Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Celebrates Its New York Aviation Roots

"Our next aircraft-because it's New York State Aviation Day-is the Curtiss Model D Pusher, built right here in Hammondsport, New York," announced Jim Hare on that hot, August 12, 2012, day, as the yellow biplane taxied across the lightly wind-swept grass field beneath a canvas brushed with dabs of cumulous at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome.

Recounting his numerous contributions, Jim concluded, "Glenn Curtiss-New York State's aviation hero!"

Yet, it was on this day that the aerodrome showcased many of New York's aviation contributions, celebrating roots that ultimately became its own.

"The relevance of this weekend is to showcase that portion of our collection which pays homage to New York State," said Neill Herman, Old Rhinebeck's Air Show President. "From Lindbergh's famous transatlantic flight to the contributions of Curtiss, New York-being a big trade capital at the time-played a major role as a hub of aviation development. Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a focal point of tourism for New York State and we have a particular interest in showcasing New York's contributions."

Many of these "contributions," however, can be gleaned from the aircraft displayed in its museum buildings located across Norton Road from the airfield and up the hill.

The Thomas Model E Pusher, for instance, is one of them. Suspended from the ceiling of the Pioneer Building, this century-old design, sporting its fabric-covered sesqui biplane wings, dual-wheeled undercarriage, aft-mounted wooden propeller, and forward-protruding spruce skids appears as if it were making an approach to the movie set of Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.

Brainchild of W. T. Thomas, an Englishman who had emigrated to the US and established his own aircraft company in Bath, New York, with his brother, Oliver, it offers features that are traceable to those of Curtiss, with which he had initial experience in Hammondsport. Experimenting with his own Curtiss-like machine in 1908, W. T. Thomas produced the Model E Pusher during the winter of 1909 to 1910, and, piloted by Walter Johnson, it partook of exhibitions in 1911. A refined version appeared the following year, only a decade after the Wright Brothers had first flown at Kitty Hawk.

According to the sign under the aircraft in the Pioneer Building, "This aircraft is one of 12 manufactured by W. T. Thomas, Bath, New York. It was his second design and in November of 1912 an aircraft of this type established the two-place world's endurance record, flying for three hours, 52 minutes."

It hardly began that way.

"The Pusher was a gift from Owen Billman," said Jim Hare. "It was found in a barn up in central New York (and was once owned by pioneer pilot Earl Frits). The wings were being used to protect tomato plants from the cold."

Cole Palen, having been endowed with that elusively-defined ability to take the remaining atom of an airframe and transform it into a full-fledged flying machine, proceeded to do so with the Model E, repackaging scraps, parts, and pieces into a vehicle that would later take him aloft in his official "aircraft factory" normally designated a "living room."

But, part of that sixth sense hinged upon authenticity and nothing could have ensured it more than a personal visit with its builder, W. T. Thomas himself, who by then had been residing in Florida.

"He actually met Thomas in Florida and went down with Mike Lockhart, the first aerodrome kid here," continued Jim.

Beyond Cole's expectations, he was given access to Thomas's personal files, whose xeroxed copies enabled him to reproduce the airplane in Rhinebeck with redundant accuracy.

Yet, because of his insistence upon authenticity, the aircraft which took shape clearly reflected its Curtiss control-inspired lineage, itself powered by a 90-hp Curtiss OX-5 engine.

"(It was) an awkward machine to fly... because its controls did not follow the standard system," according to Gordon Bainbridge in his book, The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome (Exposition Press, 1977), and caused one "to reverse one's trained flight reflexes to control the ship." A wheel-mounted rocking post, for instance, actuated the dual-tailed rudders, while an aileron-connected seat enabled the pilot to bank. The throttle took the form of a foot pedal.

Although the wheel's forward and aft movement deflected the elevator and therefore provided the only semblance of conventional control, it resulted in "Cole confusion," according to Bainbridge, as he continually made the right inputs into the wrong controls and sustained two damage-producing, repair-requiring mishaps before he successfully surmounted the sky in another of his hand-to-air transformations.

After 15 minutes aloft, the Thomas Pusher announced its approach through the "throb of (its) laboring engine," again according to Bainbridge. "The sight was awe-inspiring as the sun danced momentarily on the great expanse of the biplane's varnished wings, and, as if etched against the clouds, the primitive craft... land(ed) like some huge predatory bird out of the past."

Although Cole had shared the construction and test flying process with his team of Palen Passion Followers, he had been particularly secretive about its purpose, which he initially only revealed as a flight from the aerodrome to New York.

