Králický Sněžník

1,425 m above sea level — Králický Sněžník, the highest peak of the Śnieżnik Massif and of the whole Eastern Sudetes, sits squarely on the Polish–Czech border. Since 26 September 2022 a new steel viewing tower crowns the summit, built on the spot where a stone tower from the late 19th century once stood. It is the only mountain in the massif that rises above the treeline, so the higher you climb, the more the landscape opens into alpine meadow.

A European watershed

A few steps from the summit, in a Pleistocene snow-erosion hollow about 200 m below, the Morava — one of the largest rivers of the Czech Republic — has its source. The state border follows the European watershed here: streams on the Polish side drain to the Baltic, Czech streams to the Black Sea. The slopes are littered with block fields left behind by the ice age climate, and above 1,150 m a strict nature reserve of 192 ha, established as early as 1938, protects them.

A fashionable mountain

Tourism took off in 1838, when the mountain and its surroundings became the property of Princess Marianne of the Netherlands. The mountain hut on the Hala pod Śnieżnikiem meadow, commissioned by her in 1871, still welcomes hikers today. Between 1895 and 1899 the Glatz Mountain Society erected a 33.5 m stone tower named after Emperor Wilhelm I; it was blown up on 11 October 1973, and the steel tower of 2022 now stands in its place.

In practice

Trails to the summit start near Stronie Śląskie and Międzylesie on the Polish side, crossing mountain meadows and boulder fields; the Czech route climbs from Velká Morava. Above the treeline there is no shelter from the wind, so pack an extra layer whatever the forecast in the valley says. On exceptionally clear days the reward is real: in 2020 and 2021 photographers documented Austrian Alpine peaks roughly 290 km away — at the time a Polish record for long-distance observations. Pair the hike with a visit to the Bear Cave (Jaskinia Niedźwiedzia) in Kletno, where cave bear skeletons lie in the rock niches.