60.03 Slovakia: Sedlo Ostravo Popranska, a testing hike and day.

From a walk in the village, we view the peak on the right, the objective of this hike.

As we continue to deal with the 'heatwave' in Europe, we find ourselves becoming cold and wet on the trails. Go Figure! (Robyn L)
You can almost feel the heat. Fortunately, it's a 'dry heat' as people living in hot areas outside Florida are inclined to say.
...but worth the views. The hotel is over an hour ascent from the trailhead and it's a further hour to the destination peak.
  The weather is always a popular topic of conversation, particularly at the extremes. Europe and the USA seem to be suffering under severe heat waves. During the week prior to departing from San Diego, it was awfully hot, particularly away from the narrow coastal strip that is usually ideal. People warned us that we would be traveling from the 'frying pan into the fire'. We suppose it’s a clumsy analogy but then we are not that deft with words. We arrived in Prague, Czechia to a warm welcome but with weather that surprised us to the cool side. Maybe we weren’t in Europe after all. Then we headed east toward our destination where we will remain for twenty-five days, our first stop being in Bratislava, Slovakia, for an hour. It was warm but as that was not our ultimate destination, it made no difference. 

  Four hours later, we arrived in the village of Strba. It’s a cool town in location, atmosphere and weather. On our first hiking day, we wore winter clothes and got soaked by rain (this blog). The following day we enjoyed sunshine but cold winds. On the next day, we had light rain and very cool temperatures, once again wearing winter clothing. We are expecting more of the same, maybe worse, over the next couple of days. We checked the calendar carefully to ensure we had not mixed up the summer and winter periods. To the people who thought we’d be hiking in heat, kindly think of sending us a couple of sweaters, please. We have Maude Alge sending replacement baggage following the snapping of a handle which we mentioned recently. I like blue and Jen hates yellow; kindly bear that in mind. 

  This text began about the heat waves being experienced in Europe while we are shivering somewhere in Europe. It proves that you cannot believe everything you hear or read. More wisdom flowing. Heck, we’ve hit a hotspot so to speak. Here’s an idea. You want to get out of the heat this summer. Join us in Slovakia. By the way, should you not mind, kindly bring along a few sweaters for us…size medium for both and remember the color issue for Jen. 

The target as we get closer and then came the heavier rain, the rocks were slippery and reluctantly, we turned back. Nice excuse, or 'bangbroeke'.
A brief break in the weather on our return.
Each step has to be careful. In fact, Jen hurt her back without even knowing the cause or where it occurred.
A rock slide area. We just struggled to avoid slipping on the wet rocks.
On slower days, we tend to count the trees. Unfortunately, after reaching 2.1 million, I lost count and gave up. Another quitter action on the day.
Jen makes her way in the earlier part of the trail but always over rocks and stones. Far from ideal.

Had the weather been better, this is the sight we would have experienced.

When we were a little younger (and braver) in surprisingly good weather. (2019)

Cheers, 

Jenni and Jeffrey

Hmm!