Gipsy crossing of the High Tatras - nonstop

1. Brief chronology of the transition

April 26-28, 1986
Vlado Tatarka (Gipsy) completed a three-day circular crossing of the High Tatras on skis. Gipsy said about the crossing: "A real challenge would be to do it non-stop!"

March 23 - 24, 2012
Michal Malák and Miro Leitner made the first repeat of the crossing, in 47 hours with a sleepover at Morský Oko. Captured in the documentary film Acceptance and an article in Vetroplach magazine.

February 14 - 16, 2017
Martin “Elko” Eliáš will make the crossing in three days with a changed order of days. He will skip Volovcovo saddle, but add Váha saddle twice.Report in Vetroplach magazine .

March 27 - 28, 2017
Karel Svoboda and Simon Kolaja make the pass in two days. From Brnča to Morské Oko in 15.5 hours. From there they finish the pass on Brnča in 10 hours the next day. Both dedicated the entire winter and all their weekends in the Tatras to the pass. They received information about key places from Martin Eliáš. On the first attempt after the avalanche incident, they lost a ski in Spádová dolinka. The next attempt was successful. For this action they received an award from the Czech Mountaineering Association.

April 18 - 20, 2019
Jano Jurga completes a three-day crossing. This feat is capturedin a report in Vetroplach magazine .

Martin Bartoň writes: "Skiing a chute with a slope of over 40 degrees always requires quality snow and accepting a certain amount of risk. In the Tatras, conditions are often different in each valley, or they change with the orientation of the slope. The question is: How big a risk would it be to ski slopes oriented in about 20 different directions in such a short time?"

I noted this quote for myself so that I could revisit the memories sometime in the future.

I'll share my notes, write something for clarification. I'll write the emotional and technical part. Those who like numbers and facts, go straight to part 4. Timeline and data. Someone might want to know the other part too.

For a photographic treatment of the passage of individual saddles, I refer you toElk's report , which is nicely and clearly prepared. The photo documentation of the first part has a nice capture by Rob Gálfy.

I walked the pass as Gipsy describes - from Brnčalka to Brnčalka. I didn't miss any saddle, valley, or crevice. (Bachledova crevice replaced by Jordánova crevice.)

To maintain the accuracy of the transition, I struggled with logistics, sun, night, shadow, lighting, skiing, water, and food.

From a logistical perspective, it would be more convenient and safer to start somewhere from Zbojnícka chata for a non-stop crossing. However, I decided to do the original crossing.

2. Personal section

April 9, 2020
Mountains are hands you can cry on.
With this paraphrase of Válek, I turn on the headlamp.
It's midnight.
The winds are sleeping.
I was tired of thinking,
So I examine my conscience.
I salute the mountains and humbly ask for a safe passage.
Here somewhere the earth tilted. Here somewhere so that I could hit my forehead against my forehead.
The moon is the night after the full moon, one of many planned puzzles.
You drew a story 34 years ago, I'm rediscovering it 34 years later.
You had a daughter in the valley who was not even six months old, mine is now 10 months old.
Only the rocks around us know if our thoughts are intersecting.

I want to be with those who know secrets, or alone.

The head alternates between energy-saving and concentration modes, depending on the surrounding terrain,
For the first six hours of the night, I have one melody playing over and over again - those who are persistent probably understand what I'm talking about.
It's not a deep song about the Nibelungs, but a nursery rhyme:
"on the shelf in a pot, something is purring there, it has such eyes, it almost ate me up."
Marked by Greta's lull.
The next step is meditation.
All past and future go by the wayside, a state that in Zen is referred to as living in the present moment.
It exists only here and now, every step, every breath fills the body with life and the exhalation relieves pain.
Being truly present is a gift to me.
Life is love, symbiosis, transformation, war and peace, not a vacuum and a test track, optimal conditions and adequate doses of endorphins, material doses of security, mental security, peace and stress-freeness, schnitzel for breakfast and a heart attack for dinner.
I wake up from meditation on a stringed instrument, where I begin to be distracted by such human worries.
Hungry.
Tartar sauce and Ketchup.

If anyone wants to see and know how I approached motivation itself, know that I am not an athlete.
It was not preparation for athletic performance, but for the journey of the heart.
Those days changed me in many ways, and those who have gone through such a change in the mountains can understand that.
I have spent and still spend my free time in the valleys where I hang out. Thanks to this transition and the inspiration of Gipsy, I have discovered places I did not know and where great possibilities continue to open up.
And the curiosity to find new places and views, but also old places, is a journey forever. The goal flies by quickly once achieved.
Thank you Vlad for this beautiful logical line of transition and not only for it.
And I greet the northern High Tatras, where treasures are hidden for all of us.

