Szczeliniec Mały is the wilder, more secretive twin of the famous Szczeliniec Wielki — closed to visitors, wrapped in untouched nature, and all the more intriguing for it. Rising to 895 m a.s.l. and towering nearly 200 metres above the middle plateau of the Stołowe Mountains, this peak keeps its mysteries to itself.
The summit has the shape of a truncated cone crowned by a ring of vertical sandstone walls dropping dozens of metres on all sides. A shallow saddle at around 867 m a.s.l. separates it from the neighbouring Szczeliniec Wielki. Unlike its more famous neighbour, Szczeliniec Mały lacks the network of deep fissures and passages that form a 'rock city' — its character is rawer and more monolithic. The flat summit plateau is built of Upper Cretaceous sandstone laid almost horizontally, giving the whole massif its classic table-mountain silhouette. In every season the area feels genuinely wild and untouched.
How to reach the summitAt the foot of the peak, near the village of Pasterka, traces of a small Prussian fortification still survive — the so-called 'Battery above Pasterka', built in 1790/1791 in anticipation of a conflict with Austria and abandoned in 1806.