Of Minčol and men

When I was little, I enjoyed reading fairy-tales. One of my favorite books was The Most Precious Treasure by Anton Habovštiak. One of the tales spoke of a man who climbed Minčol.

Minčol. Such a poetic name. It’s actually a fairly common mountain name in Slovakia. There are actually at least seven Minčols, three of which are located in Orava, the region where the fairy-tale takes place. So I don’t even know which Minčol the tale’s protagonist climbed.

One way or another, there is a Minčol close to where I live (in Malá Fatra), so why not climb that one. Sure enough, it’s not the one from the book, but a Minčol nonetheless. So I bagged my father and off we went. We took a bus to the village of Turie and headed up the Turská dolina (Turie valley), following the yellow trail mark.

Turie valley has been carved by the matter-of-coursely named Turský potok (Turie stream).

An aborigine watching over the Turie brook

It was late October, thus autumn in full swing.

It’s the best time to hike in Slovakia as the weather is incredibly stable. Especially if it’s foggy in the morning you can be assured of a beautiful, reasonably warm sunny weather all throughout the day.

Moreover, this time of the year clads the nature in multitude of colors.

Green, yellow, orange, red, gray, brown, blue…

From the outset the forest road is fairly wide, accommodating, and thus easy to hike.

We’ve encountered a fair share of weird trees along the way.

This one, for instance, was growing from a rock!

Before long, however, the road narrowed to a hiking trail.

Albeit Indian summer was long gone, sunlight filtering through the trees brought with it much needed warmth.

Higher up the mountain mixed deciduous (largely beech) forest made way for conifers, among them spruce, firs, and occasional pines.

Soon thereafter, beautiful panormamatic viewpoints over Žilina basin opened up.

The panorama shows from the west (left): The city of Žilina, then Žilina dam hydroplant with KIA factory in the background, and finally the eastmost mountain (on the right) is Polom (heavily quarried for limestone) followed by Javorina (with the World War II Memorial on top)

Finally we reached Minčol.

After short rest at the top we turned right (south) and followed the red-marked ridge trail. More weird trees followed.

The trail was alternating between mountain meadows and forests.

In these parts we were losing sight of it.

So much so, that I had to consult the map.

A native studying a map. 2005, colorized.

But we quickly found the right way. Anyway, there was nowhere else to go other than further up.

Soon we were nearing another mountain, Krížava, with eponymous TV tower.

Before we reached it, though, I noticed this peculiar tree with its branches growing almost downward.

In a short while, we arrived at the said TV tower.

Once we reached the Krížava mountain, we turned right (west) again and started our descent back to Turie.