Climbing on the little brother of the Eagle Path

Itinerary

• From the valley entrance, follow the K trail to the junction behind the Žiarska chata (Zsári mountain hut).
• Behind the Žiarska chata (Zsári mountain hut), turn left onto the Z trail, which we follow to the Baníkov peak.
• From Baníkov, head to the right and follow the P trail to the Smutné sedlo junction.
• From Smutné sedlo, descend to the right on the K trail and follow it all the way to the valley exit.

Detailed description of the route

In a revealed valley under the cirques

Our hike starts on the cracked, patchy asphalt of the Žiarska dolina (Zsári valley) along the K trail. At the narrow, forested beginning of the valley is Liptó’s only accessible mine, the Medvedia štôlňa (Bear Tunnel), in front of which is a small guest building and several information boards. The local ore mining was initiated by German settlers in the 13th century, but this tunnel was only driven in the 18th century. They found only "fools’ gold," the pyrite needed for sulfuric acid production, and only in small quantities, so production was soon discontinued. Guided tours with lamps in hand start in the 500 m long tunnel, where you can learn about the dwarf-like permons begging from the miners and the minerals of the Tatra region.

The hiking path soon leaves the asphalt and leads into a pine forest via a wooden bridge over the stream - from here we climb on the trail up the gently but persistently rising valley slope. The wind, avalanches, and snow damage the forest severely, and pines are missing in patches of various sizes around the valley bottom. As we ascend, the rounded summits typical of the Liptó Fells begin to appear, their turf meadows covered with a green blanket, diversified by the dark tone of the dwarf pines and the gray patches of scree slopes.

Approaching the mountain hut, the valley widens, and the jagged ridges of the main ridge come into view (on the left the granite bastions of the Tri kopy), with the spreading basin of Veľký Závrat (Great Recess) on their flanks. These are the three deeply rising granite-walled depressions that were the nourishment areas of the glacier that carved the valley, the cirques where ice accumulated. At its thickest point, a 160-meter ice stream stretched about 6 km during the last ice age, so the characteristic basin shape only formed in the upper segment of the valley; further down, the water sawed the gorge into a V-shape.

As the forest thins, the Žiarska chata (Zsári mountain hut) appears, a simple building open year-round. It was recognized in the 1930s that a mountain hut should be built in this valley because the southern side of the Liptó Fells was completely overshadowed by the neighboring High Tatras, and tourism infrastructure was completely lacking here. Slovakia’s most modern mountain hut at the time was completed in 1939 and enjoyed great popularity until German troops persecuting partisans destroyed it in December 1944. After the war, it was rebuilt immediately, reopened in 1949, an asphalt road and two ski lifts were developed, and by the late 1970s, electricity was introduced to the building – which was demolished down to its foundations in 2006 to build a brand new, modern mountain hut in its place. Equipped with a restaurant, rooms, and dormitories (capacity of 40), the building resembles its Austrian counterparts, thus a bit more sterile but cleaner and more modern than most of its Tatra peers. In front of the hut, there is a playground and parking lot (hotel guests can drive up the asphalt road), and the terrace has a narrow view beyond the forested valley. It is advisable to book accommodation weeks in advance and spend the night here before aiming for the summit region.

Climbing to the back of the fells

Going around the house, we are faced by the mountain rescue building, behind which is a junction: from here, we head left towards the peaks following the Z trail. First, we cross the symbolic cemetery of those who died in the Liptó Fells, then the strenuous and quite long "siege" of Baníkov begins. We cross a stream along the strip of the Šarafiový vodopád (waterfall) flowing under the dwarf pines, after which the last pines disappear, and we climb upwards crossing patches of dwarf pine forest. The steep trail is comfortably walkable, and the landscape is increasingly spectacular: we look deep into the green valley head, and the rock-poor but impressive giants of the Liptó Fells carved by ice and shaped by landslides display fully below the ridges.

The furrowed slopes' forests were pushed about 100-150 meters lower than their original line by alpine shepherding, and most of the dwarf pines obstructing grazing were also eradicated, so near the ridge we trek through increasingly wider grassy terrain. The shepherds generally spent about five months from late spring to early autumn high in the Liptó mountains, responsible for roughly 80 lambs each. More than 100 shepherd's shelters operated simultaneously in the Liptó Fells, and even in the 1970s thousands of sheep were driven to the now strictly protected Csendes valley (Tichá dolina) nature reserve. Grazing disappeared from the Tatra National Park decades ago, however.

