Jałowiec (Jałowiec Range)

Jałowiec is a 1,111 m summit, the highest of the Jałowiec Range north of the Babia Góra massif in Poland. In Jerzy Kondracki's physical-geographical regionalisation the range belongs to the Maków Beskids, in the newer 2018 scheme to the Żywiec-Orava Beskids, and guidebooks usually count it as part of the Żywiec Beskids. The boundaries of three villages meet on the summit: Koszarawa in the Silesian Voivodeship, and Stryszawa and Zawoja in Sucha County, Lesser Poland. The nearest Zawoja hamlets, W Tajchu and Opaczne, lie 1–1.5 km from the top.

There has long been confusion about the height. Surveyors placed their benchmark a little below the summit, at 1,110.9 m, so every source gives 1,111 m; a detailed contour map, however, shows that the summit itself lies above the 1,112.5 m contour.

Jałowiec is a junction peak. To the west the Sucha (Trzebuńska) Pass (982 m) separates it from Czerniawa Sucha, to the east the shallow Opaczne Pass (879 m) separates it from Kolędówka. On the summit the ridge splits into two spurs enclosing the Stryszawka valley: the main one runs over Opaczne, Kiczora and the Przysłop Pass to the Skawa valley, the shorter Solniska range over the Cicha Pass (775 m), Kobyla Głowa and Opuśniak. The mountain rises above the valleys of three rivers: the Skawica, the Koszarawa and the Stryszawka.

How to get there / trails

• Blue PTTK trail Lachowice — Jałowiec — Zawoja: via the Cicha Pass from the north and down to Zawoja to the south.
• Yellow trail from the Przysłop Pass via Kiczora, Arcygłówka, Solniska, Kolędówka and Opaczne to Jałowiec, then on over Czerniawa Sucha and Lachów Groń to Koszarawa — about 6 h (6 h 05 min the other way).
• Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Forest Nature Trail, laid out by the Sucha Forest District: an open loop that starts and ends in the Stryszawka valley and crosses the summit and the Opaczne and Kolędówki passes.

The view from the top

Today Jałowiec is almost entirely wooded, so the best view is not from the summit but from the Hala Trzebuńska (Hala Kubulkowa) meadow on the southern slope. In good visibility it shows the Silesian Beskids with Barania Góra and Skrzyczne, the Żywiec Basin, the Żywiec Beskids with Pilsko and the whole of Babia Góra — from the Krowiarki Pass to the Jałowiec Pass — and in very clear weather the peaks of the Malá Fatra. On the summit itself there are benches and a large photograph of the panorama with all peaks labelled.

Nature and history

Kazimierz Sosnowski's old guidebook described Jałowiec as a mountain that was "pleasant, but remote and little visited", with a meadow on top ringed by stunted beech forest. The author saw little of the juniper (jałowiec) the mountain is named after, but noted two patches of tall dwarf pine at 1,100 m surrounded by spruce — an interesting natural phenomenon. Most of the meadows have since become overgrown; what remains are Hala Trzebuńska, the clearing with the Opaczne settlement below the pass of the same name, where a hut once operated, and the small Krawcowa clearing above the Cicha Pass.

During the Second World War the border between the General Government and the Third Reich ran over the summit: Stryszawa was in the Reich, Zawoja in the General Government. Traces of one of the watchtowers are still visible on the summit, and at the Cicha Pass, by the blue trail, you can find the foundations of a larger German border-guard (Grenzschutz) post. In 2000 the people of Stryszawa erected a wooden cross on the summit to commemorate the visits of Cardinals Stefan Wyszyński and Karol Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul II.

Safety, season and rules

Jałowiec is a wooded mountain without crags, accessible all year. The routes are long and in places far from villages, so plan your time and carry water; in winter the paths can be snowy and icy. The mountain lies outside national parks, but the usual forest rules apply: no fires outside designated places and no litter.

Mountain rescue in the Beskids is provided by GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300, and 112.

Photos: The original uploader was Jurbox at Polish Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.5; Giraff camelopardalis (pl-wiki), CC BY-SA 3.0; Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.