Sniezne Kotly

The Sniezne Kotly are a pair of cirques bitten into the northern side of the Karkonosze ridge - hollows scooped by Pleistocene glaciers, with headwalls of granite dropping around two hundred metres and small tarns on the floors, seen from the ridge path that runs along their rims at about 1,490 metres. Their significance beyond the shape is botanical: the cold shaded walls and the long-lying snow preserve a relict arctic-alpine flora, plants that arrived in the ice ages and survived here when the climate warmed, including species that occur nowhere else in Poland, and the cirques are strictly protected for it - no descent into them is permitted. A building on the rim, formerly a mountain hotel and later a transmitter station, stands above the drop. The ridge here is exposed, weather changes fast, and this is the section of the Karkonosze where people have died in winter conditions.

What you actually see

• Two glacial cirques - hollows with granite headwalls dropping around two hundred metres.
• Relict arctic flora - ice-age survivors including species found nowhere else in Poland.
• A ridge-top view - the path running along the rims at about 1,490 metres.
• A transmitter on the rim - the former mountain hotel above the drop.

When to go

June to September. A day on the ridge.

Honest expectations

Descent into the cirques is prohibited - they are viewed from the rim. The ridge is exposed with no shelter and weather turns fast; winter conditions here kill people. It is a long walk from either valley. Cloud sits on the ridge often.

Nearby

Szklarska Poreba is north; Sniezka is east along the ridge.