Snezka

So here's the plan. Let's climb the tallest mountain in the Czech Republic. Let's do it at night so we can see the full moon, and reach the top to watch the sun rise. Sounds pretty great right? Right?!

So we set out on Friday afternoon taking 3 trains to get to a town called Vrchlabi near the base of the mountain Snezka. From the train station we walked to a pub/brewery for dinner. On the way I took time to notice the vast differences in level of preparedness and sizes of backpacks. I think I had the largest backpack mostly filled with food and water, but also packed with warm weather gear and rain gear as we were expecting some rain. Dinner was pretty good, and the beer was refreshing, and so we set out for our climb about 10 I think. I should note here that I did not pay very good attention to time so all times mentioned are at best approximations.
Almost immediately after leaving the pub we started to climb. As usual George had selected a red trail for us, and it didn't take me long to start hoping that our whole climb would not be like this. The long train of hikers was soon separated into three groups, and I did my best to stay in the middle giving me somewhere to fall back to. The first couple of km was incredibly difficult but we reached a small rest stop and took 10 to recover. Unfortunately when George arrived he informed us that we had already lost Alan who, I think wisely, decided to turn back. At this point several people began searching for branches they could use for walking sticks and began discussing our possibilities for the future. I stupidly assumed the worst must be over, and cowboyed up to continue.
For the next fifteen km or so I focused primarily on moving forward. The weather began to chill but I was working so hard to keep moving that I didn't seem to need all the warm weather gear I was carrying. Again the groups divided into three separate treks, and again I tried to stay in the middle. Most of the time I was with a larger group of Czech hikers, most of whom are regular outdoorsmen and women, so we kept a good pace, but fortunately I was not expected to keep up any kind of conversation. We seemed to be heading for a place called Lucni Bouda which translates into something like Meadow Shack, so I just watched the trail signs and counted off the kms. A couple of time I considered leaving the group and setting off on my own on a green trail, but I was much more concerned about finding myself abandoned on this mountain.
The higher we got the harder the climbing. In hindsight I'm sure this had more to do with my growing exhaustion that the difficulty of the climb, although I did get a look at a 3d topographical map of our trail and was quite impressed with what I had done.
About 6 km outside of Lucni Bouda I asked my group if they would stop while I put on my rain gear. I was finally getting cold and a mist had picked up. At this point we had also lost the front group who illegally put up a tent and just called it a night. I think it's around 1am at this point. Everyone decided I had had a good idea and we all set about preparing for rain, covering our gear and getting jackets and such on before setting off again. The rain began and then continued to get worse until we were walking in a torrent. It didn't take long before the heavy rain had actually soaked through my rain gear so that even though I was wearing a raincoat, rain pants, and waterproof shoes, I was soon soaked through. It seemed everyone else was in the same situation. A couple of time I wondered what would happen if I just gave up and sat down in the trail, but I concentrated on just pushing forward. My strategy of staying in a front group so that I could fall back had actually backfired as my group had gotten so far ahead of the rear group that we had no idea where they were, so I was forced to keep pace. Fortunately my group had a few who were doing about as well as me and the rest were very helpful.
As I watched the kms tick off the trail signs I finally began to think I might be able to reach Lucni Bouda, the problem occurred to me at about 1.5km out that I wasn't sure why we were trying to reach Lucni Bouda, and that we had another 4km after that to the top. Fortunately as Lucni Bouda came into sight i heard someone say something about 24 hours, and I saw what looked like a very large barn. But there were lights, and what appeared to be cover. Stepping into the foyer was perhaps one of the best moments of my life, and when someone questioned whether we were able to stay I considered rebelling and camping out in a corner. However, the restaurant was open and they kindly let us come in and try to dry off. This was around 3am. In my giant pack I had a change of socks and clothes as well as camp towels which allowed me to get most of the water off me. I also had hot coffee and some food to get me going again. One of my boots had begun to slip around a few kms back causing the beginnings of a blister, and thanks to the fact that my rain pants had soaked through, my shoes were soaked as well.
The group tried to decide if we were going to continue or settle in for the night. A few went straight for the room, while the rest of us sat and waited for the rear group which arrived about 3:30. At this point the whole group split and about 12 continued on, while a total of 16 of us decided to bed down for the night and continue on in the morning.
The next morning we all got up for breakfast and I think the previous night was already beginning to get nostalgic. But the question remained to continue to the top or turn and go on to Spindleruv Mlyn where we could return to Prague. Continuing meant 4 km up the steepest part of the journey, turning back meant 10km along mostly downhill trails. I voted for going up, so we at least would have achieved our goal, and then we could take the cable car down to Pec Pod Snezku and grab a bus from there. The group agreed, and up we went. Despite the exhaustion from the night before, we puched on with pretty high spirits and made the top pretty quickly. We celebrated our victory and looked about but fog had enveloped the mountain so we hopped the cable car and headed down.
Once at the bottom we got a little more rain, but managed to get to our bus and get back into Prague. In the end I came out pretty well except for a terrible blister on my right heal, and was very proud to have accomplished the climb.

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