Malinô Brdo

Photo: Ružomberok. Skipark Ružomberok is a ski resort about 2 km from the town of Ružomberok, on the slopes of Malinô Brdo (1,209 m) in the Veľká Fatra (Great Fatra) range. Ružomberok, one of the main towns of Liptov with 30,000 inhabitants, lies on the Poprad to Žilina transit route. It is just over 60 km from the Chyżne border crossing. You can come to Ružomberok for a stay of several days, using the town's accommodation or staying in one of the hotels at the foot of the ski area. Perhaps a more interesting option, though, is a one-day reconnaissance of the skipark's pistes during a ski holiday near Chopok, for example. Skipark Ružomberok has 12 km of pistes of varying difficulty (three black, one blue and six red), so there is terrain both for advanced skiers and for those taking their first steps on skis. The lift system consists of one gondola, one four-seater chairlift and eight T-bars (including five for children and one by the snow tubing run). Two black pistes are FIS-homologated. Unfortunately there is no evening skiing, as none of the pistes is floodlit. Most of them (60%), however, have snowmaking. The longest run, down to the valley station of the gondola, is 3.9 km long and is also the longest piste with snowmaking in Slovakia. From the summit of Malinô Brdo, reached by the four-seater chairlift, there are beautiful views of the Malá Fatra and the Low Tatras. About 2 km of cross-country trails have been laid out in the skipark (around the Malinné summit). In the area you can also go cross-country skiing on the Vlkolínske lúky meadows (about 5 km of trails). Snowboarders get no special attractions (apart from lifts adapted for them). In particular, there is no snow park as yet. It is, however, a good place to take your first steps on a snowboard. The area around the skipark, and nearby Ružomberok in particular, offers plenty of interesting and active things to do after skiing (including an ice rink, snow tubing, sledging, an ice climbing tower, paragliding, bowling, billiards and paintball). A remarkably interesting place well worth seeing is the settlement of Vlkolínec, about 10 km south of Ružomberok on a steep slope below the pointed peak of Sidorovo (1,099 m). It has eighteen permanent residents and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with superbly preserved traditional wooden architecture once typical of the area. You can also visit the year-round thermal springs at Bešeňová, 12 km away, or the Tatralandia aquapark in Liptovský Mikuláš.