...or even one of the most beautiful sunrises. This is exactly how the sunrise is marked on Velky Choč in the Chočské vrchy with an altitude of 1611 meters.
Today we are moving a little further from the Ostredok hotel. Specifically, to Valaská Dubová, from where we leave at 2:30 in the morning from the parking lot to Choč. Estimated sunrise is at 4:50, so we have exactly 2 hours and 20 minutes to climb. Put on the headlamps, turn on the lights and off we go! Every minute of delay is paid with an increased level of stress that we will arrive late to the east.
I will tell you honestly that I thought about this type of tourism a lot beforehand. The idea that we would enter a dark forest in the darkest darkness, where the only light would be from a small headlamp, scared me enough. But the reality was completely different. It was enough to choose a nice and sunny weekend day, a cloudless night, and it is guaranteed that you will not be alone on this route. And now I don't mean the animal inhabitants of the forest. And so about 20 of us hiked to Choč at sunrise.
As for the journey through the dark forest, I have nothing to say. Probably just that you have to be very careful about the signs, because it can easily happen that you go off the road. It is ideal to take at least one person with you who has performed at Choč before, but with an increased level of attention you can do it even for the first time.
As for the route, we climb the blue sign up to the Stredná Poľana signpost, then join the red - winter road. Somewhere at this moment, it slowly starts to lighten up and we pick up the pace to catch the sunrise from the summit. We still have a path along the chains, which we end by crossing a rhombus.
We arrive at the top at exactly 4:30, the sky turns orange, we find a place where we will sit for the next hour and watch the slow but absolutely beautiful sunrise. Since it is 0 degrees (in a word, ZERO) on Choča, we change into dry clothes, layer up, wrap ourselves in a blanket, drink warm tea and wait for the world to wake up.
The sun is slowly rising in the sky and we don't want to tear ourselves away from this heavenly theater at all. However, increasing time and decreasing strength convinced us to stand up and slowly start descending at 6:05.
At 7:35 we arrive at the cars and we are all looking forward to catching up on our sleep deficit. However, we leave with the most beautiful feeling of fatigue and satisfaction that we saw a beautiful sunrise. We recommend it to every single person in the world.
Length: 11 km
Meters boarded: 947
Duration of ascent and descent (without watching the sunrise): 3 hours 30 minutes
Difficulty: I recommend it to everyone, but the climbing time should be adjusted to the individual's abilities
