Chyrowa Ski

Photo: Chyrowa Ski. Small Chyrowa, in the central Beskid Niski, is one of the most popular ski resorts in the region. It owes this above all to decent snow conditions, a very wide slope that is ideal both for learning and for polishing wide carved turns, and very good access: the village is just 25 km from Krosno, formerly a provincial capital, and less than 10 minutes' drive off the international road from Rzeszów via Barwinek to Slovakia and Hungary. The village, which lies in a wide north-south valley, has long been considered a good place for lifts: the first ones were built on the slopes of Chyrowa hill in the '80s, and their remains can still be seen on the slope above the old, historic Lemko church (cerkiew). The resort has operated at its current location since the start of this century. There are two fast button lifts (a longer and a shorter one) serving a floodlit slope more than 130 metres wide on the eastern side of Dania hill (696 m). The upper part of the slope is somewhat steeper, while the lower part is a gentle, evenly inclined broad expanse, ideal for learning to ski. In addition, a short training rope tow stands off to one side. All the pistes (three are marked on the resort maps) are really variants of one wide slope more than 900 metres long. The resort's undoubted strength is that everything is on site (at a level sometimes matching much bigger resorts): right by the lifts there is a restaurant and a guesthouse (so you can go straight from your room to the slope), as well as a quite well-equipped ski hire and large car parks close by. The village also has several guesthouses and farm stays. Chyrowa is the only ski resort of this standard within a radius of several dozen kilometres; skiers looking for something bigger have to choose either Puławy Górne, almost 45 km further east, or Krynica in the Beskid Sądecki (more than 85 km). Despite this lack of competition, the service here is of a fairly high standard; the only drawback may be the big crowds at weekends and on public holidays. Another inconvenience is the very large number of windy days: the resort lies at the mouth of a chain of valleys running from the Dukla Pass, known for the frequent and sometimes strong Dukla-Rymanów winds. For that reason, despite the popularity of the place, a chairlift is unlikely to be built here in the near future. Though one would certainly help clear the bottleneck on the way up.