Góra Kamieńsk

If any ski resorts in Poland stand out from the rest for their originality, the one on Góra Kamieńsk is undoubtedly among them. Mainly because it lies on the slopes of a hill made entirely by human hands. And we are not talking about some small mound, but a real mountain rising almost 200 metres above the flat surroundings, which, strictly speaking, is now the highest point of the Polish lowlands, dethroning Wieżyca in Kashubia (which, incidentally, is also a ski resort). Góra Kamieńsk was created by huge excavators and spreaders, which shifted more than 1,350 million cubic metres of earth that had covered the lignite seams to the west of the hill to where it now stands. Dumping began on 6 June 1977 and ended in November 1993, when the Bełchatów mine was already storing all its overburden in another way, by backfilling the places where the whole coal seam had been extracted. On this huge spoil heap, at the start of this century, the Góra Kamieńsk Sports and Recreation Centre was established. It occupies the north-eastern slopes of the hill, which have the best aspect for how long and how reliably the snow cover lasts. As a resort built from scratch, and in an area where snowfall is unreliable, Góra Kamieńsk has modern snowmaking, floodlighting and relatively modern infrastructure (despite 10 years of operation). This consists of a four-seater Doppelmayr chairlift with a loading conveyor, 750 m long with a capacity of about 2,000 people per hour. On top of that there are two button lifts, one of which runs almost to the very top, while the second, shorter one is used for teaching. Along the lifts four pistes have been laid out, each more than 700 metres long, plus a training slope. In total skiers have more than 2 km of pistes, and the lifts' combined capacity is 3,400 people per hour. At the bottom, by the large car parks, there is a restaurant, three ski hire shops, a ski service and a ski school. On the slope skiers will also find a bar and a grill. There is also a snow park for freestyle fans. Besides the slope itself, the complex has an alpine coaster with a 391 m run and its own lift, and in summer you can ride bikes here (two downhill trails and 42 km of cycling routes). All in all, this is without doubt the largest ski resort in central Poland, superbly located (a few kilometres off the main Warsaw to Katowice road), with modern infrastructure. The drawbacks are the frequent lack of natural snow and long periods without frost, when even snowmaking does not help much. Besides, on winter weekends it gets really crowded. On the other hand, the idea of using a post-industrial spoil heap deserves full credit. It is also worth noting that the vertical drop (up to 150 metres) is not that small at all: many resorts in the Polish mountains can only envy it (and the infrastructure too).