The vertigo-inducing mountains on the Slovakian/Polish border are less well-known than the other alpine ranges but are just as impressive. Norman Wright makes a dizzying ascent to the summit of Slovakia’s High Tatras peaks.

Looking down across the rocky peaks and cliffs to the lush valley floor thousands of feet below was breathtaking enough. Then the mountain peace was broken by the clang of the observation platform’s gate as several hard-hatted men with ropes coiled around their chests and ice axes dangling from their belts piled over from the edge of the abyss.

They only needed frost in their beards to complete the macho effect they created by coming up the hard way.
We, I hardly need to say, came up to the easy way to the top of Lomnicky Stit in the High Tatras mountains of Slovakia – that is, by dizzying cable car.

The view, of course, is the same however you get there – and what a view. In June there was plenty of green, tingeing the grey rock, all set off by pockets of snow clinging on in shaded gullies.

As cable car trips go, this must be up there with the most spectacular anywhere. The first leg is on a continuous cable system used mainly for skiers in winter and for walkers, mountain bikers and trolley tobogganers in the summer. The yellow cars soar over the ski slopes and the twisting concrete summer toboggan run, up to a café and restaurant and the Skalnaté pleso base station where the cable car also leaves up to the summit. At this point you have already climbed some 2000ft.

There’s a small lake and a further chair lift to the top of the black ski run that looked to me more like a sheer cliff. But the main excitement comes from the thick cables that curve out from this foothold on the mountain across rock-strewn valley slopes and up to the 8642ft peak.

The red cars are packed tight, a bit like the London underground at rush hour, but the steady trip along the suspended cable is smooth; then, as it nears the immense rock face, progress is almost vertical until the car swings into the station.

You will have climbed another 3000ft.

Visitors to the top, unless they have booked dinner and an all night stay, have 50 minutes on the summit.

At the top of the mountain, known locally for many years as Dedo (Grandpa), is a café, astronomical and weather observatory, and a TV transmitter. The metal observation platform gives you views in all directions, including some wings that hold you above drops of thousands of feet.

When you look inwards from the observation deck and see the cable car station with the café and observatories perched on top, it looks impossible. To get that first foothold for the cable, the original construction workers in the Thirties got there the hard way and carried up all their materials – an amazing achievement. The cable car opened in 1940.

This is the second highest point in the compact alpine High Tatras that sits astride the Slovakian/Polish border, so you are looking down on everything around you, across peaks and valleys to the wide plain and, 20 miles or so to the south, the Low Tatras – also part of the Carpathian Range that sweeps across 1000 miles of Eastern Europe.

The High Tatras are the highest and the only alpine group of that whole range.

In an area less than 30 miles long and ten miles deep, there are 11 peaks above 8200ft.

On the Slovakian side of the border the area is the country’s first national park, designated in 1948, and the Polish High

Tetras is also a national park.

Almost two-thirds of the national park is covered by forests, predominantly spruce and fir with a significant proportion of Scots pine, Swiss pine, larch and Swiss mountain pine. Deciduous forests – beech and maple growths – occur less frequently.

The walk from the station car park at Popradske Pleso is full of mountain views like this

The High Tatras are mostly granite. There are 110 lakes, or mountain tarns, in the park, which have been formed in glacial kettles. Among the park’s many waterfalls, the biggest is the KmeÈov, 262ft high.

Lomnicky Stit was first climbed in the late 1700s and the first tourist climb was in 1793 by English traveller Robert Townson. It was another 100 years before anyone conquered the peak during the winter.

The cable car from Tatranská Lomnica at the base of the High Tatras costs £30 to the very top and back. Of course, it is a high mountain and can be in cloud, but on a clear day this is one trip you should make; you’ll be talking about it for years. You need to book the leg up to the summit, which you can do at the base station in Tatranská Lomnica.

For those who love the mountains in summer, Slovakia is a lesser-known alternative to the alpine areas of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and France. It is on a smaller scale but the cost of enjoying the High Tatras is a lot less than the Tyrol and it offers its own unique experiences, including that view and the cable car adventure.

Tour operator Mountain Paradises offers a range of summer adventures as well as a winter programme.

Mancunian Matt Jeavons and partner Terezka Rothová met when she was working in Manchester. They formed Mountain Paradise and now live in her native Poprad at the foot of the High Tatras and run a very varied tour programme.

Their summer programmes include mountain walking and hiking, with easy routes and several grades of difficulty.

They also organise golf trips and photography holidays, with the superb scenery and wildlife the target for the amateur lenses.

Mountain Paradise also organises wildlife-watching hikes, with parties staying overnight in mountain
cottages. Chamois and marmots are often seen, with wild boar, brown bears, wolves and lynx inhabiting the national park. In the air you will see golden eagles, buzzards and peregrine falcons in the beautiful forested mountain settings.

If you want something a little less strenuous, you can take the option of day trips – the cable car to the mountaintop is one.

During the morning before the cable car trip, we drove up the winding mountain roads to one of the most popular spots with locals – the Popradske Pleso. From the car park near the mountain railway station there is a one-hour hike up to a lake. It’s a winding climb on a metalled road past tumbling streams and amid glorious mountain peaks and forested slopes.