The Candle Scent - Too Much - Too Little

When walking into the candle shop, generally the first thing that gets noticed, is the scent. For most people it's a wonderful blend of aromas that causes a pleasing sensation in the brain. For others who are sensitive with allergies, it can trigger an allergic reaction and their instinct is to stay away.

Humans have 7 primary odors that help them determine what it is they are smelling: Camphoric, Musky, Roses, Pepperminty, Ethereal, Pungent, Putrid. When your nose is working at its best, it can pick up the difference between 4,000 to 10,000 aromas. Our ability to smell pales in comparison to that of dogs and cats, who can smell up to 100 times more than humans.

We've all been around an older person who smells as if they've poured an entire bottle of cologne on them. As humans age, their ability to smell decreases, so apparently they cannot smell how strong it smells to someone younger. This may also account for why older people appear to be less interested in scented candles.

Our ability to smell helps keep us safe. You don't need to smell curdled milk many times, to know that it has gone bad and you should not drink it. When you smell smoke, the brain immediately sends a warning that something is wrong. Likewise, when you smell the scent of baked vanilla, your brain generally triggers a reaction that something good is cooking, and you'll be able to eat.

Smelling is like snowflakes. No 2 people smell the same aroma the same way. The scent of vanilla may smell sweeter to some people than others. According to neuropsychologist, Robert Bonkowski, the same person doesn't experience one smell the exact same way twice. Depending on a persons physiological condition, their ability to detect odors changes from day to day.

Not surprisingly, a female's sense of smell is keener than a man's sense of smell. It also varies depending on the level of estrogen in her body. The ability to smell peaks when she is most fertile and sexually responsive.

Agriculture in India

India is a land of agriculture. This is what we read in our geography books when we were children and this is what we say now, grown ups we are. Not that we have not progressed industrially in these forty years after independence. Form a nation that could not manufacture 'nuts and bolts' we have emerged out as a nation that can make and launch its own satellites. But primarily we remain agriculturists. Seventy five percentage of the people are connected with agriculture one way or other. And in terms of production we have some distinctions to be proud of. We are world's number one in the production of sugarcane and number two in rice. We are only next to China in tea and to Egypt in cotton. And again in groundnuts, we are number one.

But inside of so many firsts and second we are no where near self sufficiency in food. To feed the millions of our poor, who do not eat even two square meals a day, we import year after year, wheat from America, rice from Burma, sugar from Indonesia and cotton from Egypt. One reason that is beyond dispute is its multiplying mouths, though there are others that are not so obvious. Because of unscientific methods of preservation and bad storage conditions millions of tons of food stuffs are washed out in floods, if not spoiled by passage of time.

But it is our usual practice blame the poor farmer first, for his primitive methods of agriculture. With a small patch of land that will not permit a big tractor to manoeurve, without enough capital to buy costly implements, not even to buy fertilizers and pesticides, without perennial irrigational facilities how can he adopt himself to modern conditions? His ignorance, lack of education and heavy indebtedness keep him firmly rooted to a state of helplessness, while a huge revolution is taking place in front of his eyes. Which farmer loves to see his crops wither away for want of water? Or would not like to reap maximum harvests if he could help it with an added supply of manures? Whether we accept it or not, agriculture is an industry and like every other industry, it needs capital. The poor farmer with insufficient holdings can never hope to have it. There may be cooperative credit societies and rural banks. His ignorance prevents him form cutting across the red tape and get timely help. No wonder then, the average yield per acre remains the lowest in the world.

In India lies one of the most fertile areas of the world. The Indo - Gangetic plain, can easily become the food bowl of the world and feed it alone and completely. But, most of the water in its rivers drains off into the sea and in times of flood they inundate vast areas, killing cattle and people alike, destroying thousands of acres of standing crops, washing village after village and finally becoming the sorrow of the land. If we have a Bhakra Nangal project we do not know how to divide the water, to the satisfaction of every state concerned, than to follow the path of prudence and prosper. It is not very long ago, that an engineer had a grand vision of linking the Kaveri with the Ganga - which he called 'Ganga Kaveri Project' and proved with figures and calculation that it was feasible. But before it could gain popular approval, he lost his cabinet post and the scheme was thrown into a Waste Paper Box.

