e led the ascent to Velke Solisko directly along the Solisko ridge from Chata pod Soliskom. With used cable car from Strbske pleso to the cottage. It runs from 8:30 in the morning, we arrived up at about 9. The way up takes about 20 minutes, starting at 9:20.
Predne Solisko – 2 093 above the sea level
The first goal is Predne Solisko. It is accessible by red marked path from the cottage. The road to the double peak is comfortable and wide. The large cross up on the peak (easily visible from the valley) is welcoming us. We look further at the route. It is still visible. We are leaving climbing gear still in backpack.
Marked route from the cottage to Predne Solisko
Mlynicke Solisko – 2 301 above the sea level
From Predne Solisko we walk a little lower to Soliskovy hrb and up to Mlynicke Solisko through easy terrain. The path goes mainly on the side of Furkotska valley. This is good spot for putting on the harnesses and tie the ropes.
The descent is first on boulders, then on a grassy slope still from the side of Furkotska valley. We get to a section of the ridge called Nizka lavka.
Ascent route to Mlynicke Solisko
Strbske Solisko – 2 302 above the sea level
From the Nizka lavka we climb the footpath to Strbske Solisko. The terrain is still easy. We only ensure safety by throwing a rope against the stones.
Descent from Strbske Solisko
Furkotske Solisko – 2 320 above the sea level
From the Seda lavka we climb to the top of Furkotske Solisko. The terrain becomes more difficult, so hands must be involved. Descent to the Vysoka lavka is through large stone blocks with places covered with grass.
Climb to the top of Furkotske Solisko
Descent from Furkotske Solisko by stone blocks
Male Solisko – 2 330 above the sea level
From the Vysoka lavka we continue on the side of Furkotska Valley. It´s more difficult terrain compared to Mlynicke or Strbske Solisko.
When we descended into the Soliskov strbina , we did not used a easy line, but we passed. There are slings you can abseil from. From the bottom we see a simpler line through the stone channel from the side of the Mlynicka dolina.
Just below the peak of Male Solisko, ascent on the left side
View of Male Solisko from Soliskova strbina, we walked along the red arrow, but it was not easy
View from Male Solisko
Tower of Predne Solisko- 2 342 above the sea level
We lead the ascent to the Predne Solisko Tower along grassy rocky steps on the side of Furkotska valley. At the bottom of the ascent we will bypass a distinctive rocky column. In front of us we see a distinctive top of the second tower on top with a large red sling. We cross a short peak and on the other side, to the Nizna Soliskova strbina, we decide to abseil. From our direction slings from abseil are behing the back, so it´s easy to miss them. It is possible to descent without abseil, but it is unnecessarily difficult. This is exactly what the other team is doing.
Ascent to the Tower of Predne Solisko. We walked around a rock column and then ascent on rocks
Tower of Zadne Solisko – 2 350 above the sea level
To Nizna Soliskova strbina we abseil on a mini saddle between the towers. From the top, we saw three options to move on, directly or bypass the tower from one side or the other. We decide to climb the Tower of Zadne Solisko right up from where we abseil. This is probably the hardest passage of the whole climb. However, the difficulty does not exceed IV (UIAA) even now (we have been in hiking boots all climb). You can get here from Furkotska valley too. First we make a short detour from the left under the tower and then start to ascent from the side of the valley. At the top we go around the red sting, which we have seen earlier from distance and continue to short peak.
Descend from here is quite different. In a place with bout four slings and old piton we decide to abseil. On our opinion it was the fastest way down the road. We decided to drop the whole 30 meters to the side of Furkotska valley on a grassy rocky slope.
View from the tower of Predne Solisko to the tower of Zadne Solisko, we climbed a red line (another option is to first take a detour from the left), then descend to the grassy slope and easy to go up
Prostredne Solisko – 2 400 above the sea level
On a grassy rocky slope, we walk through easy terrain under Soliskove Hrby towards Prostredne Solisko. The end of ascent is again climbing terrain. We are still on the side of the Furkotska valley.
We descend towards Solisko bridge and the last section of climb is in from of us.
Climb to Prostredne Solisko through a easy grassy – rocky terrain
Velke Solisko – 2 412 above the sea level
We get to the Soliskova lavka from the right side. There is one difficult step while desdending a big rock, when you don’t see your feet for a while. At the top of Velke Solisko follow the ridge and at the end from the right side from Mlynicka dolina to stone blocks. At the top we are about 15:40. It takes about 6:20 to get here from the cable car tied in pairs with occasional using of slings and other safety gear.
We did not want to continue anymore, so we went down to Furkotska valley.
Velke Solisko, climb on right side
Descend
We descend through the first Couloir after the Velke Solisko before saddle Predny Soliskovy zarez. The way down is a combination of grass, stones and rubble. Below we join the yellow tourist trail leading to the cottage Pod Soliskom and then to Strbske pleso. There you can get either a combination of yellow + red through Furkotska valley, which is much nicer at the bottom than the stony fields below the ridge, or yellow + blue around the cottage and under cable car. It took us about 3 hours to reach the Strbske pleso from the top.
View from Velke Solisko further to the ridge, we decided to turn red line to yellow mark to Furkotska valley
CONCLUSION
Very nice ridge climb. Difficulty does not exceed IV UIAA in the most difficult places, at least they are not too exposed. Orientation is quite simple. On light grassy slopes there is often a hint of a path or rock cairns. Climbing passages always have a clearly visible line, in case of doubts, just keep on the ridge. At more difficult parts around the towers and Male Solisko, there is enough material to abseil.
The ridge is usually passed opposite direction from the saddle Bystra lavka or from Bystre sedlo. This variant is nicely described in the article goat.cz. We have views on both sides. On the other hand, the ridge of Satan rises above the Mlynicka dolina valley, you can read about its passage in our next article.
Take enough water and food to climb. Be sure to take the rope as well. When you no longer want to belay or going solo you can always abseil hard places. There are quite a few couloirs leading from the ridge down, although not all of them are easy. Therefore in case of bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances, it is always possible to descend quite quickly to the valley.
