Karczmarza Gully is one of the largest and most dramatic couloirs in the entire Tatra Mountains — steep, raw and genuinely alpine in character. Plunging down the eastern face of the Gerlach massif towards Dlhé pleso Veľické (Long Velické Lake), it is a place that commands both admiration and respect.

Stretching around 800 metres in length, the gully is an impressive sight from below. Its lower section spreads up to 100 metres wide, gradually narrowing to just a few metres near the top. Even in summer, patches of snow and ice linger in its shadowed recesses, and the constant flow of rockfall has built up a massive scree cone at its base — one that is slowly but steadily burying the lake below. This is one of the very few truly alpine-style routes in the Tatras, unpredictable and demanding, with natural rockfall avalanches posing a serious hazard at all times.

• The starting point is the Velická valley on the Slovak side — follow the trail towards Dlhé pleso Veľické, from where the gully is clearly visible at the valley head.

• The gully is extremely dangerous due to spontaneous rockfall avalanches — entering the couloir itself is not recommended without alpine experience and proper equipment.
• Snow and ice may persist inside the gully even during summer months.
• The area falls within the Tatra National Park on the Slovak side.

The name has a colourful origin: according to a story recorded by Ivan Bohuš, the Zipser-German mountaineer Franz Dénes once caught a poacher — an innkeeper from a village at the foot of the Tatras — hiding in the gully, and named the previously unnamed couloir after him as a memento of the encounter.