Today, we do not know whether we should go ahead with the construction of the Narmada Valley Project, which would perhaps convert vast arid zones into beautiful green belts. There are really big people, still arguing for and against it, even after spending millions of rupees on the project work. It is not water management that we should learn, but its distribution management. Andhra Pradesh was permitted till the end of the century to utilize the surplus waters of the Krishna that would at any rate drain off into the Bay of Bengal, but the Karnataka government would not allow it. Its million dollar argument is: "If you use it now, you will be tempted to use it tomorrow". This is the ultimate in regionalism. No wonder the people of Madras city languish in thirst for a drought of drinking water. Only a Bhagiratha should bring the Telugu Ganga to Madras.

More than 175 million acres are under cultivation now and there are nearly 60 million acres that can be brought under the plough. Even after the reclamation of these vast areas too, the country cannot achieve self sufficiency in food, as primitive methods are used. They may add another 30 million tons, which will not be sufficient to feed the increasing mouths. The rate of land reclamation cannot keep pace with the growth rate of population which is apprehended to double every forty years if remains unchecked.

Therefore the need of the hour is to have a new look at the entire structure. There are not many who own a minimum of 5 acres of land per family which any be sufficient to feed all the mouths it has. It will become a profitable venture if they adopt modern techniques, replacing the plough by the tractor, and turn to intensive cultivation. As a matter of fact, some of the people who own more than 5 acres of cultivable land have turned to modern methods of agriculture. They have their own tractors, wells and pump sets. But the vast majority of the farming community either own no land at all or own less than 5 acres. While they constitute 80% of the cultivating community, their holdings do not exceed 20% of cultivated land - which is to suggest their pursuits are most uneconomic. It is there that the government must come in with every possible help-can organize them into cooperatives and offer them high yielding seeds, fertilizers and other essential implements. When waste lands are reclaimed, these landless poor must be made to settle down with offers of minimum cultivable land, implements and other assistance. With a gift of 3/5 acre of land in addition to a small cash grant to every family to the landless poor, the Chinese were able to achieve a green revolution within a short span of five years.

Ascending New Hampshire's Mount Washington

1. Mount Washington:

If the White Mountains wore a crown, it would look like Mount Washington, the highest peak in New Hampshire, New England, and the northeast, cresting at 6,288 feet. Yet, the greater the obstacle, the greater seems to be its attraction, and it is this philosophy which has served as its magnet for hikers, skiers, and technology-tamers-that is, those who sought to surmount it by road and rail-all in the conquering spirit of "reaching the top."

Originally designated "Agiochooki"-the Indian word for "home of the Great Spirit," "the place of the spirit of the forest," and "the place of the storm spirit"-it was seen as the exalted domain of just such a deity, "Gitche Manitos," and any attempted ascent was therefore considered sacrilegious. Non-Native Americans, however, did not think so and did not hesitate to try.

Its obstacles were not to be underestimated. Surrounded by 5,372-foot Mount Monroe, 5,716-foot Mount Jefferson, and 5,533-foot Mount Clay, Mount Washington itself, a melange of metaphoric rock and characterized by ancient alpine glacier-carved ravines, lies at the center of three storm tracks in the Presidential Range and its prehistoric continental ice sheet covering left vegetation above its tree line only found in the near-arctic regions of Labrador. Its slopes are drained by several rivers, including the Ammonoosuc, the Dry, the Rocky Branch, the New, the Cutler, and the Peabody.

Below-zero temperatures on more than 65 days per year ensure summit permafrost, and hurricane wind velocities of at least 75 mph pound it on more than half of its winter days. Its lowest temperature was -49 degrees Fahrenheit and highest wind velocity 231 mph, as recorded at its summit on April 12, 1934.

Yet, none of this daunted summit-strivers. The initial path, so to speak, was forged in 1642 when Darby Field, aided by two Indian guides, made the first recorded climb, while the first scientific mission, the Belknap-Cutler Expedition, was conducted more than a century later, in 1784, when it was undertaken for the purpose of measurement and alpine plant collection.

Renamed Mount Washington after then-General George Washington, it was also the target of Colonel George Gibbs, a mineralogist, who cleared its first path in 1809, but made several successive climbs since then.

Forging their own summit-surmounting path a decade later, Abel and Ethan Allen Crawford, a father-and-son team, passed it to brother Thomas, who considerably improved it between 1838 and 1840 by widening it and rendering it suitable for horse negotiation. Although it has no current equestrian use, it remains as the Crawford Bridle Path and is maintained by the White Mountain National Forest.

Each "step up" brought those path blazers to new strata as the flora and fauna reflected the climactic conditions generated by their elevation-associated temperatures, which dip three degrees with every 1,000 feet, and wind and precipitation, which commensurably increase.

