A new piste in Jasná, and a gondola next year. I went to see what is changing

This is the first genuinely new piste on the north side of Chopok in years. The resort has given it the number 15, and in official documents it is listed as Luková Otupné. In this article I will call it the Fifteen. It was a long road: procedures and approvals dragged on for a decade before work finally began this year.

If the weather plays along, we will be skiing it as early as late November. The most interesting part of this story, though, is something nobody is talking about yet. The Fifteen is only the first stage.

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Specifications: the new piste in Jasná in numbers

Before I start guessing how it skis, a few figures.

• Length: 2,059 m
• Top point: Luková, approx. 1,665 m above sea level
• Bottom point: Otupné, approx. 1,187 m above sea level
• Vertical drop: approx. 478 m
• Width: 40 m
• Difficulty: blue
• Area: 9.63 ha

With a length of two kilometres and a vertical drop of 478 metres, the average gradient works out at around 23%. That is typical of a proper, relaxed blue. You will not be fighting gravity here, but it is not a flat ski road where you push yourself along with your poles either.

The width is what matters. Forty metres on a blue piste gives Jasná what it lacks most. Space. On a wide piste a less experienced skier can go at their own pace, and a faster one has room to pass. It is precisely where width is lacking that things get tense.

From what I have learned, building the piste together with its snowmaking system cost several million euros. The resort has not officially disclosed the figure.

Where it runs and why there

The most interesting thing about the whole project is the route. The Fifteen follows the line of the lift from Otupné to Luková, exactly where until now there was no way to ski down. You rode up and came back down another way. Always the same one.

Anyone who has skied in Jasná knows what this layout means. Traffic from the entire north side funnels into the valley along the same few blue pistes, and at the height of the season they get crowded. The resort says so openly: its blue pistes are where most collisions happen, because skiers from Chopok and from the lower sections pour down them at the same time.

The new piste is meant to spread that flow. It gives a second exit from the Chopok descent towards the valley and takes the pressure off the sections that currently act as the bottleneck of the whole resort. In practice, not everyone heading back down will be stuck in the same corridor any more.

It is worth remembering where this piste is being built. Jasná lies in the Low Tatras, inside the Low Tatras National Park, and every project in that terrain goes through a lengthy environmental procedure. The Fifteen was no exception. Its design changed shape over years of approvals, and at one point the piste was narrowed and rerouted to avoid a wetland discovered during the works. About two thirds of its length runs across ground previously cleared of forest by windthrow and a bark beetle outbreak.

Next year a new gondola will go up along the piste

This brings us to something which, in my view, matters more than the piste itself.

Running alongside the new piste in Jasná today is an ageing chairlift. My information is that next year it will be replaced by a modern gondola. This is not a refurbishment or an upgrade of the existing lift, but a new lift in the same corridor.

It will also change something that directly affects anyone who starts the day at the bottom. The valley station will be moved lower than the current one, closer to the road along the valley floor. A shorter approach, less walking in ski boots, an easier start in the morning.

Only when you put the two projects side by side does the point of it all become clear. The resort first builds a piste here, and a year later replaces the lift on the same line with a higher-capacity one and moves its starting point lower. These are not two separate decisions but one project spread over two seasons. The whole corridor from Otupné to Luková is being rebuilt.

For skiers the consequence is simple. In winter 2026/27 we get a new piste served by the old lift. A year later the same run will have a completely different level of uplift, and the day will start in a more convenient spot.

The resort has not yet announced this investment publicly, so I am not giving technical details of the new lift, its capacity or the exact opening date. When an official statement comes out, I will return to the subject.

How the Fifteen fits into the resort layout

To understand why this particular piste matters, you need to look at Jasná as a whole. The resort is spread over two sides of Chopok. The north side, above the Demänovská Dolina valley, is the larger one and draws most of the traffic. The south side, from Srdiečko, tends to be quieter and often saves the day when the north side is windy or crowded.

The two are linked by the Funitel, a twin-cable lift built to run in conditions in which ordinary gondolas stand still. It decides whether on a given day you can ski the whole resort or only half of it. In summer 2026 it had its track rope replaced for the first time in its history, which on a lift of this design is an operation lasting several weeks.

On the north side the key lift is the gondola from Biela púť to Priehyba, opened in the 2022/23 season. It now carries skiers up from the lower part of the valley, and most visitors start their day on it. The problem is that uphill capacity has grown faster in recent years than the number of ways back down. Hence the crowds on the blues, and hence the sense in building another run rather than another lift.

The Fifteen is the answer to exactly this imbalance. It does not add capacity going up. It widens the bottleneck going down. And when the new gondola arrives next year, the same corridor will start working smoothly in both directions.

When can we ski the new piste?

