Zakopane is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As of 2017 its population was 27,266. Zakopane is a centre of Goral culture and is often referred to as "the winter capital of Poland". It is a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing, and tourism.
The Tatra Mountains, Tatras, are a series of mountains within the Western Carpathians that form a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. They are the highest mountains in the Carpathians. The Tatras are distinct from the Low Tatras, a separate Slovak mountain range further south.
Rysy is a mountain in the crest of the High Tatras, eastern part of the Tatra Mountains, lying on the border between Poland and Slovakia. Rysy has three summits: the middle at 2,501 m (8,205 ft); the north-western at 2,500 m (8,202 ft); and the south-eastern at 2,473 m (8,114 ft). The north-western summit is the highest point of Poland and belongs to the Crown of Polish Mountains; the other two summits are on the Slovak side of the border.
Gerlachovský štít, informally referred to as Gerlach, is the highest peak in the High Tatras, in Slovakia, and in the Carpathian Mountains. Its elevation is usually listed at 2654.4 m above mean sea level. The mountain features a vertical rise of approximately 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above the valley floor.
The Western Tatras are mountains in the Tatras, part of the Carpathian Mountains, located on the Polish-Slovak border. The mountains border the High Tatras in the east, Podtatranská kotlina in the south, Choč Mountains in the west and Rów Podtatrzański in the north. The main ridge is 37 kilometers long and the mountain range contains 31 two-thousanders.
The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains, are a mountain range along the border of northern Slovakia in the Prešov Region, and southern Poland in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. They are a range of the Tatra Mountains chain.
The Gorals, also anglicized as the Highlanders and historically also as Vlachs, are an ethnographic group primarily found in their traditional area of southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic, where they are known as the Silesian Gorals. There is also a significant Goral diaspora in the area of Bukovina in western Ukraine and in northern Romania, as well as in Chicago, the seat of the Polish Highlanders Alliance of North America.
Tatra National Park is a national park located in the Tatra Mountains in Tatra County, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship in central-southern Poland. The park is headquartered in the town of Zakopane.
Morskie Oko, or Eye of the Sea in English, is the largest and fourth-deepest lake in the Tatra Mountains, in southern Poland. It is located deep within the Tatra National Park in the Rybi Potok Valley, of the High Tatras mountain range at the base of the Mięguszowiecki Summits, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. In 2014, The Wall Street Journal recognized the lake as one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world.
Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna is a limestone cave system in Mount Małołączniak in the Western Tatra Mountains, of the Carpathian Mountains System, in southern Poland. The cave is within Tatra National Park.
Łysa Góra, translated as Bald Mountain, is a well-known hill in Świętokrzyskie Mountains, Poland. With a height of 595 metres (1,952 ft), it is the second highest point in that range. On its slopes and atop its summit are several hiking trails, the ruins of a pagan wall from 9th century, the Benedictine monastery from the 11th century, and the Święty Krzyż TV Tower. The mountain also features prominently in a local legend about witches' sabbaths.
Mariusz Zaruski was a brigadier-general in the Polish Army, a pioneer of Polish sports yachting, an outstanding climber of the winter and caves of Tatra Mountains. He was a photographer, painter, poet and writer, a seamen and traveler, a conspirator, legionnaire and lancer in Polish cavalry.
Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue is a non-profit mountain rescue organization in Poland, rescuing stranded mountain climbers, tourists, and others in need of rescue in the Polish Tatra mountains. It is one of the oldest mountain rescue associations in the world.
Sabała or Sablik was a Goral amateur musician, storyteller and folk singer active in or around the Tatra Mountains. A friend to many renowned Polish artists of the late 19th century, he is featured in numerous Polish works of art of the epoch.
Crown of Polish Mountains – a list of 28 peaks one per each of the mountain ranges of Poland. It was suggested by geographer, traveller and writer Marek Więckowski and Dr. Wojciech Lewandowski in the tourism and local lore magazine Know Your Country. The list was on December 12, 1997 at a meeting convened by the editors of Know Your Country and at the same time the Club of the Conquerors of the Crown of Polish Mountains was inaugurated.
The Kościeliska is a valley in Poland, in Tatra Mountains, Western Tatras, Poland. It stretches from the village of Kiry, about 9 km, right up to the main ridge of the Tatras. Halfway up is the Ornak mountain refuge, built in 1948. Is reached by road from Zakopane - 7 km.
Klemens "Klimek" Bachleda was a pioneering Polish mountain guide and mountain rescuer in Austria-Hungary. He died during an unsuccessful mountain rescue attempt in the High Tatras.
The 2003 Tatra Mountains avalanche was an avalanche that occurred on 28 January 2003, sweeping away nine out of a thirteen-member group heading to the summit of Rysy in the Tatra Mountains. The participants of the trip were students from the Leon Kruczkowski High School in Tychy and individuals associated with the school's sports club Pion.
Wanda Anna Gentil-Tippenhauer Widigierowa, aka Ruda Wanda (1899-1965) was a Polish painter, a passionate skier and a Tatra Mountains devotee.
