Shepherd heaven in the heart of the Liptó Alps

Itinerary

• In the Úzka dolina (Narrow Valley) the K sign leads up to the Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley) junction.
• From the mouth of the Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley), the Z sign leads along the ridge through Jakubina to the Hrubý vrch (Thick Mountain) junction.
• From the Hrubý vrch (Thick Mountain) junction, we follow the P sign to the right along the Polish border to the Račkovo sedlo (Račkov Saddle) saddle.
• From the saddle the S sign leads down through the Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley).
• On the already traveled section of the Úzka dolina (Narrow Valley), we return on the K sign to our starting point.

Detailed description of the hike

Stepped ascent to Jakubina

We start our long hike at the entrance to the Úzka dolina (Narrow Valley), which cuts a gap into the uniform cliffs above the Račkova dolina campground (Autocamp - Račkova dolina), initially following a wide forestry road marked K. Immediately at the valley throat stands a huge wooden statue of a hiker, four meters tall, wearing a red sweater and cap and carrying a backpack. At the beginning of the hiking trail, a nature trail also starts, presenting the shepherd history of the Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley) at original sites with old pictures and descriptions. The alpine meadows of the surrounding mountains and valleys were summer pastures for the cattle and sheep of the nearby village.

The valley is an excellent preparation for the long hike, its comfortable forest road gently ascends, warming up our limbs for the climb. Halfway up the shaded, narrow valley stands a massive stone dam, the largest flood control dam built on a stream in Slovakia. It was built in 1935 to moderate flood waves caused by snowmelt and frequent rains. The village lads carved and carried stones from the surrounding mountainside, stacking them 2 meters thick and over 10 meters high. Behind the dam, a wide area was left free for water storage, where a shallow pond gathers from the stream's water. The forestry road crosses the stream, and after some winding, a nearly 2-kilometer walk in the Narrow Valley brings us to the fork of Jamnícka and Račkova dolina.

The narrow valley opens up more here, but the landscape and the atmosphere of the route also change due to a gap caused by forestry. We turn right following the Z sign toward Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley), but the hiking trail soon leaves the comfortable valley floor and turns into the forest of the opposite mountainside. We immediately start our assault on the summit. We soon leave the forest because the eastern mountainside has been cleared by loggers, with only a few uprooted tree trunks visible on the otherwise barren, grassy slope. The well-trodden path is easy to follow, although no signs are found on this section. A few hundred meters higher, we enter the forest again, occasionally having to climb over or bypass fallen trees.

With a single effort, we climb over 700 meters in elevation to reach the first summit point. Nižný Ostredok, 1714 meters high, covered with dwarf pines, is essentially a gently sloping ridge from where the climb restarts over small undulations. We must ascend four more such waves and peaks before reaching the highest point of the ridge, Jakubina. There is a spectacular change in the view, as the thinning forest reveals the surrounding peaks, and our gaze is drawn to the Baranec massif rising to the west. To our right, the slope becomes rockier on the eastern side, and the path on the ridge climbs increasingly more pronounced rocky ridges.

Next target is the summit of Nižná Magura, towering 200 meters above us, a much rockier wave on the ridge resembling an independent peak. We ascend its less steep western slope, while from the narrow ridge that arches there, we can clearly overlook the upper section of Račkova dolina and the eastern neighbor, the Bystrá massif, which is the highest mountain in the Liptó Alps.

From the 1920-meter summit of Nižná Magura, we also descend slightly, climbing over a narrow, rocky neck to the next ascent, which has only 150 meters of climbing left. We reach the rockiest section of the ridge on Ostredok, a bastion-like summit with steep cliffs. The summit itself is relatively flat, but the surrounding mountainsides drop steeply with nearly 1000-meter cliffs into valleys running on both sides. It is worth looking around at the first real peak because a magnificent panorama unfolds, allowing views over the surrounding ridges to the higher peaks of the mountain range. To the left, the rockiest peaks of the range line up, including the notorious Ostrý Roháč (Sharp Roháč), crossed by a rare chain trail in the Liptó Alps. The main ridge also comes into view—the Polish border ridge, a continuous grassy crest dividing two seas. Below us, streams flow to the Váh and Danube rivers reaching the Black Sea, while the waters on the far side flow north towards the Baltic Sea.

