Śnieżne Stawki are a cluster of small, glacial ponds tucked into the floor of the Śnieżne Kotły cirque, right in the heart of the Karkonosze Mountains. This is a place of raw high-mountain scenery — eight little pools, only two of them permanent, resting in hollows between old moraines.

The atmosphere here feels genuinely remote, as if you had reached the edge of the world, boxed in by the steep walls of the glacial cirque. In summer the ponds can fill with water, their surfaces mirroring the rocky crags above, while in drier spells several of the basins shrink almost to nothing, leaving bare stony ground. Spring and autumn often bring mist and a wild, untamed mood, and in winter the cirque holds onto snow longer than almost anywhere else in the Karkonosze — which is exactly how the place got its name. It is terrain that deserves respect, especially outside the summer months.

How to get there

• Szklarska Poręba or Karpacz — trail leading toward the Śnieżne Kotły cirque, several hours of walking, demanding route over partly rugged high-mountain terrain
• Also reachable from the Czech side, via Obří důl

Practical information

• The depth of the two permanent ponds varies through the year and reaches up to 1.5 m
• The area lies within Karkonosze National Park, so nature protection rules apply
• The alpine newt breeds in these waters

It is one of the few spots in the Karkonosze where you can watch a living geological process unfold — glacial ponds slowly shrinking and reforming with the rhythm of the seasons.