Beautiful Babia
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2006
1
13
100
Trip End
Sep 08, 2008
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Beskidy Mountains, Poland
Saturday, November 18, 2006
With only 24 minutes between the end of my last class and the last train from Opole to Rybnik, I had very little time to change and make it the few blocks to the train station. Everything went according to plan though, and within an hour and a half I met Karola at the train station in Rybnik. A few minutes later we met her boyfriend Rob and some friends from her English class, and spent the next few hours catching up over a few beers at a small club. One thing is for certain, and that is that the Blue Star club in Rybnik is a very different place from the Millenium club in Lviv, where I'd been just 6 days earlier. I could barely believe it had only been a few days since I was there!
We woke early the following morning and left Belk around 9am for Sucha Beskidzka, about 100km to the south east. Given that we had little time, we decided to make straight for Babia Gora (Gora means 'mountain' in Polish), and after a beautiful drive through pine covered rolling hills and past a centuries old castle the 1725m peak came into view. I knew the Beskidy Mountains were much older and less rugged than the Tatras, and I guess I was expecting little more than big hills before I got there. Well, I was wrong! As soon as I saw a huge mountain towering over the others with snow covering the upper and mid reach I didn't need to ask if it was Babia. It looked magnificent, and when Karola's friend Michal pointed out where we would be hiking I was quite excited.
There was one thing going against us even before we began hiking though, and that was the time. We reached the entrance to the park at 1.30pm, which gave us only 3 hours of daylight. Michal estimated it would take us 4 hours to complete the circuit to the summit of Babia, and that it wouldn't really matter if we had to walk in the dark for a while as the track was very good. This sounded fine to me, and the first 45 minutes of hiking were relatively straight forward, through a beautiful pine forest passing a small lake. As we began to climb things got a little more difficult though, and within a few more minutes we were walking in ankle deep snow. However, it was a stunning site, with the bright green trees poking up out of the ground blanketed in white.
Upon reaching the ridge the summit of Babia was in full view, although still some 2km further on. As we climbed higher, the snow became deeper, and a bitterly cold and strong wind made things even tougher for us. It wasn't all bad though, as the wind had blown away a lot of the mist, giving us a spectacular view of the Tatra Mountains, some 60km to the east. It was here I climbed Mt Koscielec on a sunny day six weeks earlier. Karola told me that she had done the hike to Babia on a few occasions, but had never had such a clear view of the Tatras. I wanted to stop and let it soak in, but the wind and fading light meant we couldn't stop for long.
Finding the going a little difficult through the snow, and still between 30 and 45 minutes from the summit, we made the tough decision to turn back. While we could have made the summit in daylight, we all knew that walking back down the mountain through the snow in the dark was not going to be easy, and sensibility prevailed. Fine for Karola, Rob, Michal and Agnes who had all climbed Babia before, but a little disappointing for me. Putting things into perspective though, I couldn't have asked for much more on a mid November day. Clear skies, snow and a stunning view of the Tatras were three things I wasn't expecting to see.
We made it to Karola's parent's house around 6pm, and I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a quaint mountain cottage with a balcony, a warm wood fire and an outdoor toilet! I came to the mountains because I wanted to get away from people, clubs, cities and stress, and I got exactly what I wanted. I loved it! We made plans to climb the 1298m peak of Cyl Hali Smietanowej the following morning, and the rest of the evening was spent downing a few Malibus and chatting away.
I slept in until after 10am, and when I finally rose I was greeted by a stunning view from the balcony of the cottage, looking over the entire Beskidy range. The weather was clear, but very hazy, although we reminded ourselves of the time of year and that we were lucky it wasn't raining or snowing.
Our second day's hiking was more successful than the first, as we reached the summit of Cyl Hali Smietanowej around 2pm. It was a pretty steep climb through tall pines and ankle deep snow for the most part, but still rewarding, especially without the hoards of tourists I encountered in the Tatras. The view looking towards Babia Gora from the summit was quite spectacular, if a little hazy, and we stayed here for about half an hour before retracing our tracks back down the hill.
We went back to Belk later in the evening, and I said goodbye to Karola the following morning in Katowice. The train station seemed a little more intimidating when I was alone and sober, than it had when I was with Chris a few weeks earlier and a little drunk! Nonetheless, I made it back to Opole just before 11am in time to prepare my classes for the day. I felt like I hadn't had a weekend at all because I had no free time in Opole, but the time in the mountains was just the break I needed.
