Ski Suche

Suche is a small highland village in a valley climbing towards the village of Ząb, which sits on the broad ridge of the Gubałówka Foothills (Pogórze Gubałowskie). To the south it is bounded by the ridge that drops north-east from the well-known Gubałówka towards Poronin. It is on the northern slopes of this ridge that one of Podhale's youngest ski resorts lies: it was built from scratch and opened to skiers in the 2012/13 season. It is a typical small family resort of the kind that has been springing up in the Polish mountains in recent years. Its backbone is a Doppelmayr 4-seater chairlift, which covers 640 metres with a 137-metre vertical drop up to the ridge (its top station is a little over half a kilometre further east than the top station of the Harenda lift). Alongside it run pistes 40 to 50 metres wide, splitting into several variants that meet again at the chairlift's valley station. In all there is about 1 km of easy pistes. In the upper part of the slope there is also a short T-bar, and by the chairlift's valley station, near the car parks, there is a completely separate small area for young children with a short lift. By the valley station there is the inn with a regional menu that no Podhale resort can do without, as well as a rental shop and a ski service. The place is ideal for beginners and, despite its small size, has undeniable advantages. First, it is very well located, just 1.5 km from the zakopianka, the main road to Zakopane. The north-facing slope keeps conditions good for most of the day, and good snowmaking means surprisingly good conditions for such a low altitude: suffice to say that in the snowless 2013/14 season conditions here were the best of any slope, on a par with Białka Tatrzańska.