Studená dolina - Huncovská kotlina

Starting with Tatranská Lesná and yellow route through beautiful forest, path alongside river until a couple of waterfalls in the valley (Vodopády Studeného potoka) and Rainerova chata. Nice forest dirt path, really chill and can take the views in at ease. At some point this got more and more busy because another route connected in and a lot of people are coming to see the waterfalls.

Change to green snakey route to Zamkovského chata which is about another hour. Many people and many rocks made it almost like a walking tetris but we managed. At Zamkovského chata we had a Kofola on tap but they also had a lot of very nice foods. OBS: can only pay in cash here. In general, there are free toilets and a restaurant in chata, you can get the Slovak desert and lots of other foods, local souvenirs and path stamps. And of course stay overnight if needed (there were dorms. Truthfully this section was very busy with a lot of people and it felt a bit stressful so after resting we moved on.

The green route would continue to Téryho chata from here onwards.

Continuing with red route, walked past Lomnicky hrb. (1605m) a nice viewpoint and calmer route, a little over an hour to Skalnatá chata and another 10min to cable car station and Skalnaté pleso. Touristy, but can pay with card and get coffee/beer and beautiful view of Lomnický štit and Skalnatá dolina.

Took continuous red route past the observatory and up towards Vel’ká Svišt’ovka (2038m). Interesting section, first part going up inclined on dirt/rock path, then side traverse on big rocky area, some loose and wobbly rocks, good to use large boulders for hand stability, some wind-down paths in between to rest (this was quite fun!). After crossing large rock formations and first tiny river the rock section will change to rocky meadow and turn hard left to Huncovská kotlina, absolutely stunning area. The incline will pause for some 15-20minutes before continuing last stretch upwards. The marking gets sparse and hard to see, inclined rocky section starts, you can see the peak right above you(but not the markings?). It got a bit confusing with signs and we started losing daytime and decided to return back. It was about 20more minutes to the top… hoping to come back again next time. There were a small group of Chamois just above us.

Return to Skalnaté pleso took 1 hour and it felt very much okay, good pacing and a bit more confident with rocks, certainly faster by 25minutes on the way back. Afterwards we took green route down to Tatranska lomnica. One hour until Štart was very exhausting and hard on the knees, essentially 600meters descent on a terrible pebble/sand terrain, was super annoying and just really a struggle. After Štart continued on a paved asphalt route for MBT, much easier to walk on but yet another hour to the city center. Overall 21km hike with stunning views, definitely interested in Vel’ka Svištovka which appears slightly easier from this side.