The Gerlach expedition’2004.

4.45 a.m. - I’m standing on the road and waiting for the Guide who is coming in his car. He is a cool man. Otherwise, I would have to go on foot for two hours in the middle of the night to get to the Sliezky House at 5.30 - a shelterhouse from which everybody starts the trip up Gerlach.

5.30 - our team is already complete: John from Yorkshire, Paul from Manchester, Kevin from London, Thomas from Brodnica (that’s me) and Vinco from Poprad - our Mountain Guide. With a cup of morning coffee we watch the amazing sunrise in the Kwetnicowa Valley.
 

6.00 - ready, steady, go! In front of us orange shaft of lights are beautifully illuminating the mass of Gerlach. The sky ideally dark blue but it can be treacherous - the weather in the mountains changes very fast. Vinco says that yesterday it was snowing on the top and it was under 0 degrees Celsius! But we are ready for everything. From the shelterhouse other groups are also setting off.
 

7.00 - soon there will be chains. Vinco gives us safety belts and joins us by the alpinistic line - now we are responsible for each other ("If one falls - everyone falls")

Upwards you can be a little bit puffed. Everybody was silent so I wanted to sing something, but my friends protested. "Can I croon?" - I thought but I didn’t ask because English version of Shrek is different from ours
 

The weather was great. Gerlach was gracious for us. Vinco said that the Guide is specially necessary when the weather suddenly changes – then Gerlach becomes dangerous.

"What language are you talking in?" - Kevin asked after half an hour when he tried to guess how it is that I’m Polish and Vinco is Slovak and we are talking to each other quite easily. So I explained to him that our languages are very similar and, by the way, I tried to teach him a pronunciation of "W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" ("In Szczebrzeszyn the beetle is buzzing in the reed" - Szczebrzeszyn is a small Polish village). He gave up but he was heroic - I must say.

10.00 - THE TOP - it was just wonderful