Jon Searles' photos

Being on an international border, Sniezka has conventional border marking posts on the summit. Because of the open border between Poland and the Czech Republic, it's easy to walk between the countries repeatedly simply by exploring the tourist area on the summit. This photo shows the Polish side of one of the border markers.

Being on an international border, Snezka has conventional border marking posts on the summit. Because of the open border between Poland and the Czech Republic, it's easy to walk between the countries repeatedly simply by exploring the tourist area on the summit. This photo shows the Czech side of one of the border markers. If you look carefully, you can see where it was edited when the Czechoslovakia was split between the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

Constructed in 2004, this post office was designed especially for Snezka, with endurance to the difficult weather conditions being especially emphasized. Weatherproof shutters can be opened or closed over the post office's large windows, depending on how much protection is needed. Because no one (to the best of my knowledge) lives on Snezka, this post office serves tourists, who can mail postcards and commemorative covers. It also had a library as of 2015, although I don't know if this was official. Seating and tables are available for reading, or simply for hikers to take a break before heading back down. The roof is also open to tourists as an observation deck, as can be seen in this photo.

This chapel, "St. Lawrence's Chapel," in English, is actually on the Polish side of Snezka, or Sniezka in Polish. It's the oldest building on the summit, dating to 1681. This was a shot I took of the interior, through the window of the door.

This chapel, "St. Lawrence's Chapel," in English, is actually on the Polish side of Snezka, or Sniezka in Polish. It's the oldest building on the summit, dating to 1681. None of the other buildings on the summit are close in age, as all research stations built prior to the 1960's were demolished in the 20th Century or even earlier (other than, if it counts, the "Trigonometricky bod Snezka" or trigonometry tower, built in 1824). This picture from Wikipedia illustrates what the summit looked like in 1900, when it was actually more built-up than it is today: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sn%C4%9B%C5%BEka#/media/File:Schneekoppe_Observatorium_1900.jpg Wikipedia also details the history of contruction and demolitions on the summit in more detail than it makes sense for me to do here. However, having said this, the building immediately to the right of the chapel, obviously of newer vintage, is the old Polish weather station from 1974, which, as of 2015, also hosted a restaurant.

This is the cable car station for the summit of Snezka, which is is actually slightly below the summit. Again, this is a new station from 2014. The elevation of 1588 metres is below the station name.

This is the actual approach to the Ruzova hora station. This building dates to the 2012-2013 rebuilding of the cable car system. At this station, it is necessary to switch cable cars, which was also the way the system worked pre-2014.

These were some of the other safety stickers in the cable car, with "stick figures in peril" mixed with more realistic illustrations.

These were some of the safety stickers in the cable car. I found at least some of them comical, as classic examples of stickers to avoid liability. These were some of the less ridiculous ones.

This was one of the shots I took on the cable car, heading up Snezka. This was before Ruzova hora, where it was necessary to switch cars, even though this shot has an optical illusion that makes it look like the building in the foreground is the station. In reality, the Ruzova hora station is a brownish-reddish building much further up the mountain. These cable cars weren't always enclosed "cars" per se. From 1949, when the system was built, until 2012, these vehicles were open chairlifts. Here's some period footage of the old system (pre-2013), including some of the demolition: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUrOsOwZipw The new enclosed cars were added during a renovation in 2012-2013. This means the system, in its current form, was still relatively new when I took these photos. www.snezkalanovka.cz/en/cableway

This was a second shot, showing one of the other cars coming down the mountain. This was still before Ruzova hora.

This was a sign, and picture/map at the foot of Snezka, outside the cable car station at Pec pod Snezkou. It's debatable whether the "map" is really a map, as it's really more of a drawing of Snezka, in perspective, with key locations marked. Neither of the place names on the sign refer to the location of the sign, as "Snezka" refers to the summit, and "Ruzova hora" refers to an intermediate station on the cable car route. The temperatures and wind speeds also refer to those locations.

This was as good an angle as I could get up Snezka from Pec pod Snezkou. The station for the cable cars, and a glimpse of the cables, can be seen in the center-left of this shot.

There wasn't any bouy or other indication that this rock was just under the water. I'm assuming it was left there because it wasn't considered important, as Upa is relatively small, and doesn't have any high-speed boats or diving boards to create a major hazard.

This was an alternate shot I took of the ziplines.

This bridge was for pedestrians, and was almost above the dam that supports Upa.

I don't know the full story of the construction site on the left, but the buildings on the right are part of the "Relax Park" across the street from Cafe-grill Promenada.

Across the street from Promenada is a small amusement park called Relax Park, but behind Promenada, over an artificial pond called Upa, are some zip lines. I didn't ask who operates them (whether Relax Park or someone else), and I don't even know if they're still there (as I took these photos in 2015). However, in 2015, there were still people using them.