Part 1 (hiking from Telgárt to Chopok, Kráľovohoľské Tatry) is available here.
Nízke Tatry (Low Tatras) – Ďumbierske Tatry
This spring I was able to complete the Low Tatras main ridge tour, namely the part between the town of Donovaly and Chopok, a mountain boasting a height of 2024 meters hence making it the third highest peak in the Low Tatras mountain range.
dark-red cabin pictograms: you can get food and beverages here
The first section between Donovaly1 and Útulňa pod sedlom Ďurkovej, an inviting cottage (útulňa means something like “cozy hut” in Slovak) on 1623 meters where one can spend the night and get food and beverages all together for less than twenty Euros, takes about ten strenuous hours through a beautiful but otherwise rather barren-looking landscape.
This cottage turned out to be a great place for socializing: almost everyone was joining to drink beer, wodka and to sing Slovak folk songs until the early morning hours, to the annoyance of a few hikers who actually wanted to sleep. At sunrise, after I’d gotten only about two hours of sleep and a terrible hangover, I felt like a corpse and did not think I can possibly hike any further soon; and yet, after just one hour on the trail I found that I was perfectly well.
As to water sources, unfortunately these are rare (or non-existing) on the entire main ridge, so I advise carrying enough water especially on a hot summer day. Near Kečka and at Hiadeľské sedlo there exist shelters with sources nearby, the latter offering merely a bare roofed space where one can sleep in his own sleeping bag. In general, everything is easy to find and well marked, so getting lost requires a great deal of oscitancy.
Hiking from Ďurková (the eponym mountain for the aforementioned cottage and the mountain saddle, respectively) to Chopok is feasible in four-odd hours, Kamenná chata pod Chopkom is a spacious and tidy refuge offering warm meals and beer in its restaurant, as well as comfortable sleeping spaces. Not surprisingly, I met some people here from the day before at Útulňa pod sedlom Ďurkovej with nobody showing any signs of fatigue, or lack of enthusiasm for the mountains.
From Chopok, one can proceed to Chata generála Milana Rastislava Štefánika (see part 1), or descend to Demänovská Dolina in about two hours like I did this time (and from there take the bus to Liptovský Mikuláš).
Photo and video gallery
May 26 ’24 (Donovaly)
May 27 ’24 (Donovaly – Ďurková)
Somewhere between Veľká Chochuľa and Latiborská hoľa:
May 28 ’24 (Ďurková – Chopok)
1 Donovaly can be reached by bus from Ružomberok or Banská Bystrica; in Donovaly there exist decent tourist infrastructure, hotels, restaurants and a supermarket that is