Szczeliniec Wielki

Szczeliniec Wielki is the highest of the Stolowe Gory - the table mountains - at 919 metres, a block of Cretaceous sandstone laid down as sea sediment, uplifted and then weathered along its joints so that the flat top has split into a labyrinth of clefts, corridors and free-standing blocks with names attached to them. It is reached by 665 stone steps from Karlow, laid in 1814 by Franz Pabel, the village headman and first guide, together with the stairs, ladders and bridges of the summit route through the clefts - which makes it one of the oldest formalised tourist trails in this part of Europe and explains why the route is one-way and tight in places. Named formations along it include the Hen's Foot and the Camel, and viewpoints look over the Klodzko basin into Czechia. The clefts hold cold air and ice can persist in them into summer.

History

Tourism here grew with travel in the Kłodzko region in the late 18th century: Franz Pabel, a local guide from Karłów, opened and marked an ascent route around 1790, the year Goethe visited the area on his Silesian journey. In 1814 Pabel, by then the village headman, laid the stone stair to the summit, and he wrote the first guide booklet to Szczeliniec (Wikipedia, Szczeliniec Wielki; Polish Wikipedia, Szczeliniec Wielki).

Highlights

• A split plateau - clefts and corridors weathered along the joints of the sandstone.
• 665 steps - the stair of 1814 from Karlow to the top.
• An 1814 route - stairs, ladders and bridges through the labyrinth, one-way and tight.
• Ice in the clefts - cold air held in the fissures into summer.

When to go

May to October. Half a day.

Before you go

The route is one-way, narrow and involves ladders and steps throughout - unsuitable for anyone with mobility difficulty. Summer weekends queue on the stair. The 665 steps up are hard work. Ice and wet rock make the clefts slippery.

Nearby

Bledne Skaly is west; Kudowa-Zdroj is beyond it.

Key facts