Make Things Happen!

Another stage of our journey on the SNP , this time from Čertovica to Hiadeľské sedlo.

For us, one of the most beautiful stages along the ridge of the Low Tatras, a bit more demanding in terms of logistics and also in terms of weather. We were mainly afraid of getting overheating, because on this part of the ridge you can only refill your water at mountain huts and surprisingly, in the end we were cold 😀 The 5 degrees in the morning barely climbed to 10 during the day and in the wind the feeling temperature was even lower. Half the way I ran with gloves and a headband was also a must. A day later it even snowed in the High Tatras.

The main peaks were in the clouds, but we still enjoyed the beautiful views. Also, this stage was much more visited by tourists than the previous ones.

From Čertovica, it starts with a climb to Kumštove sedlo, there are ripe raspberries and blueberries everywhere along the path, and higher even cranberries. But there really wasn’t time to graze on them. After less than 2 hours, we are at the M. R. Štefánik hut, but we don’t stop, bacause we plan to have coffee on a Kamenná hut. From štefánik hut, the path is much more technical, we pass through stone fields, which slows down our progress considerably, and we slowly start to feel hungry.

After three hours we arrive at Kamienná hut, where we enjoy a coffee, a great tea made from mountain herbs and a bun. 15km, 3 hours and 1100 meters climbed. Today will be a full-day trip 🙂

We continue through Dereše, Poľana, Chabenec to the saddle above the Ďurková shelter, where Jožko separates from us and returns to get the car. Lucka and I decide not to stop, we have enough water and it is not so hot that we have to refill it. We have covered 26km in almost 5 hours and we are eating another bun. Today we eat a lot 😀

We are heading to Chochuľa, where we should meet Miloš and run the rest of the ridge with him. Lucka and I are really enjoying the ridge, even though I am cold sometimes, mainly on the higher peaks. Miloš is fast and manages to run down to the saddle under Skalka. Our legs are already quite tired and there are still 12km to go.

We manage to run slowly most the time, but when we cross Prašiva, we slow down completely to a walk, the steep terrain and gravel pose too much of a risk of slipping for Lucka, her legs are tired and she’s afraid of falling. Actually, I don’t mind at all and I walk with her, my legs are already pretty sloppy.

We reach the Hiadeľ saddle and memories come flooding back to us of how we started the stage to the Šturec saddle at this very place. We walk down the steep slope, but when we get down to the asphalt, we heroically start running and run all the way to the car. A non-alcoholic radler, flip-flops and a dry T-shirt make us perfectly happy people:D We meet Jožko in a restaurant, where we have a late lunch of the size of “I ran all day”. It was great.