Suitable for: beginners and advanced hikers
Hike length: 3.4 km
Elevation: 303 m
Total hiking time (round trip): 3 hrs.
Accessibility SUMMER / WINTER: open during periods without winter clousure ( 01.06. - 31.10 .)
A mountain guide is required ( except for marked trail )
Marked trail: red trail from Sliezsky Dom (Tatra Magistrala)
Immerse yourself in the silence of Batizovská Valley
Get to know the real High Tatras - no noise and no trace of man, in a beautiful wild valley just a few scores of minutes from Sliezsky Dom Hotel. Enjoy the enchanting views during a three-hour walk in one of the most peaceful Tatra valleys, which even a beginner hiker can manage.
Batizovské Tarn (1,884 m) is at the foot of Gerlach Peak in Batizovská Valley. It is 3.5 ha in size and 12 m deep. The Batizovský Brook flows out of the lake.
Access is from Sliezsky Dom along the Tatra Magistrala, following the red sign.
Kamzíky pod Gerlachom
Take a pleasant walk from Velicka to Batizovská Valley. Don't forget to bring your binoculars or at least a camera. As you walk around the Gerlach Peak massif from the Sliezsky Dom from east to west, you can see a beautiful view of the Poprad Basin and also our four-legged neighbours, the chamois that graze on the slopes of the Gerlach Mountains. Be quiet, though - they fearlessly walk up to our hotel in winter.
A granite-paved trail with a red marker leads you under the Gerlach Basin. In the Batizovská Valley, you might run into a mountain guide with the daredevils returning from a climb to the top of Gerlach.
The Extraordinary Church
The Tatras are full of extraordinary rocks and peaks. Kostolík (2,261 m) is a pointed peak in the middle of the Batizovská Valley, which resembles a gothic temple. It was formed by the action of a glacier that once surrounded it. Such rock features are called numamites and are rare.
Enjoy the view of this popular but sometimes dangerous climbing spot. One of the climbing routes was fatal in 1933 for the well-known Tatra climber Wieslaw Stanislawski, who was found dead below Kostolík together with his fellow climber Wojnar. The cause of their death is still unknown, but one version says that it was an unfortunate accident. Apparently, they managed to make the first ascent the hard way, but while changing at the top, Stanislawski's foot slipped, and unfortunately, they both fell. When Stanislawski was found, he was wearing only one shoe.
The giant’s anvil on Končistá
Končistá (2,537 m) is the seventh-highest peak in the Tatra Mountains. A strangely shaped stone thrones dramatically on its summit. It has several names - Kovadlina, Konská hlava, Nákova. A well-known Tatra legend says that this nákova was owned by a giant who wanted to crush the Tatras with it - supposedly because they rivalled him in height.
From Batizovská Valley, you can see the eastern wall of Končiste, which is 400 m high. It is said that the top of Končiste is one of the most beautiful viewpoints in the Tatras. Climb it with our mountain guides.
A tarn filled with streams
Batizovské Tarn is the most beautiful part of Batizovská Valley. The name of the tarn and the valley is derived from the village of Batizovce, which lies on the foothills of the Tatras and was founded by Komes Batizov as early as the 13th century.
Batizovské Tarn is the bigger brother of "our" Velické Tarn. It is up to 9 m deep (twice as deep as Velické) and covers 3.5 hectares. Walk around its shore to the 11 m high rock threshold that closes its way out of the valley. Only the cascades of the Batizovské waterfalls flow down it.
Interestingly, the tarn has no permanent visible tributary. It is filled by small brooks flowing under the granite boulders. It is so wonderfully quiet here that you will undoubtedly hear the brooks.
