Szklarska Poręba, powiat karkonoski

Śnieżne Kotły the Long Way

Distance21.1 km

Elevation gain1048 m

DifficultyHard

Estimated time5 h 58 min

Chains: NoTechnical: NoAbove the treeline: 7.1 kmCrosses into Czechia

Overview

Twenty-one kilometres out of Szklarska Poręba and back to the same car park, with a kilometre of ascent. Two of them climb beside the Kamieńczyk stream to the waterfall; four more reach the ridge at Szrenica, and the walk stays above the treeline for seven. At ten and a half you are on the rim of Śnieżne Kotły, looking several hundred metres down into two glacial cirques.

Points of interest

Schronisko Kamieńczyk — Mountain hut at 2.2 km, right on the path, at the top of the waterfall gorge. The last easy stop before the climb proper.
Wodospad Kamieńczyka — The waterfall at 2.3 km, in a gorge below the hut. The ticket office for it stands on the path at 2.1 km — this part of the walk is paid, and the price is posted there.
Schronisko PTTK na Hali Szrenickiej — The second of the three huts, at 4.5 km and 1195 m, where the climb out of the valley meets the ridge. Open through the season for food and a bed; the last one before seven kilometres above the treeline with nothing in between.
Szrenica — 1362 m at 6.1 km, with a hut beside the summit. Above here the walk is on open ridge for the next six kilometres.
Łabski Szczyt — 1472 m at 9.5 km, 48 m off the path — the last top before the cirques, and the second highest ground on the walk after Wielki Szyszak an hour further on.
Śnieżne Kotły — The two glacial cirques, and the reason to come. The path runs the rim directly above them at 10.8 km — you stand on the edge and look several hundred metres down into both, and out over the Jelenia Góra basin behind. The cirques themselves are out over the drop; the viewpoint is on the walk.
Wielki Szyszak / Vysoké kolo — At 1510 m the highest ground on the walk, and the Czech name is the one on the other side of the border that runs over it. It stands 162 m off the line at about 11.3 km; a footpath 742 m long leads up and back, climbing 60 m. On a clear day it is the widest view of the day — in cloud there is nothing to see and the detour is 1.5 km of walking for it.
Schronisko pod Łabskim Szczytem — Hut at 1168 m at 16.6 km, on the way down — the last shelter before the descent to town.

Trail alerts

Seven kilometres of this walk, from about 5 km to 12 km, are above 1250 m and out of the trees. There is no shelter on the ridge between the hut at Szrenica and the one below Łabski Szczyt, ten kilometres apart, and the Karkonosze ridge makes its own weather — check the forecast for the ridge rather than for the town, and turn around at Szrenica if it is wrong.
The ticket offices — the park gate and the one on the path at the Kamieńczyk waterfall — may not take cards. Carry cash; there is no machine on the ridge and no way round either gate.
The ridge is the Polish–Czech border and the walk crosses it. Nothing to do at the crossing itself, but phones roam onto Czech networks there, and an emergency call may reach the Czech service rather than the Polish one.

Trail character

Surface: 9.4 km forest track, 3.1 km compacted gravel, 2.5 km mountain path, 2.2 km laid stone, 2.0 km sealed, 1.0 km concrete slab.
Height range: 694–1484 m. 1048 m of ascent, and 45% of the distance is steeper than one in ten; the steepest kilometre gains 190 m from 3.4 km.
No road without a pavement anywhere on it. The 2.6 km of service road are park and hut access, not public traffic.
Walked and recorded on 6 September 2026 by Vladimir Ryhlitskiy — the line published here is his GPS track, not a route drawn on a map.

Access & rules

Start: Parking Centralny Szrenica in Szklarska Poręba, 75 m from the start of the loop.
Karkonoski Park Narodowy: admission applies, and the park sets its own rules on staying on marked paths, dogs and camping. Check kpnmab.pl before setting out — we have not read their terms, so nothing here restates them.
The waterfall section is separately ticketed at the office on the path.
Four mountain huts stand on the route: Schronisko Kamieńczyk at 2.2 km, Schronisko PTTK na Hali Szrenickiej at 4.5, Schronisko Szrenica at 6.2 and Schronisko pod Łabskim Szczytem at 16.6. All four serve food in season, and none is a reason to set out without water for six hours — between Szrenica and the last of them there are ten kilometres of open ridge.

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