Between 2,000 and 2,500 feet, for example, hardwood forests-of American beech, sugar maple, yellow birch, white ash, white pine, red maple, red spruce, Eastern hemlock, and red oak-predominate, becoming spruce-fir forests, of balsam and red varieties, up to 4,000 feet.

As if malnourished, the balsam fir trees creating their own system become stunted at about 4,500 feet, yielding to the short transition, or Krummholz, zone, up to 4,800 feet, where twisted and slanted trees mark the end of the forest and the beginning of the alpine area. The latter, considered above the tree line, is no longer able to support tree growth because of its pounding rain, snow, fierce winds, and intolerable temperatures, and instead incubates robust, low-lying plants.

There are two significant plateaus above 5,000 feet: Bigelow Lawn, an alpine meadow with arctic sedges, and Alpine Meadow, abundant, as its name suggests, with alpine wildflowers.

The summit is a rocky, desolate, wind-swept moonscape whose view of the other Presidential Range peaks is awe-inspiring when the clouds allow it.

In order to take up the challenge imposing Mount Washington seems to propose, visitors have three principle means of doing so: by foot, road, or rail.

2. Foot:

Most of the challenges early ascenders had faced remain for modern-day hikers and climbers. Because of the mountain's weather severity and changeability, the season for either is relatively short, running from Memorial to Columbus Day, with often-encountered mud, snow, and ice after this time. Winter surmounts, fraught with the most frigid temperatures, highest winds, deepest snow accumulations, and the least amount of daylight, should only be attempted by the most fit, trained, experienced, and provisioned. Ravines expose climbers to potential avalanches and the summit is usually shrouded in cloud.

Indeed, a sign located at the mountain's approach warns, "Stop! The area ahead has the worst weather in America. Many have died there from exposure, even in the summer. Turn back now if the weather is bad. White Mountain National Forest."

Trails vary according to length, elevation gain, gradient, severity, and obstacle, and run the spectrum from short, low-elevation hikes to full, summit-surmounting climbs. Of the latter, there are several.

Yosemite Campgrounds

There are a number of Yosemite Campgrounds available, in and around the park. The National Forest Service offers over a dozen campgrounds near the park, in the Stanislaus, Sierra, and Inyo National forest. In addition, Yosemite offers a number of different campgrounds in the park, and there are many more privately owned campgrounds and RV parks close by.

Inside the park, there are thirteen different Yosemite Campgrounds. Some of these are open year round, others are seasonal. Seven can be reserved, others are available on a first come first serve basis. One of these that is open year round is the Upper Pines Campground, located in the Yosemite Valley. This is at 4,000 feet, with 238 different RV and camping site available. From March through November reservations are a must, during the off season they are available on a first come basis. This campground can accommodate RV's up to 35' and trailers up to 24.' There are no hook ups, but there is a dump station, as well as clean bathrooms near each of the campsites. Each site contains picnic tables, fire rings, and even a food locker. These lockers are designed to keep out the bears, and should always be used to store you related items. There is potable water available, as well as flush toilets. While there are no showers on the grounds, but groceries, showers and even a laundry mat is in the nearby Park Villages.

One of the privately owned Yosemite Campgrounds is the High Sierra RV, Mobile Park and Campground. This is a full service campground, and unlike those inside the park, has full hook ups available for RV's. This park sits right on the banks of the Fresno River, a seasonal river. It has a number of wonderful amenities, clean showers and bathrooms, WiFi, a laundry, gift and snack shop, and this park is completely pet friendly. They even offer a swimming hole and two waterfalls! In addition to close access to Yosemite National Park the Madera Wine Trail, Bass Lake, and many skiing opportunities are nearby.

Another one of the many Yosemite Campgrounds is the Summerdale Campground, in Sierra National Forest, just one and a half miles South of the Park's main entrance. This facility is offered by the Bureau of Land Management, has a single loop around the campgrounds, and is surrounded by Cedar, Cottonwood, and Fir trees. There is a large meadow in the middle of the loop. This is a more primitive campground, with just 28 different sites, and limited shade spots. Inside the grounds you have fire pits, grills and picnic tables. There are vault toilets, but these are regularly maintained. Outside the campground, more that a mile away, is shopping, dining, gas and groceries. Reservations are required, and there are strict rules about pets. No ATV's are allowed, or using firearms within the campgrounds.

Yosemite Pines is another great Yosemite campgrounds attraction. They have a number of full service RV sites, camping cabins, and quiet tent sites available. They are located just a thirty minute drive from the West entrance to the park. There are also many different on site amenities, from panning for gold, swimming, and even a zoo, featuring one of the areas most used creatures, the Alpaca. There is WiFi, laundry, hot showers and clean restrooms. From here you can book a number of different tours, rent bikes for their many nature trails, or even relax by the pool.

House Afloat on Pennsylvania's Raystown Lake

Located south of Huntingdon off of Route 26 and appearing like a splotch of blue cradled by the dark green hills which surround it, Raystown Lake is both Pennsylvania's largest man-made water body and the only one where houseboats can be rented.

Created between 1968 and 1978 by the US Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood control for the Susquehanna Valley, hydroelectricity, and recreation, the narrow, zigzag-shaped, 28-mile-long lake, emulating the Raystown branch of the Juniata River which feeds it, covers 8,300 acres and offers 118 miles of woodland shores.

Occupying land first discovered by Native Americans, it sports a significant, once-exposed archaeological site designated Sheep Rock Shelter, a sizable, overhanging ledge near the present-day Susquehannock

Campground originally used for tribe and animal protection.

Excavating the site before the reservoir was expanded during the 1960s, researchers from Juniata College and Pennsylvania State University unearthed a 6,000-year-old skull and bones from a Native American woman, along with knives, pottery, and spearheads.

The rolled earth-and-rock dam which created the lake, with a 1,550-foot base width, a 24-foot top width, a 1,700-foot length, and a 225-foot height, created what could be considered Pennsylvania's "crown jewel," enabling Allegheny Electric Cooperative's powerhouse to provide hydroelectricity to 8,500 homes and Huntingdon County to establish tourism as its second-largest industry after agriculture with more than two million annual visitors.

Although it has considerably evolved since its inauspicious beginnings as a collection of cottages for boaters, the area's shores and hills, because of US Army Corps of Engineers regulations restricting development, still sport their natural guise, wearing coats of thick trees and retaining the indigenous wildlife which depends upon them.

A Mecca for nature-lovers and sports enthusiasts today, it offers an array of leisure activities for both day and extended-stay visits, prerequisite to whose understanding and enjoyment is a look inside the Visitor Center perched on a ridge and affording pristine views of the azure lake it represents.

Dispensing information, directions, and brochures, it offers a glimpse of conditions 6,000 years ago through its interactive, paleontology exhibits, as well as interpretation through displays entitled "Building and Operating a Dam," "Raystown Bygone Days," and "Generating Electricity."

Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau and US Army Corps of Engineers Ranger and Reserve Staff offices are located on its lower level. Audiovisual presentations are given in its multi-purpose room and a gift shop sells drinks, snacks, books, and souvenirs just beyond the entrance.

Lake- and surrounding wilderness-related activities are numerous.

Swimming, for example, can be enjoyed at one of two Corps-managed beaches located within the Seven Points Recreation Area. The first, the appropriately named Seven Points Beach near lake mile marker 9 on its west side, is subdivided into a 200-by-600 foot buoyed area with a concrete bottom and a 100-by-150 foot one with a sand base primarily used by children. Its facilities include a shower and changing house, picnic tables, playground equipment, and the Lighthouse food concession. The Oak Picnic Shelter is located on a peninsula across from the beach.

The second swimming facility, Tatman Run Beach, is located on the lake's southern end and features a 200-by-700 foot buoyed area, along with a change house, a playground, picnic tables, grills, and a boat launch.

Boating itself can be done at any of seven Corps-managed launches-Snyder's Run, Aitch, James Creek, Tatman Run, Shy Beaver, Weaver Falls, and Seven Points-the latter of which, bordered by the Tuscey Mountain ridges and located off of Bay Drive, offers a paved, three-lane, 40-foot-wide boat launch with capacity for 119 trailered vehicles and a modular courtesy floating dock. There is neither a limitation on boat size nor horsepower on the lake, but there are no-wake zones to preclude disturbances of wildlife viewing and fishing.

Fishing itself can be accomplished at a variety of areas, including from rocky points, shallow bays, coves, and right in the middle of the lake from a boat, and might yield smallmouth, largemouth, or striped bass, muskie, walleye, crappie, stripers, perch, carp, brown trout, lake trout, or Atlantic salmon.

The Valley Nefcerka - A Time Travel To The Glacial Age In A Few Seconds?

