Snow Kettles

(c) Beata Sobolewska-Woźniak

A view from the edge of Great Snow Kettle.

Snow Kettles - Śnieżne Kotły in Karkonosze range are cirques or niches eroded by the glacier. There are two kettles: Small Kettle (ca 550 m. long, 400 m. width, 300 m. depth) and Great Kettle (800 m. long, 600 m. width, 300 m. depth), divided by rocky bed. The granite walls are 100 m. high. The Kettles area is natural and biosphere preserve with some unique, endemic species, like specific type of saxifraga - Saxifraga moschata basaltica - it's the only place where this type occurs. Also lot of alpine and arctic types, and, what's interesting, lichen type Rhizocarpon lecanorium which is the oldest plant in Karkonosze (some of them are 600 years old).

(c) Piotr Woźniak

Eastern wall of Great Snow Kettle.

(c) Piotr Woźniak

Look down to the north.