Surviving the Orla Perć Trail: A First-Timer's Guide to Hiking the Most Dangerous Trail in Tatras
I dedicate this post to Dominik Socha, the original daredevil who back in 2019
inspired me to hike Orla Perć myself. Rest In Peace brother.
In this post I would like to share my personal experience from a 5-day stay in Zakopane - a resort town in southern Poland, at the base of the Tatras Mountains. You might find this post especially useful if you’re thinking of hiking Orla Perć yourself, or any other extremely technical trail. Consider this as a short and to-the-point guide by someone who’s done it, and nearly died doing it. (more about that later)
Maybe you've never heard of Orla Perć trail, yet feel intrigued? You're in the right place.
Throughout the expedition I documented everything, and made two videos. Feel free to watch both of them to learn more about what went wrong and what should you expect. Consider this post as a supplementary information to the videos I made.
Side note: This post was originally written in July of 2020 and published on my older website which no longer exist. Consider this as an up-to-date post with some minor adjustments and improvements.
“Orla Perć is a tourist path in the Tatra Mountains in southern Poland. It is considered one of most difficult and dangerous public paths in the entire Tatras and is therefore a suitable route only for experienced climbers.”
The first time I heard about Orla Perć was from a video by mountaineer / Youtuber Dominik Socha, and, right away, it got my full attention. Ever since leaving London and moving back to my home country Lithuania I was looking for adventure and risk, so no surprise I landed on Dominik’s video after about 10-minutes of googling.
After watching the video I couldn’t believe that such trail existed just some thousand kilometres away in my neighbouring country Poland. Since I was back in Lithuania, this seemed so accessible, and after couple of hours of thinking about it, I made a decision to hike the trail myself, from start to finish.
I didn’t know when or how (or anything) at that moment, but I knew I would do it. I had to. It excited and pulled me to do it. Couple months went by, and me, with 3 other friends were on our way towards Zakopane.
We stayed at Camping Pod Krokwią and slept in our tents. It’s a great campsite right by the side of the mountains, super affordable and would highly recommend. (especially if you’re looking for something cheap) It has showers, toilets, open kitchen with pretty much anything you would need. It also offers huts/ apartments if you're not a fan of camping in a tent.
After around 15 hours of driving we reached the campsite in the early morning hours and the first day we spent resting, exploring Zakopane and summiting our first local tourist peak in late afternoon. We were excited.
The next day we left early (at around 5am) and headed towards Zawrat - the official starting point of Orla Perć Trail.
Since the beginning of this trip I tried to do my best when planning the route, places to stay, routes to take, but little did I know what would be waiting for us. You cannot plan the unexpected.
We had about 15-kilometre hike before we reached Zawrat. Those 15k (15 to the Zawrat and 15 back total) were the most beautiful so far in my life. Absolutely amazing.
If you would like to know the exact route we took feel free to explore my Strava recording below. A word of warning: depending on where you stay, I highly advise to buy a local Tatra Routes map and search for your best routes. Use our route only as a guide! Having a map and knowing where you are on any mountain range is essential and can save your life.
So… we had no map, and because of that on our way back we got lost (took the wrong route back) and got caught in the middle of a lightning storm. Yes, a fucking lightning storm! If you would like to see how that went, again I suggest watching Surviving A Storm in Tatras During My First Mountain Experience video and learn from our mistakes. 🤦♂️
After our failed first attempt, the following day (day three) we focused on rest and recovery. With a single minded focus to complete the trail, we changed our approach and the following day we attacked the trail from the other side of the mountain. It was our 4th day in Zakopane and our last attempt to hike the trail before the weather turned.
Unfortunately I do not have Strava recording from that day, but in all ended up being another 30-kilometre hike both ways with elevation gain that made my legs go numb.
We parked our car at a place called Parking TPN, Palenica Białczańska. From here we hiked around 15k towards Zawrat, once again, with a singular goal of completing Orla Perć Trail. We knew it would be out last chance this time.
I did not record as much this time except hiking the OPT itself, which you can see below. I filmed the whole hike using a GoPro attached on my forehead. The whole hike took us around 6 hours to complete, with plenty of stopping and embracing the views though, so in the video I'm only including the best bits.
For me hiking OPT was life-changing, although I didn't realise it back then. At the time it was sure exciting, and I felt a strong pull towards the mountains. I was hooked. Almost 5 years later (as of writing this paragraph) when I look back I realise that hiking OPT planted the seed which grew into running ultras all around the world, creating a youtube channel and making adventure a huge part of my life.
Before I answer some of the most asked questions from this expedition, let’s go through some final images from the trip.
Q&A
Disclaimer: The information below is just an opinion, not a professional advice or precise guide. I’m not a professional mountain climber and do not pretend to be one. All the information provided is from my very limited experience and knowledge in the mountains.
What is the best time to attempt Orla Perć? Summer or late summer. We came a little early just to avoid people and found pockets of snow. As we were not prepared for snow, I would rather choose people than snow anytime. With that said, people climb Orla Perć during winters. It all depends on your experience and equipment.
Where did you stay in Zakopane? All depending on your budget, you can find many great places to stay in Zakopane. With our limited budget and wanting to sleep in our tents, we ended up staying at Camping Pod Krokwią. This place is designed for camping and has water, showers, open kitchen, toilets.
What should I wear for Orla Perć? None of us were really prepared and that didn’t help. After the storm all of our heavy clothes were soaked and became (even more) heavy in our backpacks. (I even had a laptop with me to back-up the footage) Invest in some quality base layers, wind breakers and most importantly - shoes. You don’t want to be slipping around on 3000 meter exposed ledges. With all that said don't let the lack of specific gear (or lack of money) to hold you back. Borrow, buy used or like I was - just use what you already have.
How much water should I take for Orla Perć? Water is heavy and you don’t need much of it at first. You will be able to re-fill in a lot of places from melting snow, but, make sure you have at least 1,5 liters before you start Orla Perć in Zawrat because there’s not much water up throughout Orla Perć Trail itself. (as you will be literally hiking through the peaks)
Do I need a harness, ropes or any other equipment for Orla Perć? The short answer is no and that’s why Orla Perć is so attractive for so many. We had no equipment and no climbing experience. On the other hand, we were lucky, because if we were to arrive just a couple weeks earlier, there would be too much snow to safely hike without crampons and ropes.
Do I have to be an experienced climber to hike Orla Perć? No. We had no mountain or climbing experience. Just make sure you avoid storms.
When should you leave the basecamp for Orla Perć? As early as possible. Remember that you will need to hike about 15 kilometers to Zawrat before you even begin the trail, and rise to 2000+ meters in elevation. It takes time.
What if I’m afraid of heights? This is no place to hike if you’re afraid of heights, but not to worry. Tatras are vast offering plenty of other amazing hikes. I do believe you can train yourself to overcome the fear of heights and the best place to start is with easier hikes.
Have any additional questions? Feel free to get in touch via IG or FB.
