Kiczory

Kiczory (Czech Kyčera) is a wooded 990 m summit in the western Silesian Beskids, on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. It is the second-highest peak of the Stożek and Czantoria Range (after Wielka Czantoria). It stands on the main ridge of the range east of Kyrkawica, at the point where a side ridge branches off south-east via Sałasz Dupne and Młoda Góra to the Olza river in Istebna. The territories of the Polish communes of Wisła and Istebna and the Czech municipality of Písek u Jablunkova meet on the summit; here the state border turns at a right angle to the south and leaves the main ridge. The Czech town of Jablunkov lies about 5.5 km to the south-west.

According to Wikidata the summit's prominence is 253 m and its isolation (distance to the nearest higher point) is 9.6 km.

How to get there / trails

The red Main Beskid Trail (from Ustroń to Wołosate in the Bieszczady) and the green trail from Istebna to Stożek cross the summit. Walking times according to Polish Wikipedia:

• red — from the Kubalonka pass, 1 h 35 min (1 h 25 min back);
• red — from Stożek Wielki, 25 min each way;
• green — from Istebna via Sałasz Dupne, 2 h (1 h 30 min back);
• yellow — from Jaworzynka Centrum via Jasnowice, 4 h 50 min (4 h back);
• from Głębce — blue trail to the Łączecko pass, then red, 2 h (1 h 30 min back).

The Czech long-distance route Via Czechia (Silesian Beskids section) also runs over the summit, so the mountain can be visited from the Czech side as well.

What you can see from the summit

According to German and Czech Wikipedia, the summit offers views of the neighbouring mountains and the lowlands, including most of the Silesian Beskids. The summit is easy to pick out from Cieślar and Łabajów — together with neighbouring Kyrkawica and Stożek Wielki it forms the characteristic skyline of the western ridge of the range.

Nature and history

Kiczory lies on the Beskid watershed between the Vistula and the Olza (and thus the Oder). It is built of coarse-grained, brownish Istebna sandstone with many grains of quartz and orthoclase and veins of siderite, a poor iron ore. On the Kiczory – Kyrkawica stretch of the ridge this sandstone crops out as steps, rock pulpits and even rock mushrooms — the well-known Rock Mushrooms on Kyrkawica.

The summit is covered mostly with beech and spruce forest. The section of the main ridge running east from Kiczory to the Kubalonka pass divides the valleys of the Łabajów (north) and Olecka (south) streams and carries the boundary between Wisła and Istebna in Cieszyn County. On the south-western slope, on the Czech side, lies the Plenisko nature reserve. The Polish slopes are also valuable: much of them is covered by a local form of Norway spruce, the so-called Istebna spruce. On the summit there is an information board and border marker I/23.

Safety, season and rules

Kiczory can be visited all year round, and its trails have no difficult sections. In winter there is snow on the ridge, and in fog it pays to follow the waymarks carefully on the wooded ridge with its junctions. The Polish–Czech border runs over the summit; both countries are in the Schengen Area, so crossing on marked trails is allowed, but carry an identity document. In the Czech Plenisko reserve keep to marked paths. On the Polish side mountain rescue is provided by GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300; the general emergency number in both countries is 112.

Photos: Michalmily at Polish Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5; Kroc, Public domain; Łukasz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0; Michalmily at Polish Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5; Łukasz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.