Palenica (Żywiec Beskids)

Palenica (Slovak Polanica or Brts) is a summit about 1,340 m high in the Pilsko group of the Żywiec Beskids (in Slovakia this part of the mountains is called the Orava Beskids). It lies on the main ridge between Trzy Kopce (1,216 m) and the Cudzichowa pass (about 1,300 m), beyond which rises Szczawinka, also called Munczolik (1,356 m). According to Polish Wikipedia, Palenica is one of the ten highest peaks of the Polish Beskids. The Polish–Slovak border and the Great European Watershed cross it: the northern slopes fall to the Sopotnia valley (Baltic basin), the southern ones to the Slovak Mutnianka stream in the Biela Orava basin (Black Sea).

The Polish slopes belong to the village of Sopotnia Wielka (Jeleśnia commune, Żywiec County, Silesian Voivodeship), the Slovak ones to Mútne in Námestovo District; the Slovak part lies in the Horná Orava Protected Landscape Area.

How to get there / trails

The red Main Beskid Trail crosses the summit on its section from the hut on Hala Rysianka via Trzy Kopce and Palenica to Hala Miziowa below Pilsko; a Slovak border ridge trail also runs along the frontier. According to Slovak Wikipedia, you can reach the top on the red trail from the west (from Rysianka via Trzy Kopce) or from the east (from the Hliny saddle past the Pilsko hut), and on the blue trail along the main ridge from the Mútňanské sedlo via Trzy Kopce.

Nature and history

On the eastern slopes running down to the Cudzichowa pass there is a large pasture: its Polish part is called Cudzichowa, the Slovak part, Kruszetnicka Polana, is already overgrown with young forest. The summit itself is covered with continuous, partly sparse forest, so the view is very limited; from the surrounding clearings you can see the Orava, Kysuce, Silesian and Żywiec Beskids, the Malá Fatra, the Oravská Magura and the Low Tatras.

The original name of the summit was Szyproń; Andrzej Komoniecki gives the form Syfron in his Żywiec chronicle. Later the mountain was known as Polanica after the large clearing on its top, and cartographers distorted this to "Palenica".

Hala Cudzichowa

The Cudzichowa clearing on the eastern and northern slopes of Palenica, in the saddle below Munczolik, is one of the largest pastures ("hala") of the Żywiec Beskids. Its name comes from the surname Cudzik, borne in the 18th century by an inhabitant of Sopotnia Wielka, probably one of the first owners; earlier it was called Hala Martoszowa. The pasture once covered about 110 ha and belonged to farmers from Sopotnia: sheep grazed on the Polish side, oxen from Orava on the Slovak side. Kazimierz Sosnowski's interwar guide mentions 500 sheep, a wooden trembita about 4 m long and sheep's cheese from the shepherds' hut.

The clearing lies in the upper montane forest belt. In spring crocuses flower here, in summer willow gentian; wet spots hold mountain fens with the rare Siberian chives and Swertia perennis – in the Polish Carpathians this fen type is known only here and on the neighbouring Hala Cebulowa and Hala Miziowa. Capercaillie and adders occur. The clearing lies in the Żywiec Landscape Park and Natura 2000 sites; to stop it from overgrowing, active protection has been carried out since 2007 – removing young trees and mowing the dock.

Safety, season and rules

The ridge is accessible all year and has no difficult sections, but in winter deep snow lies here, and in fog you should follow the waymarks closely on the wooded ridge. The border runs over the summit; Poland and Slovakia are in the Schengen Area, so crossing on marked trails is allowed, but carry an identity document. On the Polish side help comes from GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300, on the Slovak side from HZS: 18 300 (+421 18 300); the general emergency number is 112.

Photos: Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons.