Zywiec Beskids: Krowiarki Pass -> Mount Babia Gora -> Markowe Szczawiny

There are some mountains that just won't let you forget about them. For me, for months, that mountain has been Babia Gora. Seriously, every time we drove somewhere south of Krakow, its massive silhouette would always appear on the horizon and give us a wink. "Come on, come and face me," it seemed to say. This mountain flirtation went on for far too long, so as soon as the weather forecast showed a window without rain, the decision was simple: we're going! I had two scenarios in my head. Plan A: a quick assault on the summit from Krowiarki Pass and back the same way. Plan B: a loop via the shelter at Markowe Szczawiny. I should add that having two plans is not like me at all. I always have to know which way I'm going. So I have no idea what got into me this time.

We got to the parking lot just after seven in the morning to find a spot without any hassle. And that's when we experienced a culture shock. Instead of heading up with the other early birds, we were passing... entire pilgrimages of people coming down! "What on earth is going on? It's barely dawn!" we thought. A short chat with one of the "descenders" explained everything. Those hundreds of people, apparently, had been on the summit to watch the sunrise! It turned out that we had unwittingly witnessed the most popular national sport in the Beskids. Oh well, maybe next time?

The ascent itself, of course, involved changing weather, as is fitting for Babia Gora. It started with views of the nearby villages bathed in clouds. At the first stop, on Sokolica, the wind was blowing so hard it nearly ripped our heads off. I was cursing myself for not taking a hat and gloves. Literally a moment later, as we moved higher, the wind died down as if someone had hit an ESC key, closing the "wind" app. And then what? Of course, I thought: "Thank goodness I didn't bring that hat and gloves, they would have just been dead weight." The logic of a tired hiker in a nutshell, right? On Diablak, the highest peak of the massif, the clouds thinned out, and the sun cranked up its brightness and warmth. The views instantly became vividly colored. In conditions like these, it would have been a sin not to go with Plan B. So we descended via Markowe Szczawiny, where a cold beer at the mountain shelter tasted like the nectar of the gods. A non-alcoholic one, of course—no booze in the mountains! And Babia itself, seen from the perspective of the descent trail, looked strikingly similar to Śnieżka. No, really—the same low and harsh vegetation, the same shattered expanses of rock. If it weren't for that UFO-like observatory on top of Śnieżka, I would have been ready to mistake the two peaks. Well, almost!

And finally, the map. If you're heading out on the trail from Krowiarki Pass, remember that the warmer the day, the earlier you need to be there to get a parking spot. For us, arriving at 7 AM on a Saturday in September was enough, but the forecast wasn't very optimistic. Well, as old hikers say, the early bird gets the parking spot.