Pilsko, Mountain peak at Polish-Slovak border

Pilsko is a broad, flat-topped summit in the Żywiec-Orava Beskids, reaching 1,557 m on the Slovak side. Its dome is built of Magura sandstone and covered with patches of dwarf pine, grass and rock rubble. The Polish-Slovak border and the Baltic-Black Sea watershed run about 400 m north across the lower Góra Pięciu Kopców (1,543 m).

The name Pilsko was first printed in 1721 by Father Gabriel Rzączyński in his Historia Naturalis Curiosa Regni Poloniae; he is also the first recorded climber of the summit. On 1 September 1939, soldier Basik died on the northeastern slope of Góra Pięciu Kopców, where a cross now stands.

The name Pilsko may derive from the 18th-century meadow name Pielsko, from the surname Piela, or from a term for sawing wood; a folk tale links it to Orava robbers drinking at the summit. On the Slovak summit, villagers from Mutne set a field altar and cross, and a priest from Mutne celebrates mass there each July.

The summit can be reached from the town of Korbielów via marked hiking trails that lead to a mountain hut at 1,330 meters. Come prepared with weather-appropriate gear, as conditions change quickly at this elevation.

On the northeastern slope of Góra Pięciu Kopców, beside the yellow trail, a cross marks soldier Basik, killed there on 1 September 1939, one of the first victims of the September campaign. The summit dome is flat and broad, built of Magura sandstone, and in poor visibility it is easy to lose orientation: in winter 1980 a school sports group got lost in fog and three pupils died of exhaustion.