Today, I would like to take you for a trip to Czech mountain range Krkonoše, also called Giant Mountains. This area is situated in the northern part of the Czech Republic near Polish borders and has been declared a national park.
It boasts of wonderful nature and it serves as home for several protected animals. Thanks to plenty of long ski slopes and ski trails, it is a paradise for winter sports as well as for hiking and bike trips not only in summer time.
Although it is the end of April, there is still a lot of snow, which is a bit unusual. Nevertheless, it enables me to introduce you this wonderful place from skitouring perspective.
We started our trip in Špindlerův mlýn - a famous tourist resort. The brook on the photo below is actually river Elbe which springs just some hundreds of altitude meters higher. You can easily visit the spring as it is a famous tourist place with all the signs. However, the real spring is hiden in the heart of the mountains and it is even forbidden to go there.
After a few hours of walking up some steep slopes and trails, we reached well-known memorial of Hanč and Vrbata - two friends who died during a cross-country ski race due to a bad weather in 1913.
When being at this place, we were admiring the view.
And after a short downhill, we reached Labská bouda - a hotel which has been evoking controversy due to its brutalist look for years.
It is surrounded by Labský důl - a glacial valley which is an area of frequent avalanches in winter and when looking there, I felt a bit insecure.
After a short break, we continued to Sněžné jámy - another huge glacial valley with steep and vertical rocky walls. When getting closer, you will see a cottage with a broadcaster first.
From that place, you will have a great view of Sněžné jámy. It is highly dangerous to get closer to the edge as the whole snowy part can just get torn down.
Going on in the direction to another peak called Vysoké kolo, it was visible at some point that winter is slowly giving up.
We enjoyed some more downhills and ended up back in Špindlerův mlýn. It was a trip of about 20 km and I can definitely recommend it either as a skitouring trip or also a trip for hiking when there is no snow.