Borsuk

Borsuk (also Borsuczy; Slovak Borsukov vrch) is a 991 m summit on the Bieszczady border ridge, crossed by the state border between Poland and Slovakia. In the Slovak scheme it belongs to the Bukovské vrchy (Bukovce subunit), part of the Poloniny. It lies between Čelo (1159 m) to the west and Čierťaž (1071 m) to the east. The Polish slope belongs to Cisna commune in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, the Slovak one to Zboj in Snina District. The nearest settlements are Nová Sedlica (about 6 km) and Zboj (7 km) in Slovakia and Wetlina (7 km) in Poland.

Water from the south-western slopes drains via the Zbojský potok into the Ulička and on to the Uzh (Danube basin); from the eastern and northern slopes the Beskidnik stream flows into the Górna Solinka and the Wetlina, i.e. the Vistula basin. The European main watershed follows the ridge here.

How to get there / trails

• The Slovak red East Carpathian Trail crosses the summit: from the west from Sedlo pod Ďurkovcom via Jarabá skala, from the south-east from the Kremenec tripoint via Čierťaž.
• On the Polish side the blue trail Wielka Rawka – Riaba Skała follows the border.
• From Nová Sedlica you can climb by the green trail via Čierťaž or the yellow trail via Jarabá skala.

The view from the top

The summit is covered by continuous forest, so there is no panorama. Only from occasional spots can you glimpse the neighbouring peaks of the Bukovské vrchy, the nearest Polish Bieszczady and the Ukrainian Carpathians.

Nature

The Slovak part of the summit lies in Poloniny National Park and the Borsukov vrch nature reserve of the same name, the Polish part in Bieszczady National Park. The reserve was declared in 2015 on the initiative of the forest-protection group VLK; it covers almost 147 hectares under the highest, fifth degree of protection, with no human intervention at all. It links two older reserves, Stužica and Jarabá skala, and forms part of the core zone of the UNESCO site «Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe» (Stužica – Bukovské vrchy component); the Carpathian beech forests were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007. Protected habitats include beech and fir-beech forests, sycamore-beech mountain forests and lime-maple scree forests. Animals for which the reserve was created include the yellow-bellied toad, Carpathian newt, hazel grouse, white-backed and black woodpeckers, Ural owl, northern birch mouse, European bison, wolf, lynx, brown bear and the Rosalia longicorn beetle.

The area is also part of the trilateral «East Carpathians» international biosphere reserve shared by Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Safety, season and rules

In the reserves you may walk on marked trails only. Entry to Bieszczady National Park is paid. Bears and wolves live here — stay on the trail and do not leave food behind. Rescue: in Poland GOPR (985 or +48 601 100 300), in Slovakia HZS (18 300 or +421 18 300); emergency number 112.

Photos: Jiří Komárek, CC BY-SA 4.0; CaptainClawHE, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jiří Komárek, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.