Orla Perć - High Tatras
Orla Perć (Eagle's Path) is known as the most dangerous hiking trail in the High Tatras of southern Poland. The route is a Grade 2 scramble. Due to the amount of accidents and deaths there was a petition to change it to a via ferrata in 2006 but it remained open as a hiking trail due its history. The route has a lot of metal ladders and chains to help you up and down vertical sections. Personally, I can't believe it is an open trail like that, especially with the amount of people that visit there. I was beyond excited and also shit scared when the day came to attack this beast.
The day I originally planned to go for it was forecasted to be a windy one and I had another day remaining after, so I decided to swap in an easier hike and leave Orla Perć for my final day. All or nothing, no second chances. If there was gonna be rain I was not gonna go, and even with strong winds, I didn't want to end up dying over this. The logistical issue with this trail was the daylight and the length of the trail. It is not really a single day hike, my favourite. The main technical ridge itself is 4.5km and the suggested completion takes 6-8 hours. Completion times are typical completion times I swipe my hand at, but when it comes to doing something maybe a bit crazy I wouldn't want to be overconfident. Then the closest I could get with my car is still qutie far away. The car park was about 11km and 1,000m below from the ridgeline. In total it was going to be like a 30km technical hike. Typically people would go hike half of the route, or stay overnight. I found a report online of some English guys who hiked up there in a day and back down again in 17 hours. This was from a different starting point but the distance and total elevation were very similar. The issue - there was 13.5 hours of daylight. And not that I'm scared of the dark, but as much as I was hoping to bump into them anyway, solo encounter with bears in the dark was something I wouldn't want. The National Park was full of them and they're all way more active at night and that's a lot of hours remaining after the Sun goes down. I better be fast then.
Even though I set my alarm early I somehow woke before that, so I decided to get going, no time to lose. Drove the rental over to the car park and started the hike half hour before sunrise, maxing the daylight. It was so quiet and calm, what an exciting day. My legs were feeling surprisingly good seeing that I had hiked over 50km the last two days with a lot of elevation. The route left the main road and went through a forest for a while. Nothing but up and more up. 1,100m until the start of the main ridge. It was warm, just my t-shirt was enough. I passed one dude on the way but was all alone.
Lovely early morning
After getting out of the forest the mountains started towering over from both sides. Still a long way to go. Upon reaching 2,000m above sea level and almost at the start of the ridge the temperature had dropped a bit and the wind had picked up. I put on a base layer and my jacket. It actually felt quite cold at this point so I was hopeful the blue sky stayed as it was and it would warm up. It was only 8.30am still as I was three hours into the hike. Met the second person of the day by the split to the ridgeline too. Once I was all set it was time to go. It took maybe ten minutes until I reached the first of the metal chains and caught up to some people. There was a small descent and a view opened up to this couloir slicing through the mountain. Holy crap that looked incredible! This is wtf I'm talking about! I couldn't believe my eyes. That moment when you're patiently waiting your turn to have a go at doing something super cool.
Fun begins now
I caught the guys and squeezed past. So many single tracks it's no wonder it can take so long to do this hike. Luckily today was Monday, I bet yesterday as I originally planned to do it would have been different scenes. The hike I did the day before had a huge amount of people. A big chunk of this initial section is one way. This was part of the deal to not classify this route as a via ferrata. Before 2007 people would be going in two directions. The scrambling which followed warmed me up fast so I lost the jacket and powered on. Not long until I hit the first of the ladders I was looking forward to.
Just chilling
Rungs to get up
The weather was perfect. Wind didn't get bad, temperature was great and not too warm and the route wasn't overly crowded. I was making really good progress. And the views as a result were all there. All the surrounding peaks were visible. Probably a really good thing that I changed the day for this hike. With good conditions this route is nothing but enjoyment. I can't stay the same if it was raining though and you had to trust your hands to hold onto these wet chains. I tried to make the hike harder by using the chains as little as possible and seeing if I could scramble up near vertical sections at times, but some sections, if I had cold wet hands and underfoot was also slippery, hell nah. Wouldn't want to be stuck up here in non-ideal conditions.
Quite incredible views
The total ascent was adding up as the ridge required a lot of climbing and down climbing on a constant basis, but I didn't really tire out from it. Occasionally there were groups of people causing bottlenecks. I was in no rush and was happy to hang around since I was pretty good for time but there was a particular section where a group of eight or so people being led by a guide were taking their sweet ass time. It was a fairly straight up ascent on the chains and it looked like this will take a while. I decided to climb up using holds adjacent to the lot of them. This was funny because I think by this time I was just in my shorts and t-shirt, flying past fully geared up helmets. The guide at the front spoke to me as I was going by and asked me if I'm Slovakian and was really surprised to learn that nah I'm from England. I just carried on with my unstoppable day.
Spine of the ridge
I had a pretty good timing with the ridge. Just as I reached the end of it, one side of it completely filled in with thick cloud while the other side remained clear. I had just taken a quick break to have some fruit and drink but I decided to hang around for half an hour to get some more photos and time lapses of this going down. But I had done the main part. That was about 2:40 moving time to complete the 4.5km ridge, not including food, photos and taking in the views.
Perfect timing to beat the clouds
Another 11km back to the car and over 1,000m to descend and that was that. I was laughing. Only had one gel the entire hike, Godmode. Elapsed time under 11 hours. I was all showered up and in town having beers before sunset.
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