Hiking in Lower Silesia: the Giant Mountains, Chojnik and Ślęża
Lower Silesia is the land of the Sudetes: the Giant Mountains with their glacial cirques and the ridge along the Czech border, the castle hills above Jelenia Góra and Ślęża, the sacred mountain that rises alone from the Wrocław plain. Here you will find the routes with track, elevation profile, GPX and practical information.
The numbers mark where each trail starts.
How to read the grades
Trails in Poland have no official difficulty scale: the PTTK waymarks, a red, blue, green, yellow or black stripe between two white ones, identify the route, not its difficulty (red usually marks the main trail). To compare them with our Italian guides, we have estimated the difficulty of each trail on the scale of the Club Alpino Italiano (Italian Alpine Club). Grades assume dry ground: rain, snow or strong heat make a route harder.
- T Tourist
- Roads, mule tracks or wide, easy paths with no route-finding problems.
- E Hiking 3 in this guide
- Waymarked trails over varied terrain: you need hiking boots and a basic level of fitness.
- EE Expert hikers
- Exposed, steep or rocky sections, sometimes with chains: you need a sure foot and a head for heights.
- EEA Expert hikers with equipment
- Via ferratas or equipped routes: you need a harness, via ferrata set and helmet.
Before you set off
National park
Karkonosze National Park charges a small entry fee, at the booths on the trails or online.
Wind and fog
On the ridge of the Giant Mountains the wind is often very strong and fog rolls in within minutes: bring a jacket even in summer.
Mountain huts
The PTTK huts and the Czech huts on the ridge serve hot meals: you can walk light.
Emergencies
GOPR mountain rescue: 985 or 601 100 300; single emergency number 112.
Routes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via Waymarked Trails and BRouter; elevations from a digital terrain model. Times and elevation gains are indicative: waymarks on the ground and closure orders always take precedence.