The slopes are covered with beech and spruce forests, above which there is a belt of sub-alpine meadows called polonyna in Ukrainian.

Some sources offer a Hungarian word for a 'snow fortress' as the origin, however this claim lacks logical evidence.

In 1880 the first tourist route between the peak of Hoverla and Krasny Luh was marked by Leopold Wajgel of the Galician Tatra Society.

Some routes are classified as 1A in the winter period (from late autumn to May), according to the Soviet grading system.

[2] The most popular approach to the summit starts from the tour-basa Zarosliak on the mountain's eastern face and gains more than 1,100 m (3,600 ft) elevation along a steep path with few hairpin turns.