Our second day of skiing in Slovakia was on Jasná Nízke Tatry, also called Chopok. Chopok is the name of the 2024 meter peak by the highest lift station, few meters lower at 2004 meters. I did climb to the peak as well, going up was easy but coming down was treacherous as it was quite icy. And speaking of ice ... I think either my skis were a bit off sharpness, or the slopes were extremely ice. Actually maybe both. It was difficult to control speed on the steep black runs from the top.
But overall, a very nice visit. Out of the three places I've been to in Slovakia, this is clearly the major ski station. Tatranska Lomnica is higher (2196 meters) but basically has just one route down. A very nice run and sufficiently steep, but Chopok does have more variation.
I guess it was a popular day to visit, 4th of January, with many people still on vacation. But finding parking was not easy. Or it would have been easy if we knew what was available and where, but this was our first time in this place, and we didn't really know where we could catch the lifts, and the road stretched along big portions of the ski resort. In the end we parked the car in a for-fee parking area by a smaller lift. But that worked well.
The official web page for the resort is here. The wikipedia entry is here. More about Chopok, the mountain, can be found here. My earlier visits to Slovakian skiing resorts were at Strbske Pleso and Tatranska Lomnica.
Video:
(Original source video is also available here.)
Skiing:
Climbing Chopok:
The Goulash index in the ski area restaurants was relatively high:
Back in Zakopane, we were again in holy land, welcomed by angles:
This time at Zakopane we ate at the Villa Toscana (link, google maps link). Toscana is a popular upscale restaurant, and fish in particular seemed like a good choice.
This article has also appeared at TGR. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2023 by Jari Arkko.
This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.
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