The Old Town in Poprad

On the way you can take a small diversion to visit the symbolic cemetery where colourful memorials to those who have died on the mountains are displayed near a little chapel.

On that Sunday morning it was the opening ceremony of the summer hiking routes that run higher up the surrounding mountains from the lake and the hotel on its shores. There was a band, traditional dancing and food, as well as lots of local family groups who had made the climb.

Eagles soared over the ridges, the air was pure and clear giving a perfect view of the scenery. It’s hard to think of a nicer place to walk even if you just amble half-way and sit on a log by the cascading water, as I did while photographer Clive Nicholls and our guide carried on to get the pictures.

Not far from Lomnicky Stit is the only accessible show cave in the High Tatras, Belianska Cave on the northern slope of the Kobylí Mountain.

The cave entrance and opening caves were known by gold prospectors as early as the first half of the 18th century; evidence is provided by the inscriptions of their names on the rocky walls. The visitor can admire flowstone waterfalls, the pagoda stalagmite, pools and many other forms of cave decoration. One of the stops is in the Musical Hall, named after the sound of dripping waters on the pool surface.  The entrance is just under a mile from the village of Tatranská Kotlina with its excellent inns and restaurants and souvenir market. It’s a 30-minute ascent, gaining about 400ft along a hairpin roadway.

When you get to the top, the guided tour is another mile of climbing – there are 860 stairs on the path but, as our guide pointed out, only 430 are up!  The tour lasts about 70 minutes and the reward for all that climbing is the sight of caves that are magnificently presented and lit. The temperature ranges between 5°C and 6.3°C so you do need a fleece or jacket, even though it may be warm outside.

On the other side of the High Tatras is the River Dunajec that forms part of the border between Slovakia and Poland. The river cuts through a spectacular gorge, and during the summer it is used for traditional tourist raft trips. White water rafting this is not, but just a gentle float for a couple of hours through stunning scenery. Raftsmen dressed in traditional goral costumes talk during a raft ride about local history, and rare fauna and flora, as well as legends and tales connected with surrounding rocks.

The rafts themselves are made from five wooden sections tied together. At the end of the 12-mile journey they are dismantled to be transported by lorry back to the starting point.

Rafting starts at the quay below the village of Majere. Slovak rafts, steered by two experienced raftsmen, finish their ride at the Slovak-Polish state border in the village of Lesnica.

Rafting is equally popular in Poland and lots of tourists come from the nearby city of Kracow for a trip. There is a great bar and restaurant at Lesnica and you can walk back along the river’s marked tourist path, or take a bus, taxi or a mountain bike to get back to your starting point.

We also crossed over into Poland to take a look at the castle in Niedzica. Overlooking Czorsztyn reservoir, built in the 14th century on the ‘Gothic Route’, it was reconstructed as a Renaissance borderland defensive fortress. The Upper Castle commands a marvellous panorama of the Pieniny Mountains through which the river gorge twists.

The trip from Poprad to the River Dunajec was through the rolling foothills of the mountains, a lovely counterpoint to the high peaks. The route was dotted with towns and villages and many of the houses had poles of 20ft or 30ft standing in the front garden, which on closer inspection proved to be young fir trees with all the lower branches trimmed off, leaving just the top like an elevated Christmas tree. These, we found out, were Slovakian Maypoles put up in the gardens by young men keen on the daughter of the house. It isn’t quite a proposal of marriage but it’s a clear statement of interest.

The poles are put up during the night so that when the girl looks out of the window on a May morning, she is alerted to her paramour’s romantic intent. The taller the pole, the greater the passion.

Above Top: The wonderful cave comainmplex at Belianska Cave. Above:Floating gently down the stream on the traditional raft ride on the River Dunajec

The roofs and chimneys of buildings and churches were also often decorated by the crazy platform of sticks that forms the nest of the stork. The storks fly north each spring to breed all over mainland Europe.

The city of Poprad is built on the plain that separates the  High and Low Tatras. The old town is the place to stay, with a cluster of small pension hotels and restaurants.

The city centre has a bustling shopping area, restaurants and bars as well as AquaCity, where a pool and water park meets a health spa.

Another excellent day trip from Poprad is across towards the Low Tatras and to the foothills and wide, sweeping valleys guarded by Spis Castle that dominates this region. Built in the 12th century on the site of a hill fort that had stood guard for centuries, it is the second largest castle in Central Europe and one of the biggest anywhere in Europe. It was a seat of the most important feudal lords of the Spis region and inhabited till the end of the 17th century.

Across the valley from the castle is a small village, Spisská Kapitula, but this has a cathedral and two Roman towers. Since 1776 it has been a seat of the Spis bishop.  The castle is a little climb up from the car park. It has a museum and you can progress to the top of the tower for an unrivalled view across this beautiful countryside.

Slovakia was formed in 1993 when it split from the former Czechoslovakia leaving a separate Czech Republic.  Its capital is Bratislava. The fledgling independent countries joined both the EU and NATO in 2004.

Despite the fall in value of the pound against the euro, Slovakia is still great value, and the food is excellent. The goulash meat soup and the wild mushrooms were fantastic. Pork is also a favourite meat.

If you like the Alps, you’ll love this part of Slovakia.