Home is the hands you can cry on.
They will hide your face, wet with sweat and tears.
They can snuggle, save and warm.
But also put your fingers on your throat and squeeze.

3. Current transition, conditions and sequence

Brnčalka is dark and empty, like warehouses of material reserves in this epidemic that closed it. The last week of alternating April sun and night frosts has made night concrete in the valleys, but given the Tatra classics, there is snow of every quality - firn, concrete, ice concrete, crust, or crust and under it half a meter of grit, in which you walk, but you slowly move back. Over the past week, I have crossed more than half of the saddles from the pass in segments. I tried to make tracks, knowing that it will not last long in this sun.

After Fľaška to Veľká Zmrzlá on the tracks. From there on the crampons I traverse towards Medená kotlina. Again on the tracks - it's hard.

I expected this and so this night warm-up does not surprise me. I go on the edges more than on the belts and so I beat my inner thighs like a proper housewife Sunday schnitzel. Under the narrowing of the cat and the stick and alternately over the bark or on the front spikes up to Bachledova slot. The moon illuminates the slopes from the west to the descent.

I put on my shoes straight up and there are no surprises - it's concrete and the entire chute is dadaistically spiced with frozen wet plasmas, fallen avalanches and frozen snowballs. I try to get the descent behind me as quickly as possible, even though I stop repeatedly so as not to burn my thighs right at the beginning. Bones are cracking on the ice balls. Out of the chute and to the right, running over the thawed slope, traverse past Téry's hut, belts, zigzags, crampons and to the Yellow Bridge, to Sedielko pod Drobná vežou

I see tracks on foot down, but there is no time for such lordly antics. That's why I ski from above and surprise? How else - concrete hard, around the narrowing and stone on the left, a slip and traverse, quickly gain height and further below Javoráky, belts and towards Studené sedlo

From the top, ski and not through the central chute but diagonally through a narrower, steeper chute under the Polish ridge, belts up to the level of the Litvorové saddle. Catwalks and quickly up to the Gerlachovská bridge. Here the trail remained, so it goes express.

At the top I change my poles for two ice axes and start down briskly. Not much snow, 30 meters on dry rock, traverse of Komarnické gorge and climb to the Východný Batizovský saddle - 17 minutes. 30 meters of elevation gain due to lack of snow and fast hard skiing through the Pasternák bend below Batizovský and try to keep the height. Again and again through frozen avalanche deposits - my legs are knocking with joy. The tracks are pointless, there is an ice glaze here, so on crampons to the saddle below Drúk.

Morning - the most beautiful time between day and night. On crampons with an ice axe I run down a narrowing in which a small ice has flowed out and immediately below it I change my shoes and ski hard the traverse under the East Iron Gate. It is a shallow slope, but it is completely covered with glaze and the tracks do not hold even a meter. So I walk up to Strážné sedlo. Here a stone avalanche has fallen into the gully, but it is possible to shove it between. I maintain the height and direction of Dračie sedlo - on tracks, it is not ideal, through the swell on foot.

Descent and traverse under Dračia bránka. Crampons and ice axes, in the middle the snow is already separated from the rock. The sun has only just come up, so it is hard here. I didn't trust this old shabby rope last year and I certainly won't start to trust it this year. It goes up on ice axes and crampons. I don't hesitate and go straight down - towards the old nylon rope, which I don't trust even more than the one on the other side. I go down next to it, it's a mix of snow and rock at 2 meters, but it lets go. I leave my skis on my backpack and roll towards the trail. There is not enough snow there, so there is no point in putting on skis when I will take them off after 100 meters. I put on my shoes under the chains and traverse above Žabie pleso.

On the belts towards Volovcové sedlo. There is more snow for the descent here than last year at this time, when I was passing through. So I ski down comfortably but hard and traverse Mengusáky, towards Hincovo pleso and its northern end. The sun is shining, short sleeves, belts and towards Temnosmrečinské sedlo. In the saddle I put some provisions from Peta and rappel down on the prepared rope 50 m down. I don't put on the second rope anymore, but I descend the narrowing and currently also a small icefall with ice axes. The lightest steel crampons are still not climbing, so I hang mainly on my hands and lean on the surrounding snow and rock.

