Beskid (Tatras)

Beskid (Slovak Beskyd) is a 2,012 m summit on the main ridge of the Tatras on the border between Poland and Slovakia. It is the easternmost peak of the main ridge of the Western Tatras: it stands between the Sucha Przełęcz pass (about 1,950 m), beyond which rises Kasprowy Wierch, and the Liliowe pass (1,952 m), which separates the Western Tatras from the High Tatras. Between Beskid and Liliowe the Tatra expert Władysław Cywiński also distinguishes the small top of Liliowa Kopka (about 1,975 m), separated by the Wyżnie Liliowe notch.

On the Slovak side the slopes of Beskid fall into the Tichá dolina, drained by the Tichý potok to the Váh; on the Polish side they descend into the Gąsienicowa valley, and a spur running down from the summit bounds the Kasprowy cirque, the upper floor of this valley. The state border runs across the summit.

How to get there / trails

Beskid is easy to reach and very popular: the busy red ridge trail from Kasprowy Wierch via the Liliowe pass to Świnica crosses the summit. According to Polish Wikipedia, the Kasprowy Wierch – Świnica section takes about 1 h 40 min (1 h 20 min back). Many visitors ride the cable car from Kuźnice up Kasprowy Wierch and take a short walk along the ridge to Liliowe — Beskid lies on exactly this stretch, about 600 m from Kasprowy Wierch.

From the Slovak side, a yellow trail climbs from Podbanské through the Tichá dolina to the Sucha Przełęcz (Suché sedlo), and the red ridge trail continues west via Kasprowy Wierch to Kondracka Kopa. From the Liliowe pass you can descend into the Gąsienicowa valley to the Murowaniec hut.

What you can see from the summit

The stony summit offers an all-round view. According to Slovak Wikipedia you can see many peaks of the Western and High Tatras — Goryczkowa Czuba, Kondracka Kopa, Małołączniak and Krzesanica to the west, Kriváň to the south, Świnica and Kozi Wierch to the east — as well as the surrounding valleys and the Polish foothills; in good conditions also part of the Low Tatras and the Orava Beskids.

Nature and history

Beskid is an indistinct summit built of pink granite (granodiorite) resting on sedimentary rocks. It belongs to the so-called Goryczkowa crystalline island — a group of granite peaks sitting on a limestone base; a group of limestone outcrops can be spotted among the dwarf pine at the foot of the northern slopes. The summit itself is stony, while its slopes are gentler and grassy. Heavy foot traffic has trampled the path into a broad track and badly damaged the vegetation. Among the plants rare in Poland is the mountain plantain (Plantago atrata, site confirmed in 2001).

The name is the singular of "Beskidy" (the Beskids). In 1934–1936 Eugeniusz Sieczka-Gąsienica built a private mountain hut at the foot of Beskid in the Gąsienicowa valley, but the opening of the Kasprowy Wierch cable car with its restaurant in 1936 drove him bankrupt. The remains of its walls, called "Gienek's Walls" by skiers and rescuers, were removed only in 2006.

Safety, season and rules

The summit lies in the Tatra National Park on both sides of the border — Poland's TPN and Slovakia's TANAP — and its south-western slopes also belong to the Tichá dolina national nature reserve. TPN charges an entry fee (tickets at the entry points or online), and you may walk only on marked trails. TANAP's high-mountain marked trails are closed from 1 November to 31 May, so the Slovak yellow trail through the Tichá dolina is not available then.

Despite the nearby cable car, this is high mountain terrain above 2,000 m: the ridge is exposed to the wind, fog and thunderstorms build quickly, and in winter the slopes of the Kasprowy cirque can be avalanche-prone. On the Polish side help comes from TOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300; on the Slovak side from HZS: 18 300 (+421 18 300). The general emergency number is 112.

Photos: Cybularny, CC0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Cybularny, CC0; Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0; Krzysztof Dudzik-Górnicki (User:ToSter), CC BY 3.0; Opioła Jerzy, CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons.