My hotel – the Grandhotel Praha (think Grand Budapest Hotel in its heyday) was in Tatranská Lomnica, I needed to get to Starý Smokovec, a short way along the High Tatras range. Fortunately there is a most excellent mountain railway here. The Tatra Electric Railway runs for 35 incredibly picturesque kilometres along the base of the mountains, my journey would take just 14 minutes. 14 minutes of peaceful gliding through pine trees heavily laden with snow, and with occasional glimpses of peaks that reach over 2,500 metres. Starý Smokovec is a three-way junction where trains continue along the line to Štrbské Pleso and down to Poprad where there’s a convenient international airport.

The Starý Smokovec–Hrebienok funicular first opened in December 1908. In under five inutes it carries passengers up 247 metres to the small collection of buildings at Hrebienok. This was the start of my winter walk, which began with a steep descent to Bilikova hut. Thanks to others having travelled these paths before I the snow beneath my feet was compacted and my shoes could adequately grip the pure white surface. Beyond the hut all signs of human life disappeared, just the narrow trail that wound alongside short cliffs and into the forest. 

Armed with my map app and a quiet determination I plunged into a wintery world where pointy peaks sat silently with snow sitting thickly on their shoulders. In places the snow sat almost half a metre deep and seemed to blanket out all sounds apart from a small river struggling beneath ice far below. This was an easy hike of just 3.5km and a height gain/loss of 145m. The lower section is, thanks to the narrowness and occasional steep inclines, slightly challenging, but not so challenging that I couldn’t look up and take in the stupendous mountain views. Above the peaks grey cloud sat, below the forests more cloud rested without moving, between those two layers of cloud the world was as pretty as a postcard and, in the far distance, I could see the busy cable cars of Tatranská Lomnica’s ski slopes.

A very short diversion from the path took me to Rainerova chata, the oldest hut in the Tatras. It squats low and huddles up against a shallow slope, its dark interior has welcome visitors since 1863. Serving food, drinks and basic accommodation it would have been a lovely place to stop awhile but, alas, I had to hurry on to catch one of the half-hourly funiculars. 

There’s a museum dedicated to the horský šerpa back down in Starý Smokovec which was sadly closed when I visited. I had made it back to Hrebienok in just enough time to catch the funicular back down to that pretty town. Glancing up at the white and wild mountain world one last time, I boarded the funicular and wondered why I hadn’t discovered winter hiking in the mountains before.