Clueless Alpine Adeventure in the Tatras : We Became the Type of Hikers Our Parents Warned Us About

When I looked at the Tatras from the train that was slowly moving towards Zakopane (4 hours to go through 87 kilometers of railroad tracks, you do the math) , the scene just reminded me of the mighty Rockies back home. I told my friend Jieyu (whom I call Tintin, and I will be referring him as Tintin in this article as well) who was studying in Poland and traveling with me at the time about what I saw and how I thought of the Tatras, he just couldn't believe me: "Really? The world famous Rocky Mountains are similar to the Tatras?" I guess you have to give credits to America for how good it can advertise itself. To be honest,  I had never heard the Tatras before if it weren't for Tintin, who decided to show me where real Poles go for vacations.

I still have no idea how Tintin and I ended up hiking this kind of terrain without any equipment

The Tatras are the exact place where one would imagine (or at least where I would imagine) the Communist Russians shot their patriotic films: A young soldier named Alyosha chasing spies and the anti-revoluntionary "enemies of the people and the Proletariat Socialist regime" in the middle of the mountains. Young Alyosha must capture the enemies and retrieve the important information the enemies tried to sneak out of the country before it's too late. With only his Kalashnikov, a water bottle, and a pair of ski, Alyosha faces the treacherous landscape of the mountains and its deadly weather. Will Alyosha successfully stop the enemies and protect the motherland? Seriously, I don't know. 

The many peaks of the Tatras

What I know is that the Polish and the Slovaks who live on two sides of the Tatras no longer have to suffer from those poorly made and produced Alyosha movies as both Poland and Slovakia have got rid of their Communist government and the Soviet control for more than two decades now. Both Poland and Slovakia today are members of the European Union, which definitely helped hidden resort towns like Zakopane and unheard mountain ranges like the Tatras to be visited by more tourists and outdoor lovers than ever. 

The Polish - Slovak Border

After we arrived in Zakopane, Tintin suggested that we should take the cable car to the very top of Kasprowy Wierch, where many considered as a prime ski slope and the location of a meteorological observatory high in the Tatras. Sounds pretty good, I thought, we will do it real quick.

The Meterological Obervatory 

Because we both thought it was just going to be a round trip cable car ride and probably another 10 minutes at the meteorological observatory for some sightseeing, we carried just our camera and our wallet with us. We did not even bother to carry water as water bottles were just inconvenient while sightseeing and could be really hard to dispose at places such as the top of a mountain. 

At least I couldn't find any garbage can in this picture

Once we reached the peak, Tintin and I were mesmerized by what we saw: Early spring clouds, so soft and pure, were dancing with the many peaks of  the Tatras. It was a world full of wonderful sceneries where one could see blossoming flower fields all the way down in the valley and frozen lakes reflecting the sun to our very eyes just a couple of feet below us. Looking further away, a mountain that resembled the shape and the mystical spirit of the Pyramids stood strong with its tip hiding behind the cloud - if only the great Khufu knew the existence of this place, he wouldn't have ordered thousands to construct him a pyramid that was nothing but a dwarf in compare to this mighty mountain.

The Pyramid looking peak Tintin and I tried to reach by barefoot with no equipment

I told Tintin that I really wanted to reach  the Pyramid looking mountain and found out what it felt like to see the world from the very top. 

"Let's go for it", said Tintin, "I've heard from people on the internet that if you follow the trail from where we stand, you will reach a place called the "Eye of the Sea". Everybody's been saying that it's a very beautiful lake, so beautiful that it resembles the color of the ocean".

Then he pointed at the direction where the pyramid mountain stands: "I know the lake is in that direction. That means if we are going to the lake, chances are we will pass that mountain as well. We'll see if we can make to them both."

The amazing view from Kasprowy Wierch. You can clearly see a lake which is just below where we stood all the way to Zakopane and the surrounding Polish countryside.

Hence our adventure high in the Tatras began. Tintin said that the internet suggested that the length of the trail which led to the "Eye of the Sea" could be finished in no more than one hour. He told me that the last time he was at Kasprowy Wierch, he came with a large group of friends. He also made a suggestion at the time that the group should check out the "Eye of the Sea".  However only 5 minutes into their trek the ladies were already feeling tired, so they had to turn back. "I am sure glad that this time I am with an adventurer" Tintin amused.

The Tatras, Sunny Side Up

With literally no equipment or water, Tintin and I climbed one peak after another along the ridge of the mountain range. The weather was very tricky. It could be sunny and hot at one moment, but very stormy and could blow my jacket away the next moment. In the beginning we were just following a group of hikers as they seemed to know the terrains much better than we did. There wasn't any maintenance on the trail, which means while climbing a peak, you literally need to find your own way up. It turned out that our decision of following these hikers was a very wise one as they definitely knew where  the easiest spots to climb or descend were. 

