Slovak Pieniny: Wysoki Wierch

The inspiration for this trip came from the YouTube algorithm, which fed me a video by a certain mountain influencer. However, since said creator ignored my message—and my email probably ended up in his trash—I won’t be giving him any free advertising here. His loss; he potentially missed out on, like, two unique visits from my blog. Plus, he’s been unsubscribed. There are other sources of inspiration :)

The plan was simple: a loop from Leśnickie Siodło through Leśnica, Szafranówka, and Wysoki Wierch. It sounded like a solid project plan and... it actually was solid. Within the first few hundred meters of the trail, we ran into a collection of... mushrooms. They were everywhere. Probably edible, definitely inedible, and those from the "eat this and you’ll see the Matrix" category. Some had caps over 20 cm in diameter—empirically verified!

Second checkpoint: Leśnica. I had a task in my backlog: "drink local beer." This was a carryover from a previous trip in the area when I walked part of this route in the opposite direction. A sign proudly proclaimed "Złotówki accepted," which our brains interpreted as "pay however you want." Logic error. No terminal, and a credit card is, after all, not the same as cash. It ended with a refactoring of plans—instead of beer, there was just rest and reflection on the technological backwardness of our neighbors. And peanuts we brought from home. In Poland, we pay with a watch for parsley at a market stall, and here, in a grocery store? Cash only. I felt like we had rolled back at least one reality update.

But the closer we got to the finish line, the more the graphics started making up for the UX shortcomings. The culmination was Wysoki Wierch. Ladies and Gentlemen, what we saw there during the golden hour was a top-tier render. A demo version of New Zealand. If Microsoft were looking for a successor to the Windows XP wallpaper, they should send a crew right here. The light, the space, and... herds of sheep. Hundreds of sheep, the setting sun. A view so surreal I almost wanted to check if it wasn't a deepfake. Or the Parliament building right after the last vote ended...

Tutaj is the route.

Post scriptum, or the fly in the ointment. Despite the exceptional mountain trips recently, I’m not 100% happy with this year. The trip target wasn't met; there were simply too few of them. We managed to hit the mountains for the first time way too late: who opens the season in August? Well... all that remains is to wish that the new year 2026 will be fully successful mountain-wise.