Foreword
The Rozsutce region of Malá Fatra is a real paradise for nature-lovers. One can find several different sorts of natural attractions in a small area. Alpine meadows, pine forests, canyons and rocky peaks can be put on the shoestring of a one-day wandering.
Although I've been here several times before, my children weren't with me that times. It was an old dream of mine to visit this area with my family and this summer finally this dream came true.
We were staying in the camping of
Nizne Kamence which became a perfect place for families with smaller kids in the recent years.
The route
From Biely Potok through Dolné diery to Podžiar, and further through Horné diery to sedlo Medzirozsutce along the blue marks. From the sedlo up to Malý Rozsutec and down to Biely Potok along the green marks.
From Biely Potok to Podžiar
After the surprise of being charged by 50SKK (when I was here last time there weren’t any parking fees) we parked the car at Hotel Diery in Biely Potok. We took our backpacks and started to follow the blue marks. The sun was shining and I hoped it will have remain the same all day long.
We walked some 15 minutes and crossed the stream several times when we reached the mouth of Dolné diery, which is maybe the most imposant gorge of the area. It is narrow, between two high, vertical walls. The track is carved to the rock, and later there is an iron „sidewalk” beside the stream.
Due to the poor lighting conditions it is hard to take a good photo of this part but there are several videos on
youtube.com, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYVpT4Pe8ls
We shortly reached the point called „Ostrvné”, where the path towards Nové diery (another nice gorge, yellow marks) deviates to the left. We continued our way. The upper part of Dolné diery is not so impressive as the first part, but it is still beautiful, and diverse. There are iron ladders, bridges so everything that makes a hike interesting for children. I knew, that we are really on the start of our hike yet, and it will be too long for my 3 years old son to walk all the way, so I started to carry him on my neck where the terrain wasn’t too hard.
From Podžiar to sedlo Medzirozsutce
About an hour after departing we reached the meadow of Podžiar. We had a rest, ate something and proceeded to Horné diery. This gorge is harder than the one before as it is much longer and there are several ladders, and slippery passages in it. The kids however, really enjoyed it. They only got bored after the end of the gorge when the saddle (and the promised long pause at there:) didn’t want to arrive. Finally we reached the field called „Pod Tanečnicou” which is a few hundred meters before the pass but had a nice view of our destination, the peak of Malý Rozsutec. This second part took around one and a half hour of walk.
![My kids and me at the foot of Maly Rozsutec]()
We settled down and started to eat, when the rain started to spit. We decided to postpone our rest and reach the Medzirozsutce saddle as soon as possible, because there was a rain shelter. It was near, only ten more minutes or so. The rain stopped and started again and the air seemed to be unstable, the clouds sinking and rising so we waited for a while with the hope of the better weather. I played cards with my daughter, my son found some blueberry on the bushes.
From Medzirozsutce through Malý Rozsutec to Biely Potok.
Finally the rain has stopped and we set off again. This time we followed the green marks. The path ascended gently until the foot of the cliffs of the summit. There came the hardest part of the day (or at least I thought this at the moment): some easy scrambling with the aid of chains. (Unfortunately we were busy on looking after the kids so I didn’t make any photos of this part.) We reached the summit soon, but the clouds sank such low that we hadn’t seen anything of the surrounding scene. We only take a short pause and started to descend.
I thought that the hard part are over, we only have to walk. How wrong I was. The descend on the western side of Malý Rozsutec is much harder than the ascent on th other side. There are no metallic aids, but the terrain is hard: slippery, muddy pebbles with no grips around. I was really proud of my daughter who managed to go down without problems, and probably my wife thought the same of me as I was carrying my son on my neck again.
Later the terrain became more friendly, and the path winded through nice forests to the houses of Podrozsutec where we took a glance to our summit and the kids named it „The Nose Mountain” after is shape. From there we went on a gentle grassy ridge, reached a forest again, and finally got back to the car at Biely Potok.
The kids were exhausted but when I said them that they can choose any sweets at the shop they would like to have they instantly forgot their weariness. We drove back to the camping, and everyone consumed the well deserved desserts: chocolates for the children and dark Slovakian ale for the adults. I summarized with satisfaction that our kids grew up for this kind of hikes.
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