If the weather plays along, the Fifteen will open together with the start of the season in Jasná, on the weekend of 28 and 29 November. The condition is not a formality: a freshly reprofiled slope needs a solid snow base, and it will all come down to the November weather.

I am heading to Chopok myself then, and you are all invited.

It is also worth knowing how far the works have actually progressed, because I saw it with my own eyes.

Most of the piste is finished. The lower section looks ready for snow. Work is still under way in the upper part: the terrain is being profiled and trenches are being dug for the snowmaking system.

That last point is the most important news from the whole trip. Trenches for snowmaking mean the Fifteen will not depend on natural snow alone, and with 478 metres of vertical drop and its bottom point at 1,187 m, that decides how many days a season it will actually be skiable. The resort has not disclosed the scope of the system, so I do not know whether it will cover the full length or only selected sections.

For anyone planning a November trip, the takeaway is this: the date is realistic, but at that time of year everything depends on how many November nights are cold enough for the snow cannons to run. If November is warm, the opening may slip by a week or two.

As soon as the resort confirms the date officially, we will report it on Skionline, as we have done with earlier changes at Low Tatras resorts.

What else has changed in Jasná, this time in summer

During the August trip I also checked out what the resort launched on 1 August. Two things, both free of charge, both for a completely different audience.

Bike Park: two trails from Priehyba

For now, Bike Park Jasná consists of two descents from Priehyba to Biela púť. Flow Trail is gentle, with a gradient of around 7 to 10%, designed for families and riders who are just starting out. Sport Trail has a 17% gradient and is faster and more technical.

Uplift is provided by the gondola from Biela púť to Priehyba, running daily from 08:30 to 17:00. Entry to the park itself is free; you only pay for the lift. A season bike pass costs €79 (price as of August 2026), and at the valley station there is a rental shop with trail, downhill, electric and children's bikes.

Two trails is a modest start. In winter the same resort runs several dozen kilometres of pistes. The direction is clear, though, and Jasná is not alone in it. One after another, Slovak resorts are trying to expand beyond the winter season.

Slide Park: seven slides and an old funicular in a new role

Slide Park is a path with slides between Priehyba and Koliesko. There are seven of them, each named after an animal that lives in the Low Tatras: bear, red deer, marmot, golden eagle, wolf, lynx and chamois. The shortest, the marmot, is six metres long. The longest, the eagle, is over thirty. Together they add up to 127 metres of sliding.

Each one has a board with a QR code, so children learn something along the way about the animal the slide is named after. It is a simple idea, but it works. I saw parents reading the boards themselves.

The most interesting detail is one that anyone who does not know the resort from earlier years will miss. You go back up on Lienka. This is a ground-level funicular from the lower part of Jasná to Priehyba, built in 2012. It was taken out of service in 2022, when the new gondola took over its role. It stood idle for four years. For the Slide Park it was refurbished and returned to service, though in a completely different role from the one it was built for.

In practice: what this means for planning a trip

How many days. Jasná is a classic destination for three or four days of skiing, and I stand by that. The new piste does not change this, because it adds comfort, not kilometres. We have gathered more on the lifts and the piste layout in our guide to Jasná.

When to go. The biggest crowds come during the Slovak and Polish winter school holidays (ferie) and at weekends, because the drive from southern Poland takes a few hours and many people make two-day trips. Midweek outside the school holidays it is a completely different resort.

How to avoid queues. Start the day at the top rather than at the lower stations, where the biggest wave gathers. If the Fifteen opens, in the first weeks it will work the other way round. As a novelty it will draw the curious, so look for quiet on the pistes that have been the busiest until now.

What to watch out for. A newly profiled slope can be more demanding in its first season than its colour suggests. The ground may still be uneven. The Fifteen also has narrower sections, and speeds will pick up there. Treat your first run as a reconnaissance.

Who it is for. Families with children and skiers fresh from a course, who want long runs without stress, will appreciate it most. Advanced skiers will treat it as an efficient way back down to the valley rather than a destination in itself.

Summary

The new piste in Jasná is not a revolution, and nobody should sell it as one. It is two kilometres of blue skiing that solve a specific, long-known problem: too few ways back down to the valley on the north side of Chopok.

What could turn out to be a revolution is what will go up next to it a year from now. The new piste in Jasná will then get a completely different lift. A new gondola with a lowered valley station will change the way the day begins in the Demänovská Dolina valley, and together with the Fifteen it will create a corridor that works smoothly in both directions. For regulars it will be the most noticeable change in years. Not in kilometres, but in how much space is left on the piste on a Saturday morning and how much time you lose at the bottom in the morning.

I stood on that cleared strip in mid-August, while machines were still working at the top, and I have a feeling this will be a very pleasant, wide piste for families. I will check it on the spot on the season-opening weekend, 28 and 29 November. If you are heading to Chopok then, see you on the slopes.

Jacek Ciszak / skionline.pl