The objective of this article is to draw attention to some of the most preserved parts of natural marvels not easily observable anywhere in the world. Dolina (or valley) Nefcerka is one of them.

An ongoing struggle of ecological activists currently takes place in order to prevent exploitation of surrounding valleys in the area of the Tatras Mountains (Slovakia), as various endeavors of wood industry companies press on government to get permission to carry away the fallen trees in the region of Koprova and Ticha valleys (affected by a windstorm), which have both a different status than other woods, as these lie in one of the most protected natural reservations in Central Europe.

Introduction

Many tourists visit Slovakia, the heart of Central Europe, even from distant overseas. One of the world's geographically youngest mountain range called the Tatras or the High Tatras (Vysoke Tatry) lies in the north of this small country. Many people use the term Tatra Mountains instead of Tatras, but in Slovak "Tatry" is plural. The etymology of this word is difficult to track. The Alexandrian geographer and astronomer Claudius Ptolemaios refers to this region in his geographical works as Carpathés. The word "Triti" or "Trtri" was first documented in the 10th century in a donation document of German King Henrich IV.

The High Tatras peaks are very dense and thus exceptionally attractive. In these mountains, you can make most of any touristic trips just in one day and see all the loveliness of natural scenery in the woods, around waterfalls, in the capricious weather, caves, rocks, or you can even listen to fairy-tales of a bird signing.

The history of these mountains started many million years ago within the Carpathian mountain ranges. Later, after this mass emerged from the Mesozoic ocean some 80 million years ago, the mountains started to be formed on the surface.

The Tatras can be divided to the Western Tatras, the High Tatras, and the Belianske Tatras. The Low Tatras, which is an independent range of mountains in a south direction from the above northern mass of the mountains, are not mentioned in this article. The northern Tatra mountain mass is on the border with Poland, but Slovakia has the bigger part of it. The deceased John Paul II loved going here as a priest before he became the Pope. The highest Tatras are the High Tatras, where the Gerlach Peak (Gerlachovsky stit, 2,655 meters above the sea level) is the highest point in Slovakia.

Matej Bel (1684 - 1723), a Slovak Lutheran pastor, one of the greatest scholars of the 18th century (Slovakia was under the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy's rule at that time) wrote a big work entitled Notitia Hungariae novae historico - geografica, which even crossed the borders of the then Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The work also contained national geography of the Tatras. Thus, some famous European scholars and other important personages visited these mountains, certainly inspired also by Jean Jacque Rousseau's ideas who appealed to teleology by way of the order which can be found in nature and its gifts. Some of these were Göran Wahlenberg (a Swedish naturalist), Robert Townson (English traveler), a French geologist Baltazar Hacquet, and many others.

The High Tatras had some mining history too. The first such activities started in the 15th century. Under the government of Matej Korvin (1458 - 1490), mining tunnels were built around the Krivan Peak, but even in spite of great expectations, the results were not so good. It is hard to say whether this was because of hard-manageable and inaccessible terrain, or because of small resources of gold. Even now, these tunnels can be visited, but ecological activists and workers of the Tatras National Park consider going there to be an illegal activity. It is even very dangerous, as bears can have their dens there and if someone finds courage, the only way to go into these tunnels is to use knees and hands as the only means of transportation.

The contemporary Tatras

At the moment, the High Tatras are under the protection of TANAP, which is the Tatras National Park (institutionally recognized in 1949). The High Tatras have always had good references for various treatments of lung and breathing diseases, as the weather conditions and overall nature with unique vegetation are extraordinarily healthy if people with breathing diseases spend here a few weeks.

In 1970, the World Ski Championship took place here and from till then rather a plain and simple place an attractive tourist home with cableways and good transportation developed all over the region.

The Tatras are real mountains and many tourists underestimate this fact. The climate can change any time with serious consequences. If you go up into the hills and the sun is shining, always expect that not only hailstones, but also real rocks may fall on your head in a few minutes. Albeit rocks do not fall every day on mountain tracks, a tragedy happened recently where rocks started falling from the wall above few tourists and six of them ended up in hospital. Tourists should never forget to put a wind-jacket in their packsacks and good shoes on their feet. Health insurance is an absolute option if you plan to undertake longer tours in the hills. This also pertains to Slovaks, because no normal medical service has abilities to climb up high in the rocks to take you out of the heights if your leg got broken. We have a special service for this. Some years ago, a calamity occurred in the High Tatras, as the wind was so strong that it literally cut off many trees from surface. Some wood industry companies want to take these fallen trees out of the woods even from the most protected areas.