Ornak is one of the peaks along a long mountain ridge in the Western Tatras, separating the upper part of the Kościeliska Valley from the Chochołowska Valley. It's a great pick for hikers wanting sweeping views and a quieter trail away from the busier Tatra classics.

The flat, grassy and partly rocky summit of Ornak offers open views into both neighboring valleys. These slopes once buzzed with shepherd life — today they're covered in meadows, dwarf mountain pine and patches of forest, with the old pastoral days surviving only in place names still marked on maps, like Skrajna Wolarnia or Wielki Rohacz. In summer the ridge offers gentle, open terrain and real quiet, while in autumn the slopes take on reddish hues from clumps of rush grass.

How to get to the summit

• Iwaniacka Przełęcz (pass) — green trail, about 2:20 h up, 1:55 h back down, moderate difficulty

Practical information

• The trail continues along the entire Ornak ridge, over Siwa Przełęcz and Siwe Turnie, all the way to the Liliowy Karb pass — a good option for a longer ridge traverse
• Ornak sits alongside three other summits on the same ridge: Suchy Wierch Ornaczański, Zadni Ornak, and Kotłowa Czuba

Worth knowing: dwarf mountain pine is slowly but steadily reclaiming Ornak's slopes — so if you want to catch these open, pastoral-style views, it's best not to wait too long before the landscape changes for good.