Skiing in KARPACZ

The Śnieżka ski complex is - next to Szrenica - one of two places on the Polish side of the Karkonosze Mountains, where you can seriously go skiing. Karpacz is a paradise for skiers, but not only because it is worth visiting.

Before tourists and skiers came here,Karpaczwas populated by pilgrims. They wandered to the highest peakKarkonosze- Śnieżka, to the St. Lawrence. Summer vacationers appeared behind the pilgrims, and local guides began to lead them into the mountains upon request. There were so many people willing to wander and earn money from wanderers that in the middle of the 19th century the local authorities established the profession of a mountain guide and a litter porter. Its patron became - and how - St. Wawrzyniec.
The town, becoming more and more popular, was developed with Swiss-style holiday houses at the end of the 19th century. They were filled mainly by newcomers from Berlin and Wrocław. Remember: Silesia belonged to Germany then.

Karpacz: Kopa

The opening of the railway station in 1895 (the railway tracks at 544.3 m above sea level are the highest in Poland and have the steepest gradient - over 5%) resulted in the development of Karpacz as a resort. Now the station is closed (you can get to Jelenia Góra by train, and then by bus), but it has become an interesting tourist attraction of the city - since last summer you can travel along the closed tracks with a handheld trolley.
Winter discovery of Karpacz belonged to tobogganers. But already in 1903 the first ski club was built here and in 1913 a ski jump was built. Its record - 94.5 meters was set by Adam Małysz during the Polish championship in 2004.
In 1959, the first chairlift to Kopa (1,350 m) was built on the Polish side of the Karkonosze Mountains. Kopa has become the starting point for trips to Śnieżka in summer, and in winter the chairlift is the main axis of the ski resort, Śnieżka Ski Complex. Unfortunately, the single-person chair looks a bit archaic, and in addition, when the wind blows, it is sometimes closed. The longest, difficult (black) trail at the top leads down from Kopa to the bottom, turning into a medium-difficult (red) and finally easy (blue) Zbyszek trail. This is the longest descent under Śnieżka, over 2.5 km.
Easier downhill route, the length of one kilometer is doubled by the Liczykrupa two-person chairlift, and above the route of the chair to Kopa, three large Euro lifts are present,Liczyrzepa and Jan. The routes are quite varied and interesting, but all of them lie almost in one line, so no matter which ski lift you choose, the views remain the same.

Karpacz: Polish zloty

You can find a variety on the slopes of Złotówka (1282 m). There are two T-bar lifts here - lower Grosik, higher Złotówka - taking you almost to the Strzecha Akademicka mountain shelter (you can stay here for the night and welcome the dawn onskis !). The top of the trail is quite easy (but watch out! It's windy), the bottom is medium-difficult. And everything - and Kopa and Złotówka - fortunately on the basis of one ski pass. The complex under Śnieżka has a total of over 8 km of slopes, mostly snow-covered, but unfortunately not illuminated.
Some already experienced skiers should look for attractions on the slopes under Kopa and Złotówka. But beginners don't have to avoid Karpacz. Apart from the complex under Śnieżka, there are over twenty shorter or longer slopes in the city, mostly covered with snow - and unlike the main center - mostly illuminated. So they are open until late evening hours. It will not be too difficult for beginners and children here. There are ski equipment rentals, services, and eateries next to all of them. Of course, we buy tickets for each lift separately.
For the skiing variety, I suggest at least one day of cross-country skiing. The scenic cross-country trail in Karpacz Górny is located at an altitude of 885 m above sea level, is 2.5 km long and has FIS approval.
And after skiing … it's not worth parting your skis. When you get bored of going downhill, you can visit the Museum of Sport and Tourism. It has an interesting collection of skis, ranging from the nineteenth century, to those from the 1950s. There are also horn sledges, characteristic of this region in German times, leisure and racing sledges, a unique bobsleigh from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, skeletons, skibobs and other curiosities.

Important

Karpacz gained city rights only in the Polish People's Republic, in 1956. One of its hamlets was then called Bierutowice (now Karpacz Górny again). It is in this hamlet that the most valuable monument of Karpacz is located - the Wang Temple. It is a wooden church from the 12th century, transferred here by the Prussian king Frederick William IV, over 150 years ago from the Norwegian town of Vang.

Śnieżka (1602 m above sea level) is the highest peak of the Karkonosze and the entire Sudetes. It is also the highest mountain in the Czech Republic. The lofty pyramid covered with rock debris rises over 200 m above the surrounding mountains. The climate is extremely harsh - on average, the temperature drops below zero for 200 days a year, and the winds often exceed 100km per hour. During this year's storms, there was even a lack of scale. The wind was blowing at a speed greater than 200 km per hour!

You can enter Śnieżka by a (slightly archaic) chair from the Czech side from Peč pod Śnieżką. From our side, you can enter Kopa, then you have to go on foot. In summer it is a pleasant walk, in winter it can turn out to be a difficult trip.

The first shelter was built here in 1850, and on the Czech side in 1868. In 1900 a meteorological observatory was established. The present Polish shelter and observatory are located in a building in the shape of three saucers.