I ski towards Chalubinskie Vrata, a short hike on foot and a descent towards the traverse on the border of Morské Łok and Czarny staw. Here in the right gully I sit in a ski pole and watch the guards who are on the northern edge of Morské Łok and if I traversed now, I would not have time to run to Czarny staw. I wait 15 minutes and miraculously I move south, so I let go, quickly change my shoes and cross-country ski across Czarny staw to the entrance to Kamzíča. I was here last on Saturday (4 days before the crossing), but since then the sun has made the conditions difficult, which I had expected.

So I go straight to the ice axes and crampons. It's still before lunch, so I'm in the shade, so I figured it was the only safe option. I drive my ice axes into this mixed terrain. Washed firn alternates with dry grass, ice-covered grass, icefalls, icicles, and rock on shelves with unpleasant exposure. I zigzag improvisedly up, while suitors look at me on Czarny stawa. I could therefore describe these conditions as borderline.

It's lunchtime and the sounds of the blows are starting to be heard from the opposite side - wet avalanches are falling from the Mengusovský massif. I cross the ridge below Lalka. Here, stones fall from the wall and accelerate my movement into the shadow, where nothing of the track remains, so I struggle to dig a deep track or a hard track on the front peaks towards Vyšná Kamzíčá štrbiná. On the other side, it's hell. The entire slope is a total liquid and rotten down to the rock, the first step and I'm waist-deep in snow. A quick thought, I put on my skis and let it go as straight as possible into the cauldron, where the snow is of a somewhat wet quality, and I ski towards Spádová dolinka, which was very hard on Saturday. Now there is less snow and more water. The water roars under the snow. I don't hold back and ski as safely as possible along the islands of safety towards Žažký pleso.

The tracks and the descent to the Bielovodská valley to the stream in good snow. I fill my camelbag. I know that the worst is behind me and that remains in the mountains. I head towards the TANAP cabin and somewhere above it I meet Luky, who came to support me mentally. I thank him for that and I know that happiness is better when shared. There is not much snow here, the snowdrift has long been shot and the track is breaking up at a brisk pace up to my chest, a little less on the tracks. It is impossible to get wet across the stream, but I have a pool in my ski boots, so it will only cause a short-term cooling.

You can't go up the gullies anymore. There is a 5-meter waterfall, so improvise from the right between the sedge on foot, dry, on the stones to the ridge from where it's a beautiful zigzag on the ridge to the level of the saddle above Zelený. To the other side it's the best skiing of the day, easy to the stream. More water and the direction Čierna Javorová dolina, through the shot sedge and beautiful limba pines. I love these places. Hang from the left, although it would be wiser to go from the right, but my head is not extra fresh and at this stage I'm saving energy.

In the light to the Čierny sedlo, down through Mala Zmrzlá dolina it is hard and therefore fast, which suits me. Zlaňák is not entirely pleasant. I drop the 50-meter rapeseed that I have been dragging on my back all day as a partner. The stream roars from one side and the other. The 25 meters are so minimal. The 50 meters at full length would be more pleasant. The sun has set. As a reward at the end, skiing in the crust to Brnčalka. It is 8:10 p.m. To the White Water from the Sálviového spring dry, hungry, happy.

Surprise in the parking lot, friends, champagne, joy. Nothing is missing, I'm glad he's safe and I humbly thank you.

I thank my family and friends for their help and support. Without them, nothing makes sense.

I've been to all the saddles several times, over the seasons. I've seen how the conditions change and how the wind and sun behave. Last season I was away from home for 70 days in the valleys skiing.

In the week before the crossing, I spent over 22 hours in the field. For example, preparing the ropeway in Temnosmrečinsky saddle to Piargová dolinka, pedaling and mapping conditions in Kamzíčá štrbina and Spádová dolinka, Bachledová štrbina, Žltá lávka, in Čierny saddle, Mala and Veľká Zmrzlá dolina, in Javorová dolina, etc.

Last year at this time I rode the first Vladov section from Brnčalka to Hincovo Pleso as a test.

4. Equipment

As a hardcore amateur, I pay for everything. So this is not an advertisement, but things that work for me.

The backpack was heavy, but there was nothing to remove from it, so I hung like a tree. In total, I drank 7 liters of water (I hardly urinated anyway), ate 5 gels, 3 bars, 2 apples, 2 bananas. It was hot and I was hungry - so I ate snow, and if necessary, even a log.

On hikes under 6 hours I usually carry 0.5l of water and max 2 apples, but it was really hot now and I was thirsty, even when I started. Lightening the gear is essential, I will need subcutaneous reserves of experience. :)