Our mountains may not be as imposing as, for example, the Alps, but they have their own charm and beauty. And the peaks are accessible to almost everyone. Still, the joy of the climb is not always the same. It depends on the weather.

Two days

This January offered two consecutive days with very different weather, allowing one to witness the changing conditions while ascending the peaks of the Jizera Mountains.

Day one: wind, frost, fog, and inversion from base camp to summit.
Day two: light wind, frost, fog, and inversion up to about 850 m above sea level. Higher up: clear skies, strong thaw, sunshine for sunbathing. Snow fell from tree branches, and chunks of ice dropped into the frozen, heavy snow.

Target summits

Smrk (1124 m) and Jizera (1122 m) – the two highest peaks on the Czech side of the Jizera Mountains.
On the Polish side, only Wysoka Kopa (1126 m) is higher, and Jizera is only slightly lower than Smrek (1123 m), the adjacent peak to Czech Smrk.

Base camp

It’s easy to set up in larger towns (Hejnice, Raspenava, Lázně Libverda, Nové Město pod Smrkem, Frýdlant, etc.) or in smaller, remote places. The options are abundant. Accommodations are accessible by car, partially by train or bus. Some are affordable, others quite expensive but well equipped. Any commonly used online map will help you find a suitable place. That’s how we also set up our base camp.

After the expulsion of the German population, the forests in the Jizera Mountains were completely empty. It was untouched nature.

From the memoirs of Siegfried Weiss, engraver, photographer, and author of books about the Jizera Mountains,
whose magical memorial plaque can be found on the eastern side of Mount Jizera.

1. Altitude camp – Climb to Smrk

After breakfast, we drive to the "Bartlova bouda" parking lot at an elevation of 530 m to set up the only camp before the ascent. It’s lightly snowing, yet the first complication arises. The side road to the hut is full of heavy snow and inaccessible. We change our plan on the spot and slowly reverse. Instead of ascending from the southwest, we head up from the south, from the "Smědava" parking lot. We just hope we won't have to use snow chains. Road 290, which leads to the parking lot, has several switchbacks and, according to locals, is not always plowed in time. Winter car equipment is mandatory here.

Fortunately, we are lucky. Although the road isn't perfectly cleared everywhere, it's surprisingly well-gritted. It’s a bit slippery in the turns, but with a slow drive, we reach the nearly empty parking lot at 840 m above sea level and establish our altitude camp for the climb to the summit.

Trail signs

They stand on the green, red, and blue trails: Bílý potok – Smědava bridge – Černá Smědá – Předěl – Na písčinách – Nebeský žebřík (2) – Smrk (3)/Smrek (4).

The path begins on a road groomed by a snowcat with a solid (frozen) surface and ski tracks (Jizera Cross-country Trail, groomed since 1984 – the longest in the Czech Republic). Throughout the day, we met only a few cross-country skiers, and even fewer hikers.

From the trail sign Na Písčinách, a physically more demanding part of the ascent begins along a forest path. With every step, we sink about 20 cm deep until we reach the sign Nebeský žebřík. This is where the most challenging part begins. Up to the summit, it's a steep, dense, and ungroomed ascent of just over 1 km with an elevation gain of nearly 200 m. In summer, a wooden mountain boardwalk (Nebeský žebřík) 630 meters long helps ease about two-thirds of the climb. You can tell where it lies beneath the snow by stepping off and sinking deeper. It took us about 45 minutes to conquer the final section and reach the summit.

Lookout tower

The current one was built in 2003, made of steel and 23 meters tall. An observation platform existed here as early as 1840–50, but it was destroyed by fire. The first lookout tower (which he took great care of) was built in 1892 by carpenter Franz Frisch (*1841 – †1929) from Nové Město pod Smrkem in seven weeks. He then converted the workers' temporary shelter into a 16 m² refreshment and accommodation hut, which he operated from 1892 to 1921. Today, a memorial stone on Smrk commemorates him.

Later, the Porsch family took care of the hut. In 1932, it was modernized and expanded. However, with their expulsion in 1946, the gradual decay of both the hut and the lookout tower began. They survived emperors, two world wars, the First Republic, and the Protectorate, but not the era of socialist construction. By the late 1950s, it was all over.

A smaller replica of Frisch’s tower was built in 2009 at the Prague ZOO. Unfortunately, by 2018, it had to be dismantled due to the use of unsuitable wood that became infested with fungus, and poor beam joints that let water in. Truly, there was nothing like the care and craftsmanship of a Sudeten carpenter.

To this day, the only surviving replica stands since 2014 on Moravský kopec near Holčovice. Let’s hope it wasn’t built by a sloppy hand.

Trail signs

They are located on the red and yellow routes, but I start on the closed-for-winter road No. 290 at the Bílý potok junction. Then I turn onto the barracks road (Sudetská, Hřebenovka) and reach the Na Knejpě junction with the Knajpa mountain station. Lots of people here feel the need to refuel for the next stage.