PTTK Mountain Hostel on the Okraj Pass

People have lived on the Okraj Pass, at 1,046 m above sea level, for more than three hundred years – the first huts were put up in 1690 by exiled Habsburg officers. Today's PTTK hostel is a timber complex from 1975, right next to the road border crossing into the Czech Republic, on the edge of Karkonosze National Park. Several trails meet here, including the red and blue routes to Śnieżka, the highest peak of the Giant Mountains.

History: customs men, sledges and the border

The officers who built the first huts worked as loggers and cattle farmers. In the second half of the 18th century the border between Prussia and the Habsburg monarchy ran across the pass, and one of the huts housed customs officers. The first proper hostel was founded in the early 19th century by Karol Nalega, a Prussian veteran of the Napoleonic Wars. He popularised rides on horned sledges, the traditional mountain sleds of the region – the first run was 7 km long and led from the pass down to Kowary.

In 1922 a brick building, the Schlesische Grenzbaude, with the "Storchennest" youth hostel, was built on the Silesian side. It survived the war but was demolished in 1964 to make way for the border crossing. After 1945 the old inn reopened as the "Na rubieży" hostel, later renamed "Muflonik". In 1975 a PTTK lodge with 28 beds went up on the site of the brick building, and today's hostel combines it with the former inn.

The hostel today

The complex has two buildings: a house with the reception and the lodge with the sleeping quarters. According to the hostel's website there are 40 beds in rooms for 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 people, including new double and triple rooms with en-suite bathrooms; in the others, showers and toilets are shared on the lowest floor. The kitchen serves home-cooked lunches, and there is a fire pit for barbecues and a fireplace room with a kettle and fridge. The current tenants have run the hostel since 1 October 2013.

Tripto tip

The pass lies between the Kowary Ridge and the Lasocki Ridge and can be reached by car. Parking at the hostel is paid – according to its website PLN 15 per car for the whole stay. On foot from Kowary the blue trail takes about 2.5 hours uphill (about 2 hours down), and from Równia pod Śnieżką along the Friendship Road (red trail) it is 10 km, also about 2.5 hours. There is a viewpoint next to the building. Okraj makes a good base for Śnieżka from the east; the address is Przełęcz Okraj 1, Kowary.