The Great Cold Valley is 7 km long valley, very attractive for tourists. Behind its narrow beginning the valley gets wider. Several terraces in its upper part mask the most mountain-lakes (22!) in the High Tatras. In the south it is surrounded by a huge crotch of the Slavkovský Peak, in the northeast by the ridge of the Prostredný Hrot (Middle Peak) and finally in its back-end by the main ridge if the High Tatras.
Blue marked tourist path enters the valley above the Ranierova Chalet (refreshment, information center, a small exposition of mountain climbing and Tatras´ porters). Above the zone of forest and knee-timber the path ascends up to the Zbojnícka Chata (Zbojnícka Chalet) passing the Vareškovo and the Dlhé pleso (Long Mountain-lake).
At the chalet ends the path (marked yellow) coming from the Malá Studená Dolina (Small Cold Valley) through the Priečne Saddle. From the chalet the path continues steeply (blue mark) to the mountain-saddle Prielom, passing the Zbojnícke Mountain-lakes. From the saddle you can follow the blue marked path down to the Bielovodská dolina (Whitewater Valley), or through the saddle Poľský Hrebeň (Polish Comb) (green marked path) down to the Velická dolina (Velická Valley). The both paths are secured with chains.
STARTING POINT: Starý Smokovec (Old Smokovec) - green, red and yellow marked tourist paths; Tatranská Lesná - yellow and blue marked tourist paths; tourist center Hrebienok - red and blue marked tourist paths.
