Palenica

Szczawnica is one of the largest and oldest Polish spa towns, lying in the deep valley of the Grajcarek stream between the Pieniny and the Beskid Sądecki. Despite its huge role and importance for tourism in southern Poland, for many decades it remained undiscovered by skiers, who came here only on ski tours into the Radziejowa Range and to the mountain hut on Przehyba. Until the end of the '80s there was only one small T-bar below the summit of Szafranówka. Only the construction of the chairlift up Palenica changed the picture. Today Szczawnica is popular with skiers and its popularity is growing, especially as there are few places in the Polish mountains with better accommodation, from luxury guesthouses and hotels to rooms for every budget. Add to that the beautiful mountain setting and the charm of a spa town that is lively in winter too. The main ski area here is on the slopes of Palenica and Szafranówka, but visitors to Szczawnica also like to ski in Jaworki, Niedzica and Krościenko. Palenica (719 m) rises with its steep slope right above the centre of the town. A slalom piste was laid out on its northern slopes back in the '70s, but hardly anyone used it, as there were no lifts in the area to get you up. That changed when the chairlift was built in 1991: originally a 2-seater, it was replaced in 2005 by a modern 4-seater Doppelmayr chairlift, 780 metres long, with a capacity of 2,200 people per hour; the ride up takes about 3 minutes. A steep run comes down from the summit of Palenica, one of the most interesting in this part of the mountains, with a distinctive sharp right-hand bend. It used to be marked red and is shown in black on newer maps (in reality it is more of a red piste with just one steeper spot; marking the whole of it as very difficult is a slight exaggeration). On the other (southern) side, a blue piste runs down from Palenica to the wide saddle of the Makówka pass, from where two T-bars take you up to below the summit of Szafranówka (742 m). From here there is a superb panorama of the central Pieniny massif, with Trzy Korony (Three Crowns), Góra Zamkowa and Sokolica, behind which the majestic crown of the Tatras appears. You can ski the blue pistes along the lift or take the 2 km piste that sweeps in a wide arc down to the chairlift's valley station (here too the piste's colour was changed from blue to red, not entirely justifiably). In addition, below the summit of Palenica there is an alpine coaster, beside which a small snow park is set up in winter. In all there are four lifts (one of them a chairlift) with a combined capacity of 3,700 people per hour, and the pistes add up to more than 3.5 km. The resort is therefore bigger than it looks at first glance. Its biggest drawback is the final section of the pistes leading to the chairlift's valley station: it is long and flat and is crying out for a conveyor "carpet" or at least a simple rope to hold on to (such solutions sometimes exist at big Alpine resorts, so why shouldn't they work here too?). Another problem is the heavy foot traffic of hikers around the top and valley stations of the chairlift and on the pistes towards Szafranówka: you always need to stay alert and focused here. A different kind of nuisance is the cramped, paid car park. On the other hand, the long, open, scenic ridge of the Małe Pieniny (Little Pieniny) is superb terrain for ski touring, still waiting to be discovered by more ambitious ski tourers.