The view opens towards the Liptó basin and, on the other side, towards the towering Low Tatras, before we finally reach the side ridge at Jalovecké sedlo (Jalóci saddle). The fully open alpine ridge tires with deceptive challenges: the climbs are much longer and steeper than they first seem without reference points. From here we can see unhindered the main ridge bearing wilder forms here and there and the surrounding mountain world: although summits are mostly rounded, the valley heads cut steeply around the summit level, the gray "paint splatter" scree slopes, and the emerging granite ribs form a wild and spectacular high mountain landscape.

On the chain ridge behind Liptó

On the easily walkable eastern slope of the side ridge, rocks appear before we reach the side of Baníkov (Mine Hill), and finally the summit equipped with a signpost. The panorama is breathtaking: the forested Roháč valley opens up with the pyramidal Ostrý Roháč (Sharp Roháč) in the background of the "wrinkled" fells, while the High Tatra cliffs line up notably the airy, slanted block of Kriván. Looking north, the main ridge continues as a rockier, more craggy section, with the Beskids' ridges shimmering in the distance. In the opposite direction, we can see almost the entire Low Tatras and the mountains bordering the Liptó basin, and in clear weather the Lesser Fatra is also visible in the background.

From the western corner of the Liptó Fells, the winding Tatra region seems endless, whose highest peaks are better not sought in the central line: the mountain range's main ridge was more eroded by ice and freeze-thaw processes than the southern ridges, so the highest points actually emerge from the latter. The main ridge's highest mountain mass is Baníkov, which at 2178 meters is only the fourth in the mountain range's "tower sequence".

From the summit, we continue to the right along the P trail. The path alternates between exposed, rocky, and traverse sections along the slope. We immediately face chains built into the beginning, and since the steps are easy, progress is not difficult. Chains help descend a broken rock staircase before we reach under Hrubá kopa. Conquering this is an easy panoramic walk on a gentle climb, without any technical difficulty. The view on the grassy dwarf pine block of Baranec (to the right) is magnificent, and looking back, you can truly see how ice polished Baníkov, which looks steeply northward with rocky crests. The name of Hrubá kopa's summit also reflects its shape, as kopa means hill, yet this is the best viewpoint on the hike: from here Baníkov and Pachoľa show their wildest face, below us the sparkling Roháč lakes' tarns and the vast forest of the valley, and the most important is that nothing obstructs the view of the mountain world rippled up to the Gerlach peak. Hrubá kopa offers one of the wildest and most comprehensive panoramic views of the Carpathians and the Tatra region.

It takes some time before we descend on the rocky, steep path to the Tri Kopy (Three Humps) ridge section, where the trail route becomes exciting again and advancing becomes tricky. On the right is the recessed basin of Veľký Závrat (Great Recess), on the left the Roháč valley’s drop-off encloses the ridge topped by three small granite humps, into which both sides were deeply bitten by glacial erosion. The trail climbs to slanted rock slabs, chains offer handholds to bypass the first hump, then after a steep ascent, in a narrow rock groove, we climb again on metal chains to reach the second peak. The descent is much more technical: the path continues along narrowing rock ledges and granite protrusions on a chain stretched at a great height. The breaks from this challenge offer first-class views, letting us look across the Žiarska valley, and from the narrowest saddle, the Roháč lakes glitter below – at a considerable depth.

The third "kopa" is an easier section; after climbing a few slanted rocks with chains, we bypass a wall before walking up to the rocky summit. Let us take one last look at the panorama because from here we descend to the Smutné sedlo (Sad saddle) junction – before that, it is worth taking a good look at the sawtooth forms of Ostrý Roháč and Plačlivé. The ice-carved pyramid peaks falling steeply on their northern sides are the wildest sights of the entire Liptó Fells. The crumbly, tiresomely descending path bypasses one last small hump before finally reaching the saddle (Smutné sedlo), where we start descending to the right along the K trail.

Back to the valley floor – on foot or scooter

We tread the narrow but easily walkable ridge separating the two former glacial nourishment basins, which leads behind the wide scree-covered terrace on the other side into the green of the Žiarska valley. Descending lower, louder streams, denser dwarf pine patches, and then pine groves alternate, and the landscape becomes more colorful. From the comfort of the valley, we can glance back at the rocky skyline of the main ridge before reaching the mountain hut again. From here, it is only a matter of walking down to the valley's end or renting a scooter in the summer season and rolling down – which, due to the condition of the asphalt road, is not necessarily a smaller challenge than “doing aerial gymnastics” gripping chains on the top of the Liptó mountain world.