Pilsko

Pilsko is a massive 1,557 m mountain on the Slovak–Polish border, the second-highest in the Orava Beskids (in Polish, the Żywiec Beskids) after Babia hora. The main summit lies entirely in Slovakia — in the Žilina Region, about 16 km north-west of Námestovo, in the cadastres of Námestovo, Mútne and Oravské Veselé. The border runs some 400 m to the north, over a lower top the Poles call Góra Pięciu Kopców (1,543 m); the northern slopes of the massif belong to the Polish village of Korbielów in the Silesian Voivodeship. Pilsko rises 200–300 m above its neighbours and about 1,000 m above the surrounding valleys.

The European Watershed runs along the massif's crest: streams from the northern, Polish side flow via the Glinna to the Vistula and the Baltic, while those from the western, southern and eastern slopes go to the Orava and on to the Black Sea. Pilsko's neighbours are Polanica to the west, Minčol to the south-west, Mechy (1,479 m) to the south and Huńców to the north. The mountain is built of flysch — alternating sandstones and claystones (Magura sandstones); the northern slopes, where ancient glaciers were more active, are steeper than the southern ones.

The summit dome is flat and broad, covered with grass, rock debris and clumps of natural dwarf pine. On the highest point the people of Mútne erected a field altar and a cross; every July the parish priest of Mútne celebrates Mass here. On the north-eastern slope of Góra Pięciu Kopców, by the yellow trail, stands a cross in memory of Border Defence Corps corporal Franciszek Basik, one of the first victims of the war, who fell here on 1 September 1939.

Getting there / trails

• From Slovakia marked trails lead to the summit from Oravské Veselé, from Sihelné, from Mútne via the Dudová junction, and along the ridge from the Hliny saddle (Polish Przełęcz Glinne).
• From Poland — several routes from Korbielów, mostly via Hala Miziowa, where a PTTK mountain hut stands at a trail junction at about 1,330 m.

In winter the northern slopes are one of Poland's biggest ski areas: the Pilsko resort in Korbielów is the highest-lying Polish ski centre after Kasprowy Wierch.

The view

The panorama is very wide: Babia hora and the neighbouring Beskids, the Silesian and Kysuce Beskids, the Krivánska Fatra, the Choč Mountains and the Tatras are especially clear. In good weather you can see the Martinské hole, the Low Tatras ridge, the northern Greater Fatra, the Moravian-Silesian Beskids, and in perfect visibility even the eastern Sudetes.

Name and history

The origin of the name is unclear. It is linked to the meadow of Pielsko, owned by a man named Piel, to «sawing» (a place where timber was cut), or to a legend about Orava highwaymen who gathered here to drink. Another theory says Pilsko is a distortion of the Slovak Poľsko (Poland). The name was first printed in 1721 by Father Gabriel Rzączyński, who is also regarded as the first recorded climber of the summit. In 1980 tragedy struck on Pilsko: a group of young athletes with their coach got lost in a blizzard and fog, and three boys died of hypothermia.

Nature

The massif is protected on both sides of the border: the Slovak reserve (1967, 809 ha) lies within the Horná Orava Protected Landscape Area, the Polish «Pilsko» reserve (1971, about 105 ha) within the Żywiec Landscape Park. Rare plants grow on the meadows, including Siberian chives and globeflower, and the dwarf pine shelters bilberry, alpine grasses and clubmosses.

Safety

The flat summit is disorienting in fog — the 1980 tragedy is a reminder that the weather here changes very quickly. On the Slovak side help comes from the Mountain Rescue Service (HZS): 18 300 (+421 18 300); on the Polish side from the Beskidy group of GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300; 112 works everywhere.

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