Continuous traverse all along the Main Ridge of the Tatras is defined as the longest climbing route in these mountains. Depending on a variant, it is about 75 or more than 80 km (50 mi) long and its the highest climbing difficulty is estimated between IV and VI UIAA grade. During the last two climbing summer seasons in the Tatra Mts. a few long-distance traverses of the Main Ridge of first-rate importance were realized (solo on the knife-edge of Andrzej Marcisz in 2015, probably the fastest team crossing of Artur Paszczak and Adam Pieprzycki in 2016, semi-alpine style traverse of Tadeusz Grzegorzewski in 2016). This prompts us to try to analyse and clarify criteria which may be useful in describing and classifying traverses of the Main Ridge of the Tatras and of its combination with sections of the main ridge of the Belianske Tatra Mts. The achievements of great predecessors have set standards of style. The examples of the historical and contemporary traverses have been mentioned, solely focusing on their sportive aspects (for instance, the first winter full traverse of Andrzej Zawada team in 1959, record fast soloings of Krzysztof Żurek and Władysław Cywiński in 1975, the first winter solo of Pavel Pochylý in 1979, or winter traverse of Michal Sabovčík and Adam Kadlečík in 2013). Considering the criteria of topography, the fallowing four factors have been analysed: 1) limit points of the Main Ridge of the Tatras (the course of the ridge still arouses controversy among the Polish and the Slovak geographers); 2) quantum of topographical objects of the ridge; 3) a traverse line vs. the knife-edge of the ridge; 4) a direction of the traverse vs. difficulties of climbing. In the domain of the tactical and logistic criteria have been analysed six elements: 1) solo climbing (including incomplete soloing); 2) team ascents of sum-mits; 3) reconnaissance; 4) climbing protection; 5) provisioning; 6) accommodations. In sum, transition time is the subsidiary measure in the evaluation of a climbing exploit on the Main Ridge of the Tatras. In fact, it is the result of topographical, tactical and logistic elements, and first of all of the weather conditions. They are an objective factor, which makes it impossible to compare individual traverses. Unfortunately, time is nowadays the most important and often the only measure of a „record”, which is comprehensible for a wider audience, who are unaware of the challenges of the Main Ridge of the Tatras. This study of the problem is based on published descriptions and accounts.