Koziniec

Photo: SN Koziniec. Czarna Góra is one of the most picturesquely located villages in Polish Spisz, a region that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918. To the west it is bounded by the Białka river, which once marked the border, and to the east by the slopes of Magura Spiska, rising above the village to more than 1,000 m. In the southern part of the village, on the slopes of one of the side ridges, the Koziniec ski resort has been operating for several years. It is a small but quite well laid out resort whose backbone is a 4-seater chairlift, 650 m long with a vertical rise of about 130 metres, climbing to just below the summit of Koziniec: fairly gently in its lower part and much more steeply higher up. Parallel to the chairlift in the lower part of the slope runs a T-bar, and near it a short hand rope tow for beginners and children. These lifts serve quite a number of pistes: two run parallel to the chairlift and are marked red in their upper part, while the third, blue all the way, swings down in a wide arc to the chairlift's valley station. All the pistes can be topped up with machine-made snow and are floodlit. This simple but well-equipped resort has a large free car park, a traditional-style inn with a children's corner where you can leave the little ones in care for a few hours, as well as a ski rental shop, a ski service and a ski school. The biggest advantages of this family resort are the small crowds compared with the neighbouring resorts and the superb views: the pistes face south-west, and in good weather you can admire the Tatras in all their glory as you ski, while picking up a tan at the same time. The same position that provides the great panoramas is also one of its bigger drawbacks: the snow quickly turns wet here and unpleasant piles of loose snow build up on the pistes, while in spring and during the halny (a warm foehn wind) the snow cover disappears faster here than elsewhere (the slope is not only sunny but also exposed to the wind...). All in all, it is a good alternative for beginners, especially when the larger, better-known ski resorts are mercilessly crowded. Koziniec is part of the TatrySki region, covered by a shared ski pass, which also includes Białka Tatrzańska, Kluszkowce, Jurgów and Czarna Góra Litwinka.