Tintin (the man in orange. Why not "man in black"? Because orange is the new black) and I tried to climb the first peak

After the third or the fourth peak, we left the group all the way behind us. Tintin and I were just too excited for what we saw along the way and all the peaks we climbed. Then we continued to follow the ridge, we saw a lady standing over the next peak looking towards the direction of the Pyramid peak. As we tried to climb the next peak, the lady descended down. She was well equipped with all types of mountain gears and was wearing a jacket with a Slovak flag on her arm. She must came from Slovakia, I thought. Then I asked Tintin if by any chance we will eventually reach Slovakia if we continue to follow the trail.

The mighty Tatras

"The Eye of the Sea is actually located near the Polish - Slovak border", said Tintin. "I think the lady must came all the way here from the Slovakian side of the mountain." Tintin confirmed my speculation. 

We continued on. While trekking on the seemingly endless road to the lake, Tintin and I talked about things from the old days, from our time attending the military camp back in early years of high school to the visit to Auschwitz, which  took place only the day before. When we felt thirsty, we just grabbed a chunk of ice off the glacier and ate it. We had no idea where we were, or how long it had passed since we left the cable car station. But because of the Slovakian lady, both of us  thought we would eventually make it to our destination. We believed that at the end of the road we will reach our destination. We just needed to hang in there a little bit longer.

This was pretty much what Tintin and I walked on. Again, no water, no equipment.

 As we were drawing closer and closer to the Pyramid looking mountain, we hit a ramp that was completely covered by ice. Tintin quickly slides himself down the ramp. When he reached the bottom, he signaled me that it was safe so I could slide down as well. 

The weather turned better as we marched towards the Pyramid mountain

The moment I made my first step, I realized that the ice cover resembled something strikingly familiar. Then I stretched my body slightly over to the edge of the cliff so I could see what was really going on. The next moment my mind went completely blank. I felt like the cold air rushed into my nose, straight to my brain, and froze it the way Mr. Freeze used his freezing gun in Batman comic books - There was nothing underneath the ice cover! It was a giant ice bridge stacking high above a cliff in the middle of nowhere. I remembered learning the structure and the formation of that type of ice cover in my high school geography class; knowing that if there were crevasses somewhere in the cover (obviously we couldn't see them just from the surface), a Pyramid shaped thing (guess what is it?) would be our last sight of this world, pretty like some random Pharaohs experienced in a land called Egypt long time ago.

A mountain valley shot from somewhere near the ice bridge

I called up Tintin, and told him about what I just found out. Very carefully, I assisted Tintin back to the top of the ramp. We both felt very lucky that nothing had happened to us and decided that we would not explore forward. While on our way back, we realized that we were the only people who have made that far. We didn't notice that we were all alone the entire time, maybe because we were very into our old time stories. 

A frozen lake en route to the Pyramid mountain

When we reached the cable car station, we saw the Slovak lady in the line waiting for the cable car - It turned out that she came from the Polish side, just like us. Probably she saw all the treacherous terrains from the peak where we saw her the first time and decided it was unsafe to proceed. Tintin and I realized that we made a life-saving  decision of not continuing since an experienced hiker who was fully equipped with all sorts of hiking equipment chose not to continue on herself. When we took the cable car back down to Zakopane, it was four hours later since we took the cable car up. It wasn't an hour long mere sightseeing of the Tatras after all (I torn my jeans up there as well, by the way) .

Zakopane and the surrounding area from Kasprowy Wierch

After returning home from Poland, Tintin told me via Skype that the trail we were walking on the entire time wasn't the trail to the "Eye of the Sea" (I looked it up on Google, it wasn't even a trail. The entire time we were just walking on some random ridges on the Slovakian side of the Tatras). The trail to the lake was actually located on the exact opposite direction of the path Tintin and I walked on. The little stone poles we saw along the path were in fact the Polish - Slovak border.

Clueless hiker at its very best: never realized at the time that "S" stood for "Slovakia"

3 years later on a typical Saturday evening, my father and I were watching some documentary on hiking accidents on Discovery channel. One of the cases was about two Japanese tourists ventured into the avalanche country by accident from a popular ski area in the Rocky Mountains and got themselves killed by the falling avalanche. 
 

Mountain top selfie : this is how I did it

"See? " My father said, "that's what will happen if you go to unfamiliar places with literally no protections. You should always follow someone with lots of experience in hiking in that specific area and you should always get proper equipments every time you go hiking in a new place. Otherwise you'll end up like the two in this documentary. Never let your stupid curiosity cost your life."

I was instantly stricken by a shiver from the past.

The mighty Tatras from Zakopane

This article was written in commemoration of the 3rd anniversary since Tintin and I made one heck of a trip in Poland. I couldn't be gracious enough for Tintin's warm hospitality. He is a true friend who happens to live on the other side of the world, but looks at the same dark sky every night and dream the same dreams as I do. No matter where fate might bring him to after his study in Poland, to me you may be able to take Tintin out of Poland, but you can never take Poland out of Tintin.  It's been an honor to have you as my friend Tintin. Thank you for everything!