Mała Babia Góra

Mała Babia Góra, also called Cyl (Slovak: Malá Babia hora), is a summit of about 1,517 m in the Babia Góra massif on the Polish–Slovak border. It is the third-highest summit of all the Polish Beskids after Diablak and Pilsko, and the third-highest in the Orava Beskids. The Polish slopes belong to the village of Zawoja (Zawoja commune, Sucha County) and lie in the Babia Góra National Park; the Slovak slopes belong to Oravská Polhora in Námestovo District and the Horná Orava Protected Landscape Area. The nearest Zawoja hamlets, Markowa and Marki, lie about 3 km to the north, and the Markowe Szczawiny PTTK hut is roughly 1.4 km away.

Cyl stands on the north-western ridge of the massif: to the east the Brona Pass (1,408 m) separates it from Diablak, and to the west the ridge falls to the South Jałowiec Pass (993 m). The shallow Wołowisko saddle divides the main top from the lower Niższy Cyl (about 1,490 m). The ridge carries the state border and the European watershed: water from the northern slopes flows via tributaries of the Skawica to the Vistula and the Baltic, while the southern slopes drain via the Polhoranka into the Orava, Váh and Danube, and so to the Black Sea. On the Slovak side a long wooded ridge runs from the summit over Borsučie, Zadná Vysoká and Vysoká down to the Polhoranka valley. The northern, Polish slopes are torn by the huge Zerwa Cylowa landslide.

How to get there / trails

• From Poland — along the main ridge from the North Jałowiec Pass via the Żywieckie Rozstaje junction to Cyl and on over the Brona Pass to Diablak. From the Brona Pass to the summit takes about 25 min (15 min down), from Diablak 1 h 10 min (1 h 15 min back), from Tabakowe Siodło 1 h 10 min (50 min down). The Brona Pass is an easy climb from the Markowe Szczawiny hut.
• Red trail from Slovakia — from Oravská Polhora: about 3 h from the Slaná voda chalet (2 h 45 min down), 3 h 30 min from Oravská Polhora itself (3 h 15 min down). Slovak sources mark the ridge path to Brána and Babia hora as blue.

The Polish green PTTK route Sidzina – Jabłonka and the Slovak long-distance Via Slovakia also cross the summit. Although Cyl stands in the shadow of neighbouring Diablak, it is a frequent hikers' goal, because the main path to Babia Góra from the Slovak side leads over it.

The view from the top

The summit is grassy, so the panorama is very wide — similar to that from Diablak. It covers about three quarters of the horizon; only to the south-east is it blocked by the bulk of Babia Góra. In good weather you can see the Orava, Silesian and Żywiec Beskids, the Malá and Veľká Fatra, the Oravská Magura, the Choč and Skoruša hills, and the Low and Western Tatras.

Nature and history

Like the rest of the massif, Mała Babia Góra is built of flysch — alternating sandstones and claystones of the Outer Western Carpathians. The top and the upper Slovak slopes are grassy. The whole Babia Góra ridge was once grazed, and a pasture called Czarna Hala lay on the north-eastern slopes. After the national park was created, grazing ended and the meadows are gradually being overgrown by dwarf pine and forest.

The name Cyl has several explanations. Linguist Aleksy Siemionow considered it possessive, derived from a surname. Naturalist Władysław Midowicz recorded a folk explanation from Zawoja: at noon in winter the summit seems to "aim" (cylować in the local dialect) straight at the sun.

Safety, season and rules

The summit lies above the tree line and is exposed to wind, fog and thunderstorms; the weather on Babia Góra changes quickly, and in winter the ridge can be icy. In the Babia Góra National Park you may walk only on marked trails, there is an entrance fee, and some trails close seasonally — check the current rules on the BgPN website before you set out.

Rescue on the Polish side is GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300; on the Slovak side the Mountain Rescue Service HZS: 18 300 (+421 18 300); 112 works everywhere.

Photos: Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Pudelek, CC BY-SA 3.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 3.0; Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 3.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Rafał Kozubek, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.