Karpacz Ski Arena

The ski area below Śnieżka, widely known simply as Kopa, is one of the oldest downhill skiing areas in the Polish Sudetes. A single-seat chairlift was built here in 1959 and, although it has been modernised several times since, it still exists and runs today in much the same form as when it was built several decades ago. In some respects that is quite an achievement, though it hardly earns the resort much credit among skiers. In the '70s the chairlift was joined by T-bars, built one after another in the upper part of the resort, and in 2000 a two-seater chairlift went up in the lower part. Today there are eight lifts in all (including the two chairlifts), and the pistes add up to almost 5 km. There are runs of every grade, including the famous black Liczyrzepa piste (alongside the old chairlift), 1,030 m long with an average gradient of 30%. Nature protection rules, however, apply here (the resort lies within Karkonosze National Park). Efforts to modernise the ski area on Kopa have been under way since 2007. In 2014 the Presidium of the Scientific Council of Karkonosze National Park finally issued a favourable opinion on the technical documentation for rebuilding the cable lift up Kopa in Karpacz. Modernisation of the whole area may begin in the near future. The valley and top stations will be rebuilt, and very substantially. The top station in particular is to be much larger: a four-storey building (two of its levels underground) with a panoramic restaurant whose shape echoes the "plates" of the observatory on Śnieżka. Besides the stations, the pistes themselves will be heavily reworked. The Euro piste will be widened, as will the lower part of the Jan skiway (to about 20 metres). The existing links between these runs will be widened and a new, wide connection added. The layout around Grosik will also change slightly: a wide curve is planned to bypass the steepest section on the left, so that less confident skiers can use the run as well. The sketch below, part of the original project documentation, shows the general outline of the piste plan. Snowmaking across the whole ski area is still an open question. Finally, the single-seat chairlift itself will be replaced by a telemix of 4-seater chairs and several gondola cabins. The modernisation should certainly restore this long-serving resort to its proper standing in the Polish part of the Krkonoše (Giant Mountains).