Złomisty Wierch

Złomisty Wierch is a pair of wooded tops on the main ridge of the Radziejowa Range in the Sądecki Beskids, about 700 m apart. The higher one, Złomisty Wierch Północny (North, 1,224 m), is the second-highest summit of the whole Sądecki Beskids after Radziejowa. The lower Złomisty Wierch Południowy (South) reaches 1,215 m. The tops carry the boundary between the villages of Jaworki (Nowy Targ County) and Roztoka Ryterska (Nowy Sącz County) in Lesser Poland; the nearest hamlets lie 4–5 km away in the valleys.

The northern top stands between Wielka Prehyba (1,191 m) and the southern top; its eastern slope falls to the headwaters of the Lajpcyk stream, the western one to the Stary Potok. The southern top is a junction: a ridge with the Kotelnice slope and the Świniarki summit runs south from it to the Grajcarek valley, while the main ridge continues east to Bukowinki (1,209 m). Three streams rise on the slopes of the southern top, among them the Czarna Woda and the Średni Potok.

How to get there / trails

• Red Main Beskid Trail (GSB): Rytro — Niemcowa — Radziejowa — Złomisty Wierch South and North — Prehyba — Krościenko. The European long-distance path E3 and the international Eisenach – Budapest mountain trail follow this section too.
• The forest Ścieżka Teodora (Theodore's Path) runs parallel along the northern slopes of the range.
• In winter a red ski route leads from Prehyba to Rytro — along the line of a former green footpath that once descended from below the summit to Hala Konieczna.

The sources give no official walking time to Złomisty Wierch itself; the nearest reference points on the ridge are Prehyba with its hut and Radziejowa.

The view from the top

The whole Złomisty Wierch massif is wooded. Some decades ago a mass outbreak of a pest, the spruce web-spinning sawfly (Polish: zasnuja wysokogórska), stripped large parts of the Radziejowa Range of trees, and the ridge between Prehyba and Wielki Rogacz became open with wide views. The forest is now regenerating, so the views are already very limited.

Name and history

In their 1929 guidebook, Nitribitt and Hetper called the lower, southern top Złamany Wierch ("Broken Peak"), probably because the main ridge bends there. The higher northern top had no name: local people evidently saw no need for one. But as it is the second-highest summit of the Sądecki Beskids, mapmakers introduced a name for both tops, distinguishing them as north and south. About 50 m from the footpath near the southern top a track leads south to the Młaki clearing, which is gradually becoming overgrown; there was once a tar works there, used by partisans as quarters during the Second World War.

Safety, season and rules

This is a wooded ridge without crags, accessible all year but far from villages; there is hardly any water on the ridge, and in winter the path is snowbound. The southern slopes are criss-crossed by a dense network of forest roads used to haul timber from the dead forest — in fog, stay with the waymarks. Mountain rescue in the Beskids is provided by GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300, and 112.

Photos: Jerzy Opioła, 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.