The Five Toughest Trails in Hungary

Don't let Hungary's mild landscape fool you: this little country has more than enough rough terrains and several crazy trail challenges to give even the most experienced trail runners and endurance hikers a run for their money. To show that we're really not playing around, here are five of the hardest trail challenges that Hungary has to offer.

This is a subjective list. It can be pretty problematic to be objective about the difficulty of trails: the particular weather conditions of each year and the participants' personal strengths and preferences can account for a lot of differences in opinion. I put together this list based on my own experiences and rather than just listing the five longest trails, I tried to highlight some events from different categories that gained reputation throughout the years. If you feel that this list sorely misses some events, please let me know, I plan to make a follow-up list with your suggestions.

5. Börzsöny éjszakai (Börzsöny Night Hike) - 47 km | 2595 m+ | 15h

Organized for more than 20 years in the Börzsöny mountains at the beginning of February, this hike does not kid around. Starting in the evening, participants have to battle the usually harsh weather conditions during nighttime. Deep snow, freezing temperatures, and violently flowing streams are to be expected at this challenge. But even if you happen to be really lucky and the weather is merciful, you still have to take on the almost 2600 metre positive altitude change as you conquer 8-900 metre high peaks one after another at this crazy roundabout.

4. Mátrabérc / Mátrabérc Trail - 55.8 km | 2880 m+ | 13h / 10h

Nearing its 30th anniversary, this hike is a real classic. At this 56 kilometre challenge participants have to cross the Mátra mountains from east to west on its main ridge, which is considered to be one of the most technical and difficult trails in the country. For a few years now, a trail running alternative has been organized next to the classic endurance hike, but even before that, this trail had been perhaps the most important event for the best trail runners in Hungary. Whether you just want to try yourself at one of the most rewarding Hungarian trail challenges or compete with the best of the best, this is definitely an event you cannot miss.

What’s up with trails in Hungary? Are they hikes or running races?

In Western Europe and America the era of trail events was brought about by the advent of trail running, so it is natural that in most parts of the world trail enthusiasts are mainly used to trail running races when it comes to trails. Of course, at most trail events it’s not just about the competition: for most people it’s all about finishing the race, and with the usual time limits you don’t have to be a great runner to finish. And the longer the races are, the lower the required speed is, and the more hikers they attract. In Hungary, however, the history of trails started quite differently.

Let there be hike

It all started a bit more than 30 years ago with an organized hike called Kinizsi 100, where the

Hikers at Kinizsi 100

participants had to walk 100 kilometres from Budapest to Tata in 24 hours. With the required speed of just a bit more than 4 km/h it was aimed at hikers, but because of the length it was still a serious challenge. The hike became popular (and legendary) quickly and it was soon followed by other, usually 40-60 kilometre hikes, with a time limit of 10-14 hours. And thus, organized endurance hiking was born in Hungary. With each year, more and more events like this popped up, sometimes pretty different from each other, but still having some common properties. Today, there are several hundred endurance hikes all over the country each year.

Endurance hikes are not races: everybody who finishes in the given time limit is an equal finisher. The time limits are usually set for 4 km/h speed. At the start, participants get a pamphlet with some information about the route and during the hike they have to go through checkpoints where they get stamps as proof that they followed the required path. If you get to the finish with all the stamps in your pamphlet under the time limit, you usually get a diploma and a badge to commemorate your success.

Hikes had a good run, but...

Runners at Terep 100 (Ultraspire Trail Hundred)

The hikers participating in these endurance events were of course a diverse community: some were slower and some started running as much as the logistics of the hikes allowed them to. As the size of this group of elite hikers and runners grew, the need arose for tougher and faster trails where they didn’t have to worry about arriving too early to a checkpoint. This prompted the beginning of some trail running races, sometimes organized simultaneously with an endurance hike and sometimes organized as standalone events. At first, these events were mostly attended by the faster segment of the hiking community, but after a while as the international profile of trail running grew, they started to attract more and more asphalt runners and other newcomers to the world of trails. This growth in the past few years gave way to more independent trail running races and also prompted a lot of endurance hike organizers to make their events more runner-friendly.

