In 2005 Polish photographer Karol Nienartowicz won a photography prize: a weekend in Zakopane, the mountain town at the foot of the Tatras. That trip turned into a decade of climbing and photographing the range, and in 2015 he shared a collection drawn from those ten years.
By his own count he covered about 740 kilometres of trails and 51,000 metres of elevation gain in that time. The photographs move from soft green ridges in the Western Tatras to the granite towers above Morskie Oko, with lakes, a valley chapel and the rare Brocken spectre along the way.
The Tatra Mountains: Poland’s only alpine range
The Tatras are the highest part of the Carpathians, a compact range shared between Poland and Slovakia. The highest summit, Gerlachovský štít (2,655 m), stands on the Slovak side; the highest point in Poland is Rysy, at about 2,499 metres. Both sides are protected: Slovakia’s Tatra National Park was founded in 1949 and Poland’s Tatrzański Park Narodowy in 1954, and together they form a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Nienartowicz’s collection crosses the whole range, from the green, rounded ridges of the Western Tatras to the jagged peaks and high lakes of the High Tatras.
Valleys, lakes and peaks in the collection
- Dolina Pięciu Stawów Polskich (Five Polish Ponds Valley) – a high valley holding a chain of lakes.
- Morskie Oko – the Tatras’ most celebrated lake, named by the Wall Street Journal among the five most beautiful lakes in the world, beneath the Mięguszowieckie peaks.
- Dolina Gąsienicowa and Czarny Staw – a valley with the dark Black Pond beneath the summit of Kościelec (2,155 m).
- Dolina Chochołowska – a valley of the Western Tatras with a small chapel, pictured in the gallery.
- Szpiglasowy Wierch (2,172 m) and Świnica (2,301 m) – peaks where Nienartowicz photographed Brocken spectres.
- Temnosmrečinská dolina and Priečne sedlo – a valley and a pass on the Slovak side of the range.
Orla Perć, the Eagle Path
Several images come from Orla Perć, the Eagle Path: a red-marked ridge route that runs entirely in Poland from Zawrat pass (2,159 m) to Krzyżne pass (2,112 m). It was conceived in 1901 by Franciszek Nowicki and built and marked largely by the priest Walenty Gadowski between 1903 and 1906. It is one of the most difficult and dangerous public paths in the Tatras, with ladders, chains and metal steps on the steepest pitches, and since 2007 the stretch from Zawrat to Kozi Wierch has been one-way. Tackle it only with solid scrambling experience, a helmet and a settled summer forecast.
What is a Brocken spectre?
Two of the most striking pictures show a Brocken spectre, at Szpiglasowy Wierch and near Świnica. The effect appears when the sun is low behind an observer standing above a bank of cloud or mist: the person’s shadow is projected onto the cloud, magnified by perspective, and often surrounded by a ring of rainbow-coloured light called a glory. The name comes from the Brocken, the highest peak of Germany’s Harz Mountains, where Johann Silberschlag described the effect in 1780. Mountain ridges with valley fog, like the Tatras in autumn, are among the best places to see it.
Visiting the Tatras from Zakopane
Zakopane, known as the winter capital of Poland, is the base for most trips into the Polish Tatras, and Nienartowicz’s own decade in the range began with a weekend there. Summer and early autumn are the main hiking season; in winter the high trails become serious alpine terrain. Morskie Oko and the Five Ponds Valley make a classic long day.
For more of the range, see our Tatra mountain gallery, and for another photographer returning to familiar mountains, Mark Flower’s Colorado photographs. Nienartowicz also shares new work on his Facebook page.
Related reading
- Karol Nienartowicz’s Mountain Tents: Six Years of Camps and Landscapes
- Marcin Kęsek’s Tatra Mountain Photographs
- Winter in the Karkonosze: Snow, Summit Buildings and Borderland Views
Sources
- Karol Nienartowicz’s ten-year Tatra collection – Bored Panda (2015)
- Tatra Mountains – Wikipedia
- Orla Perć – Wikipedia
- Brocken spectre – Wikipedia
- All photographs: Karol Nienartowicz.
No comments