Rendezvous with the Great Fatra

Itinerary

• From the bus turnaround, follow the S trail through the Medzijarky clearing to the Lysec peak.
• From the peak, descend back on the K trail, passing the Kašová ski resort and walk back to the bus stop.

Detailed description of the route

Ascent above the basin

The bus turnaround on the edge of Belá-Dulice (Bélagyulafalva) with its striking blue trash bin, bright yellow pole, and corrugated sheet wooden hut recalls the atmosphere of the Sinistra district, especially when the limestone rock adorning its side emerges from the valley’s dissipating morning mist, reflected in the muddy puddles filling the pits. As its name suggests, the village was formed by merging two settlements, Turócbéla and Gyulafalva. An interesting historical highlight is the former activity of the "olejkáros": Slovak residents of the Turóc basin learned from Jesuit monks from Kláštor pod Znievom how to work with medicinal herbs and make medicines, so the locals called "olejkár" traded in medicines, essential oils, ointments, and spices. In the 18th century, some three thousand so-called "Hungarian doctors" roamed Europe and Tsarist Russia.

Under the limestone rock, we start our hike on the S trail along a forest path. The long valley lined with meadows extends to the side of the main ridge and has a richly flowing, swiftly running stream – centuries of mills once stood along it. At a small reservoir the S trail turns left into the first side valley and winds uphill along a water-soaked bulldozer road. At the end of the gentle slope, beneath the pine trees, we step out onto the spacious pasture of Medzijarky. One of the groups of trees resting on the waves of this splendid pine-surrounded meadow hides a shepherd’s lodge, which was open for hikers for many years but now is used only for its original purpose. Looking back, above the peaks of the lucaks, you can see the southern range of the darkened Lesser Fatra on the opposite side of the Turóc basin – on the top of the Rajec Mountains appear the slopes of the Martinské Hole ski resort. Behind the house we reach the Medzijarky fork, where the Z trail coming from Kašová ski resort joins and the side of Lysec also comes into view.

Pasture on the mountain ridge

Staying on the S trail, we cross a forest strip and meet the steep side of the peak block on a charming section above the ski slopes. Looking north, the higher, alpine part of the Lesser Fatra dominates the view – if it is not wrapped in clouds. Beech replaces the meadow and the meadow replaces the beech, the forest exploration path winds with large bends, folding the mountain slope under itself in the forest. Its gentle incline offers relative comfort until the trail sharply leaves the wheel tracks to the left and leads on an unforgiving climb through a grove to the ridge – from where an unceasing ascent begins. At the same time, we finally step out onto the open, pasture-bearing ridge of Lysec, where a pine forest forms a windbreak on our left and on the right there is a continuous view of the neighboring and then more distant peaks of the Great Fatra. Of course, the forest covers the 1000-1400 m high ridges, but after the trees were cut down, the ridges freed were put into service for shepherding, and grazing from spring to autumn prevented forest encroachment. Only a smaller pasture patch remains on Lysec, but the entire central ridge area of the Great Fatra owes its bald appearance to this process.

In Upper Hungary, sheep breeding was introduced by Vlach shepherds arriving from Transylvania and areas beyond the Carpathians from the 14th century. Grazing has significantly declined in the Slovak Carpathians by now, but the closed interior hut (locally called "salaš") found along the route on Lysec indicates the shepherds’ periodic presence. Dairy products from the mountains, especially cheeses (e.g., the soft sheep curd called "brindza"), remain popular and can be found nationwide at stands selling them (along roads or in larger cities). The pasture turf is a valuable habitat for plants and insects – an oasis for them in this vast forested area. This is increasingly revealed, just like our Upper Turóc basin surrounded by mountains, now exclusively a pine-spattered, open strip behind.

Lysec

We first spot the sign of Lysec’s 1381 m peak by a rocky outcrop, where the ascent also ends. Looking around from the edge of the Turóc basin, the Great Fatra mountain mass waves: valley behind valley, mountain behind mountain ridge, and above them the bare high peaks of the main ridge. Most of the view unfolds with our backs to the route already taken – it’s worth walking a little further ahead. Behind the sharply edged mountains, in the distance, stand the highest peaks of the Low Tatras and the ridges of the Liptov Tatras rising above 2000 meters, to their right the summits of the High Tatras close the horizon. It’s refreshing to see such a continuous forest without clear-cutting.

The extensive forest (not disrupted by basins) extends from here all the way to Kassá, and although the condition of the forests varies along this long strip, the Great Fatra is one of the most important refuges of the Carpathian wilderness in Slovakia. This is also proven by the fact that the country’s largest bear population inhabits the massif. The species was nearly exterminated from the Northwestern Carpathians by the early 20th century, with only about two dozen individuals wandering in Slovakia in the 1930s. Today, thanks to protection, their number is estimated at 1000-1500 individuals, and hunters’ societies consider them overpopulated, but state environmental protection bodies’ investigations indicate the population is roughly stable or slightly increasing. However, due to habitat loss (caused by logging and forest decline), they have become "visible," as they more often venture above or below the forest border searching for food. The Great Fatra is also home to Europe’s largest native yew occurrence.

Ski resorts at the foot of the slopes

After finishing the sightseeing, we descend the mountain on the K trail in the opposite direction to the route taken up. The old, sprawling pines occasionally open up like an alley, offering partial views of the Lesser Fatra ridges. The often muddy, slippery, unpleasantly steep path is already outside the national park boundary, but leads along the edge of the Lysec reserve – these areas enjoy the highest level of protection in Slovakia, and it is forbidden to cross their boundaries. Representatives of wildlife sensitive to disturbance like to shelter in them, as forest management also avoids them, and undisturbed vegetation offers both food and refuge.

The Great Fatra is also inhabited by a significant lynx population – so much so that in the 2010s, individuals were transported from here to some Balkan mountain ranges (e.g., the Velebit in Croatia) to re-establish the species in their former habitats from which they were extirpated. The quiet-stepping felid weighing around 20 kg moves almost like a ghost and, thanks to its excellent senses, avoids humans far away – though not smaller rodents and birds, which it eagerly consumes, and sometimes larger animals, mouflons, chamois, or roe deer fall prey to it.

From a meadow, we can scan the highest peaks of the Lesser Fatra, then descend into the Jasenská dolina valley through deciduous forest on a relatively monotonous, sometimes steeply sloped section. Here we cross the asphalt road by a ford or a (destroyed in autumn 2022) footbridge under the trees, then follow the road to the left (still on the K trail). Holiday homes, guesthouses, and inns line the road. The Chata Lysec (tourist shelter) under renovation has a small ski slope, but further ahead, at the Kašová ski resort, larger and better-equipped slopes can be seen. Although apparently a lot of money was invested in this center in recent years, winters warming due to climate change do not promise a long future for such low-lying winter sports centers. For now, we bid farewell to Lysec (looking back) before we return through the forested, undeveloped lower part of the valley back to the bus stop.