Pilsko

Pilsko is the second highest mountain of the Żywiec Beskids (Oravské Beskydy in Slovakia) mountain range, near the border between Poland and Slovakia. It rises to an altitude of and is a hiking destination in summer and a skiing area in winter. The name Pilsko is frequently used not only to describe the main peak, which lies in Slovakia, but also the whole range. The mountain lies not only on the border between the two nations, it also marks the European Watershed.

== Etymology == Origins of the name of Pilsko are not known, it might have been named after an 18th-century owner of local meadows, named Piela. There are several other theories, scholar A. Siemionow claims that Pilsko is a distorted, Slovak version of the word Poland. The name first appears in 1721 in the Historia naturalis curiosa Regni Poloniae, Magni Ducatus Litvaniae, annexarumque provinciarum, in tractatus XX divisa, written by Gabriel Rzączyński, who also was first reported man to climb the mountain.