Klimczok

Klimczok (formerly also Klimczak) is a 1117 m mountain in the Klimczok and Szyndzielnia range of the Silesian Beskids, south-west of Bielsko-Biała. The administrative boundary between Bielsko-Biała and Szczyrk runs over the summit, as does the historical border between Silesia and Lesser Poland (Austrian Galicia). Czech sources note that Klimczok is the highest point of the city of Bielsko-Biała.

The mountain stands on a ridge coming from Trzy Kopce in the south-west and is the junction of two ridges: one descends gently north to Szyndzielnia, the other runs east to Magura. The top is a rounded dome. The ridges are fairly broad, but the slopes towards the valleys of the Białka, Potok Wilczy and Barbara are steep and covered with beech-spruce forest. The headwaters of the Białka rise on the north-eastern slopes.

How to get there / trails

Most trails meet at the saddle below Klimczok (Kowiorek), between Klimczok and Magura; from there it is 10 min to the summit on the black trail. Times to the saddle are from Polish Wikipedia:

• blue from central Szczyrk via Podmagura – 1 h 45 min; blue from Bystra via Magura – 1 h 45 min;
• green from central Szczyrk (Szczyrk Biła) – 1 h 45 min; green from Wilkowice Bystra station – 2 h;
• yellow then black from Błatnia via Stołów – 1 h 45 min; yellow from Wilkowice Bystra station via Chata na Groniu – 2 h 45 min;
• red from the Karkoszczonka Pass – 1 h; red from Szyndzielnia – 30 min; yellow and red from Wapienica via Szyndzielnia – 2 h.

At the Kowiorek saddle trails cross towards Szczyrk, Bystra, Brenna, the Salmopolska Pass, the Karkoszczonka Pass, Szyndzielnia and Błatnia. 700 m east of the summit stands the PTTK Klimczok hut (formerly «Klementynówka»), which also houses a GOPR station. On the meadow of the eastern shoulder descending to Kowiorek runs a 430 m platter ski lift.

The view from the top

Until the end of the 1970s a wooden triangulation tower stood on the summit, from which a large part of the Western Carpathians could be seen, from Lysá hora in the west to the Tatras in the south-east. The tower is gone and the trees around the summit have grown, so today the view is limited to the south-eastern sector, where the Tatra peaks rise above the ridges of the Żywiec Beskids. A steel mast with telecommunication antennas now stands on the summit.

Nature and history

As late as the early 19th century the mountain was called Goryczna Skałka or simply Skałka. On the western slopes just below the summit runs a system of ridge trenches and rock crevices with several small caves, including the Ali Baba Cave and the Piętrowa Cave. The largest cave, 26 m long, was said by local tradition to be the hideout of the famous robber of the Żywiec-Silesian borderland, Klimczok, and in the Romantic era his name passed to the mountain.

The Moravian monkshood, rare in Poland, grows on Klimczok. In the Biła forestry district a group of trees over 45 m tall grows here, several exceeding 53 m; in 2018 one Douglas fir was about 57 m tall and an estimated 115 years old.

Safety, season and rules

Klimczok has a harsh climate: the mean annual temperature is 5–6 °C, a snow cover of about 220 cm lasts some 125 days a year, and a record 305 cm was measured on 14 March 1993. Precipitation reaches 1300 mm a year and the sun shines on only about 79 days, so a rain jacket is always useful. In winter keep off the ski slopes. Help comes from GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300, or the general emergency number 112.

Photos: Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0; No machine-readable author provided. Pko assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Urząd Miejski w Bielsku-Białej, CC0; Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.