Maciej, Backcountry Ambassador
Jet lag can sometimes offer unusual opportunities…When your internal clock is not quite reset to the new time zone, you have the ability to enjoy the early pre-dawn hours in a fully awake state. My brother, his fiancée and I took advantage of this phenomenon during our recent trip to Southern Poland. I wrote about Tatra Mountains last year (Snowshoeing at the Top of Poland). This time, the weather was much better and strong winds did not wipe my snowshoeing plans out.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day felt more like spring but on the 26th of December, the temperature dropped significantly and the white puffy snowflakes started falling on the bare ground. It did not take long to put me in the “let’s go and explore” mode and so I planned an impromptu snowshoeing outing to commence at 6am the following morning. It was easy to convince my companions to join me. I think we were all craving the white stuff so much that all of the sudden we were drawn to the outdoors to experience it.
Headlamps in hand, we departed sharp at 6am. Driving in the white and frosty darkness was very soothing and made us forget how cold it was. The small European car (FIAT) we drove, takes time to warm up, and it was a good 15 minutes before the car got warm enough inside for us to take our hats and gloves off. In another 10 minutes we were at the trailhead to Rusinowa Polana (Rusinowa Glade). There already was one car in the parking area when we arrived. Somebody had beaten us to it! That’s impossible…. We were not happy to have been late for the initiation of the powdery trail.
This is one of my favorite hikes. I have done it countless times in both summer and winter. Today, however, was the first time on snowshoes! We took our time in the stillness of the morning. The couple in front of us, on touring skis, disappeared quickly and we were truly alone. The snow coverage was relatively thin, and one could see outlines of the rocks and tree roots underneath. The higher we went the the better the snow coverage was and snowshoeing easier.
To the left, majestic peaks were emerging from the morning fog. I have never witnessed such a beautiful twilight in “my” Tatras! It was bright enough that we did not need our headlamps after all. We could not get our eyes off the mesmerizing view but we needed to hurry up if we wanted to catch the sunrise over Rusinowa Polana.
We got to the upper part of the glade (elevation 1300 meters above sea level) right on time. The sun just started emerging from behind the granite walls of some of the tallest peaks of the range. The snow was sparkling, the light, filtered by the slowly disappearing foggy particles, was dancing on our faces. I was happy to be there!