The first full day of the trip, and we planned on this being a big one. This would be the day we set out to head up Rysy (via Morskie Oko), the highest peak in Poland, something that’s been on my bucket list since I first saw it in person 10 years ago. However as they often do, things did not go to plan…
We had a plan, a simple plan, as there’s only one trail up Rysy from Morskie Oko, but having watched the webcams from afar, we knew that there was snow, but we couldn’t judge how much. So we headed out early to try to make sure we had all the time we would need, starting the long walk up from the car park at Łysa Polana. The weather conditions were perfect, clear blue skies, no wind, warm but not too hot and the forecast for the rest of the day was great.
As we got closer to Morskie Oko, it was pretty clear there was still a lot of snow, with large patches next to the trail from slides earlier in the year, before we reached the lake it wasn’t looking promising. To be clear, compared to many other winter routes, this is a good one (wide, relatively not too steep). So knowing that, there was a small element of hope that if the snow wasn’t continuous and in small manageable patches that there was a chance it would be doable. However, when we arrived at the lake it was clear this was not the case, the snow was much greater than normal at this time of year, and continuous from the base to the summit. We opted to walk up to Czary Staw pod Rysami and take a look close up. Czary Staw pod Rysami was more ice than water, and so on the trail around the edge we put on some snow spikes just to make things a bit easier.
Even the path around the edge of the lake had moments where you wondered if you had lake or shore beneath the snow, and given the rapidly melting status, it did seem a bit close the wet stuff! But we carried on round to the far side to have a look, where as expected things were looking very much in the winter category of mountaineering. This left us with a dilemma, go back and see if we could rent axe/crampons and go for the top, or redirect our day. This was not a easy decision, this was something on my bucket list and one of the planned highlights of the trip. Between the three of us we had a range of experience in winter work from lots to little to none, combined with the marginal looking snow in places (with the melt well in progress) we made the decision to redirect. Having to rely on an ice axe arrest following a slide is not something you really want to do, but when the conditions are marginal and at the end of that (very long) slide is a semi-frozen lake, it just didn’t seem worth the risk. Plus it gives us a good excuse to come back another time!
As we began the walk back to the hostel at Morskie Oko I kept second guessing myself, having watched some people walk past with no winter gear I began to doubt the decision. Did they know something we didn’t, were we being too cautious? It bugged me for a while walking back, but then I turned my attention to what was next, where to go, specifically Dolina na Mnich (Monk Valley). Mnich is a popular and well regarded peak for climbs, so the idea of seeing it up close was very appealing, and a bit of an internal reality check – I was in perfect conditions, in amazing scenery loaded with trails and alongside two good friends, Rysy can wait.
After eating our lunch, we then headed out on the next trail up to Dolina na Mnich, when about two thirds of the way up we could hear a helicopter, we turned to see the TOPR helicopter (Tatra mountain rescue) heading up the trail to Rysy. We stopped to try to see what was happening, it looked like someone was lowered from the helicopter to a group on the trail, then the helicopter landed over near us before returning to the scene and collecting someone. Presumably this was a genuine rescue and not a drill (given the group gathering in a precarious place), and served as a good reminder not to let summit fever get the better of judgement.
After reflecting on this and the thoughts that hopefully it was nothing serious, we carried on our path up to the top. This was also a great route to explore, as in better conditions provides an up and over route to Dolina Pięciu Stawów Polskich (The Valley of Five Polish Ponds), which would definitely be a good route for a future trip. After a bit more food (you can never have enough kabanosy or Lion bars while walking) we then started the walk back down to get back over to Zakopane. A successful day of walking despite the initial goal not being achieved, we had an amazing day out and tired legs to go with it (eased with some 70% Śliwowica).
There’s a map with the route below, and a link to it here. Stills from the day will be posted on my instagram
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Filmed with an Insta360 X3 https://amzn.to/3P3GLpy
Still camera setup Fuji XT5 https://amzn.to/42uMMP1
16-55 f2.8 lens https://amzn.to/3oZTpuT
Peak design capture clip https://amzn.to/3WZq7cz
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