Trail running races are usually organized with professional timing (they mostly use sportident), participants have to wear race tags and finish the given route faster (generally 6 km/h at least) to be recognized as finishers. Registration for trail running races usually costs more than for hikes but these events offer a more runner-friendly experience with frequent refreshment points and easy-to-follow, well-marked routes. Some trail running races also expect their participants to carry some mandatory gear, which is not typical at endurance hikes. Besides these, clear-cut race rules and detailed finisher lists also favour those who are more into the competitive side of trails.

You can run, but you cannot... okay, you can hike as well

Thanks to this special evolution of Hungarian trails, today, there’s a huge and diverse selection of

Hikers at Mátrabérc

events. Although we have these two main categories, our trail events are really a continuum with some more traditional hikes or running races, but with also a lot of endurance hikes where you are free to run as fast as you can, and some trail running races where you can be a finisher without ever having to run.

One thing is for certain: if you have a free weekend in Hungary that you’d like to spend actively in nature, you will certainly have a lot of options, whether you’re looking to have a light stroll or a fast-paced run.

Getting Started - The Most Important Resources for Trails in Hungary

In this post I tried to gather the most important resources that can help those who would like to venture into the world of Hungarian organized hiking and trail running. The following few sites should be more than enough to get started.

Calendars

Endurance hiking calendar (Teljesítménytúra naptár)

The endurance hiking calendar

The Hungarian Endurance Hiking Association's (TTT) event calendar will soon become the bible of anyone who likes to spend their weekends participating in hikes all over the country. Besides the printed version, which is available for ordering and in some trekking shops, you can find most of the calendar (the events of the next few months) online as well. You can search among the hikes by region (régió) or by keywords in the name or the route of the event (érintve/túranév). Although the whole site is in Hungarian the use of pictograms help a lot in obtaining the most important information about the
events.

Trail running race calendar (Terepfutás versenynaptár)

Terepfutás.hu, the organizer of most of Hungary's serious trail running races collected every other trail event in the country that meet some criteria (professional timing, strict race rules, etc.). Most of these can be found in the TTT calendar as well, but it is still a very handy calendar especially for those who are more interested in the competitive side of trails.

Maps

Map on Turistautak.hu

Turistautak.hu

An online map service that features a well-updated database of hiking paths in Hungary. You can view maps by choosing a region in the drop-down list titled 'térképek'. There are also some options to make measurements and itineraries, but the online platform is quite buggy and hard to use. However, you can download any map from the site under Google Earth or to your GPS device, where it works splendidly.

OpenMaps.eu

An alternative to turistautak.hu also featuring maps of some of the neighbouring central european countries, this map service can be ideal for those who would also like to visit other close countries for their weekend excursions.

Weather

While you can surely get information on Hungarian weather from a lot of different international weather portals, for the most reliable and up-to-date weather information it might be useful to check out the best Hungarian portals as well such as időkép, köpönyeg and met.hu.

Forums

Endurance hiking facebook group

Although one should be able to get enough information on the hikes and routes from the sites above, sometimes it can help a lot to connect with the hiker and runner community and get answers for your particular questions that might arise when you are preparing for an event. While these forums and facebook groups are all in Hungarian, you can find active communities at all of these places and there are a lot of people who speak English and who are more than glad to help foreign buddies come and take part in their beloved events.

Endurance hiking: index forum and facebook group

Trail running: index forum and faceboook group

Hungary - A Country of Trails

In the eyes of most foreigners Hungary is not the place to visit for hiking, trail running, trekking or extreme adventures. Sure, there are some beautiful cities that are worth a visit and the braver might even venture into the countryside to take in the mild scenery and maybe go on a brief excursion.

Mátrabérc Trail - photo by Szaszafoto

But not a lot of people know that Hungary has a blooming hiker culture that has been growing for more than a hundred years and that in the past 30 years countless organized hikes and trail events popped up ranging from easy to extreme, among which anybody can find a suitable challenge.

In this blog I will attempt to present a compact and comprehensible guide for those who would like to venture into the world of Hungarian trail challenges providing useful information about events, regions and Hungarian hiking in general.

I hope some people will find this blog useful and we will see more and more foreign faces in the Hungarian forests!