Cross-country skiing in the Izera Mountains

Are you looking for new, unobvious areas for cross-country skiing? In the heart of the Sudety Mountains, 5 hours by car from Vienna and just over the Czech border, 100 kilometers of groomed trails await you, with snow sometimes lasting until May! Get to know the Izera Mountains from the perspective of cross-country skiing and discover a place where you can see 2,000 stars in the sky at night.

The low-rise and inconspicuous Izera Mountains range is a natural phenomenon. Exposure to frigid winds from the north means that the average annual temperature here is several degrees lower than in mountains of similar height. Night frosts in mid-summer are not unusual, and a typical winter snow cover is a minimum of 1.5 meters. The terrain is completely wild and remote from major human concentrations, making the sky densely covered with stars on clear nights. The landscape and pristine nature of the Izera Mountains is protected by the cross-border Polish-Czech Dark-Sky Preserve.

However, the most surprising thing about the “Izera” is that they are…. flat. Covered with dense spruce forest, the mountains form a kind of towering plateau, so it is hard to imagine a better place for cycling trips, as well as cross-country skiing.

The Jakuszycka Polana Ski Center provides cross-country skiing trails with a total length of 100 kilometers. The trails vary in length and difficulty, running in a scenic loop around the river or cutting through dense coniferous forests. Along the way you can stop for warm tea at the Orle Tourist Station, picturesquely located in an old glassworks. There are numerous equipment rentals and ski schools at the starting point of the trails.

The ski season culminates in late February and early March, when the Bieg Piastów is held in the area. This is one of the few mass ski runs included in the Worldloppet series. In 2020 alone, more than 5,000 people showed up at the start of the run!

Polana Jakuszycka – cross-country routes with map

Bieg Piastów