Homeboy’s Skiing Blog

This is the second part of the four part series about skiing in Slovakia (first one here), and especially in the Jasna ski resport in Low Tatras (Nizke Tatry). In this post I will discuss about the lift system, slopes and off-piste skiing in the Jasna area. In the next post I will give some practical tips of what to do and what not (IMHO). The last post of the series is some more thoughts about Slovakia in general.

Again, couple of pics first.

One of the side ridges of the main Low Tatra ridge

Nice little chute

Yes, there are steep and gnarly too….

The few pictures from the resort itself.

Trees in the resort are pretty good after the dump too…

Skiing slopes during the storm, not bad at all

Jasna ski resort (www.jasna.sk) is probably the most developed in Slovakia. The resort has a vertical meters of about 1100 meters (~3300 feet) and quite modern lift system with four-person doppelmayer lifts. The new poma lift offers ride to the top of the Chopok mountain, linking two-previously separated ski resorts of Chopok-South and Chopok-North. This gives the skier lot more option as e.g. the snow situation can vary a lot between the two sides of the mountain (mainly due current wind direction). Anyhow, before the new lift (pre 2007) you had to hike some 170 metres of vertical to the top, which most people cared not to do – leaving for plenty of really seldom skied off-piste possibilities. The good news, from a friend that spent five weeks in Jasna last winter, is that locals still don’t rush to the off-piste in large masses.

The top lift basically allows you to get on the Low Tatra (Nizke Tatry) ridge and hike horizontally along the ridge – giving plenty of possibilities for nice backcountry skiing both sides of the Ridge. Nort facing aspect even has some really steep (~50 degrees) shortish chutes/couloirs of about 250metres or 700~800 feet of vertical. Beware of the conditions and rocks though! South side offers mellower and longer descents, often in more “corn” type of snow, given its aspect towards the sun.

The resort has officially even named freeride zones (see the map here and here and the pic links above). Officially it is only allowed to ski in these “zones” outside of the slopes. Other parts of the ridge belong to the national park and are protected. However, we never got any attention/notes for exploring the ridge further. You also see some local ski tourers here and there. But please pay attention and respect the nature: in the ridge line you often see wonderful Tatra Chamois, of which only about 250 still exists in the whole Tatra area (and in the whole world of course!). I really hope the growing tourism and ski area will not disturb the peace of those beautiful creatures and as well the whole high mountain biotype of the ridge. I see some more regulation coming in the future as an obligatory way to protect the very small and fragile area. So, go now, respect the locals, don’t leave any trashes/other marks and move fast…