indoors. I would have rued it had Mary not chided me for regret.
Living the moment really becomes so much rawer when one is trying to rub life back into one's fingers.
Below: Not the top of Predne Solisko, but as far as our will served to carry us. Yes will is used here in the singular. Whose was it, though?
Logistics
Poprad, on the line between Bratislava and Kosice (Slovakia's two biggest cities), is the gateway to the Vysoke Tatry from elsewhere in Slovakia. Stary Smokovec is the hub, where the train from Poprad stops and from where one can change for Tatranska Lomnica. www.vt.sk/en/lifts-and-slopes/ indicates whether the cable-cars and chairlifts are running.
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