Behind the summit’s long, rocky back, the ridge narrows, and we begin route finding in the most technical section of our 'mountain climb.' We cross many rock ribs and rubble piles, the path mostly traversing the western slope and circumventing the undulating ridge before a few hundred meters where another steep climb begins to the summit of Vyšná Magura. From here on, the ridge calms down, and we hike mostly on grassy ridges, occasionally crossing rocky bands. Our goal climb, Jakubina’s summit, the highest on the ridge, also appears, definitely a welcome sight on the long stepped ascent.

We arrive on a wide meadow to the summit point, the 2194-meter-high Jakubina, which is the second highest mountain in the Liptó Alps after Bystrá. It is captivating how the rocky and grassy mountain terrain’s many peaks ripple around us. If we are especially lucky, the High Tatras also appear on the eastern horizon, though the unusual perspective makes identifying peaks difficult. The views are vast, and unlike in our country, here the landscape slopes down to the northern horizon towards the flat, wooded hills of the Beskids. The unified mountain range of the Low Tatras frames the southern horizon, while a wild mix of granite mountains waves along the east-west axis, adding movement to the panorama.

From Jakubina, the ridge turns sharply west, absorbing the last independent mountain. Hrubý vrch (Wide Mountain) is just icing on the cake: from its pyramid-shaped summit ridge, we start our long descent along the border, bending broadly onto Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley).

Descent into the shepherds’ realm

We reach the border marker on the steep northern slope of Hrubý vrch, just below the summit, where we turn right onto the P marked trail. The uniformly descending ridge is cut by rocky corridors in places. This scratched ridge section is interesting: the granite block forming the mountain has fractured along longitudinal fissures and shifted in layers. At the northernmost point of our route, we also touch the summit of Končistá (Koncsiszta) slightly below 2000 meters, where we say goodbye to the ridge with the last full panoramic view. On the mountain’s eastern side, we reach the path coming from the valley, down which, following the S sign, we set off with momentum, descending southwards into the Račkova dolina (Račkov Valley) amphitheater.

On a steep grassy slope, we immediately lose 300 meters of elevation within barely a kilometer, arriving below Jakubina’s northern side into a 'nesting' amphitheater. This cirque valley bordered by rocky mountainsides is one of the most spectacular elements of the ice-sculpted landscape. Here accumulated the huge amount of snow, regarded as the 'motor' of the glaciers, which compressed into ice and initiated the deepening glacier flow of the valley. As is typical in cirque valleys carved into crystalline rocks, mountain lakes sit at the base of the amphitheater—the Račkó Lakes (Račkove plesá)—lined patchily by dwarf pine and alpine meadow. We pass the lakes at some distance, walking only alongside a small water surface, but the Račková stream originating from them accompanies us on our descent.

Below the lakes, a greater elevation loss follows again: the stream forms a series of step-like waterfalls running alongside the path. Near the mouth of the neighboring valley, the slope softens somewhat, the valley widens, and on the land tongue between the Račkó and Gábor streams (Račková and Gáborov potok) we reach a hut. Koliba pod Klinom was the summer quarters of shepherds who grazed their flocks here from July to mid-September. At 1430 meters, this shepherd's hut is one of the highest in Slovakia; the flock of 400 sheep grazed the surrounding alpine pastures in the summer season. During spring thaw, the valley was the final summer stay for flocks gradually migrating upward; inside, portraits of shepherds from past times greet us with broad smiles.

From here, meadows are divided by forests; initially, only dwarf pine and small groups of trees appear as the path crosses the stream. The trail cuts through dense dwarf pinewood, and the granite rock-strewn path descends briskly through the valley. A resting place awaits at another clearing, where a sign on the nature trail indicates another shepherd's shelter once stood. From here, the widening path leads through increasingly dense pine forest.

Upon reaching the wide forestry road, the landscape changes dramatically: uniform pine stands have been cut down by the forestry company in the middle section of the valley. Around us, wide clear-cuts open up, creating a depressing image in the otherwise idyllic mountain landscape. The only advantage of the missing forest is the view of the high slopes, while the path is furrowed by traces of timber transport. We hike for kilometers along the tracks of loggers, and as the valley bends gently beneath the ridge above us, we slowly reach the junction encountered at the start of our trip and then the Narrow Valley (Úzka dolina). Here we learn that the lowest shepherd's shelter stood at the mouths of the valleys, where flocks first arrived in the mountains early in summer. At the end of our journey, we return on the K sign along a gently sloping forestry road running through dense pine forest to our starting point, concluding our 20-kilometer hike.