Back to Sněžník

The summer rematch for a fogged-out winter visit. The route goes over the meadow top of Javorský vrch to Jílové, then steeply up Děčínský Sněžník, the largest table mountain in the country, and down to the Elbe at Děčín.

Local trains between Ústí nad Labem and Děčín stop at Choratice, a small halt on the left bank of the Elbe with the hills starting right behind it. From Prague you can be there by nine with one change. The route leaves the river immediately and spends the first hour climbing west through the woods.

The first summit is Javorský vrch, around km 7. The top is open grass instead of trees, and you see far. Across the valley to the north you see where the day is headed, the long flat rim of the table mountain. The descent goes gradually toward Jílové. Just before town a rock outcrop shows you the whole afternoon, the town in the valley floor and the edge of Sněžník behind it.

Jílové, at km 14, is the place to eat. Pubs and shops are a short step off the route, and the moated château by the square gives you ten minutes of sightseeing with your beer. Eat here rather than counting on the summit. More on that below.

Then comes the hardest stretch of the day. You climb some 460 m from the valley floor to the plateau, steep almost the whole way. The route goes up through Sněžník village and reaches the top from the west.

Děčínský Sněžník is why this route exists. On my first visit, in winter, I saw nothing. The summit sat in a cloud. In August the view runs from the Krušné hory across the border sandstones to the cones of the České středohoří, and the lookout tower adds to it. The summit restaurant is the one thing to skip. On my visit the staff were unfriendly and the prices high for slightly below-average food. Carry your own and spend the money on the tower instead.

The rest is downhill, nearly 600 m of it spread over the last ten kilometres, off the plateau and down the long wooded slopes into Děčín. The route ends at the main station, and that is a real reward. Děčín sits on the Prague–Dresden main line, and the Berlin expresses run direct to Prague, usually with a dining car. You can have dinner on the way home, with the Elbe outside the window.