Koruna Turca – day 7

Thursday, 24.10.2024

Chata Javorina – Útulňa Javorina pod Kľakom

→ 28,6 km ↑ 1663 m ↓ 1913 m – total 175,9 km

Alarm’s at 6:30am. Jozef got up before it went off and started waking me. Didn’t exactly put me in a good mood, I hadn’t slept that well. We pack our things and go down for coffee. We’ve got a beautiful sunrise view, even though the windows are wet with condensation on the outside. Jozef goes out to photograph it.

Meanwhile I pay and we sit a while longer until the sun climbs a bit higher. The hut keeper gives us a Mila bar for the road too, probably knows it’s my birthday today. At 7:30am we set off. Five minutes later we reach Veľká lúka and fog wraps around us.

So we set out breakfast, hoping it’ll clear soon and we’ll get nice views along the ridge walk. Meanwhile I finish the blog, and by the time I upload it, the fog’s cleared.

I’ve gotten properly cold from sitting still, so I put on two pairs of gloves and we set off. First we walk through a kind of tunnel of dwarf pine, and then the ridge opens up beautifully and we continue across a meadow.

Clouds sit below and the sun shines beautifully above. I’ve warmed up by now too. From Horná lúka I need to duck over to the outhouse by the burned-down Grandhotel Partyzán. Shame about that shelter, it burned down in 2014, got rebuilt, and burned down again in 2021, though apparently people were squatting there and it had turned into quite a mess. Now only a lightly trodden little path leads there, and my shoes get completely soaked crossing it. I turn back, have some nuts, and we continue along the forested ridge.

We plan lunch for Hnilická Kýčera. From this side it’s not such a terrible hill. Up top there’s a small meadow with a lovely view, so we set up, eat kaiser rolls and a Horalka wafer. Going down is worse though, straight down through mud, luckily fairly dry now. We descend very slowly and Jozef goes for water. He meets an ultra runner heading from Fačkovské to Orava, who mentions he also finished the Koruna Turca in 3 days.

We continue on and reach more meadows with views. We were last time here about three years ago, on our 5th date, and I don’t remember it being this beautiful at all, guess we only had eyes for each other back then.

On the descent into Vríčanské sedlo there’s logging going on, so the road’s ankle-deep mud. We go around it however we can through the forest.

At the pass we take a short break before the climb to Kľak. It’s 500 meters over 3 km. We start very steep. I’m really running out of steam today. Halfway up my mom calls, so at least I get a short rest. We don’t remember this brutal climb either, must have blocked it out too. When the hill eases off, another treat awaits, pushing through young beech saplings.

Luckily we then reach a lovely viewpoint on a rock, and from there it’s just a short way. But I’m genuinely done.

There’s only one person at Kľak and it’s really windy. The views are beautiful, we can see the entire Koruna Turca laid out before us.

We take a few photos and jog down to the shelter below Kľak. We’re there within 20 minutes. We drop our packs and go gather some firewood. Jozef then splits some wood that was already stacked there. I got properly cold up at Kľak and my shoes are soaked through. I go fill a pot with spring water and put it on the stove to heat. No cold water for me today. Jozef goes to cook, first a packet of French onion soup in a mug. Once the water’s warm enough, I wash my feet in it, a real spa treatment!

I heat up more water and Jozef puts his feet in too, genuinely lovely after a whole day walking in damp shoes. We put the tent and the tyvek groundsheet out to dry a bit more. I inflate the sleeping pads, then warm up by the stove and pick out photos. Second course is pasta with tuna, garlic and ketchup, and for dessert, chocolate with nuts. The perfect birthday dinner! My brother Peťo even manages to call to congratulate me, partly in Spanish, since they’re heading there next week. I’ve got signal here, so I share it with Jozef so he can read his messages, and I keep editing photos. Then we brush our teeth, pee, Jozef goes to sleep and I write for a bit longer, but as always, I’m so worn out it completely knocks me out.