Tatranská Lomnica

Tatranská Lomnica. Tatranská Lomnica is one of the most beautiful resorts in the Tatras and also the second-largest and second most modern ski resort in Slovakia. No other resort in the Carpathians can match the altitude of its pistes, and it also has the longest run, more than 6 km long with a vertical drop of 1,300 metres. It is without doubt one of the finest places to ski in this part of Europe. The village has been tied to tourism from the very beginning: the Hungarian state planned it as a tourist resort from the outset and founded it in 1892. In the mid-'30s work began on a cable car to the summit of Lomnický štít (2,634 m), the second-highest peak in the Tatras; it was completed in 1940, by which time Slovakia was an independent state. You cannot ski down from the summit, however (except for experienced ski mountaineers), so at the end of the '50s the first chairlift was built here for the growing sport of downhill skiing. It ran from above Skalnaté pleso (Lomnica Tarn) to below the summit of Veľká Lomnická veža. The lift was opened mainly for skiers but proved inadequate for their needs, so in 1978 it was replaced by the current chairlift, whose top station stands at 2,196 m, just above Lomnické sedlo (Lomnica Pass). This is the highest point in Slovakia from which you can ski down a groomed piste. At the end of the '80s the ski area went into a slow decline, which ended when the Slovak company TMR bought the resort. A year later a hurricane-force windstorm swept over this part of the Tatras and flattened hundreds of hectares of forest. This made it possible to plan new pistes inside the national park without having to fell any trees. Within 10 years TMR had turned Tatranská Lomnica into a top ski resort with modern infrastructure, varied pistes and plenty of hotels and restaurants. The resort can be divided into three areas stacked one above the other. At the bottom, between the main car park and the Štart mid-station of the old cable car, are the easiest pistes: more than 5 km of them in this part of the resort, of which only one is red (and a fairly easy one at that). This section is served by an old four-seater gondola and two modern chairlifts: a six-seater running alongside the gondola and an eight-seater to nearby Buková hora. Above it, between Štart and Skalnaté pleso (Lomnica Tarn), is the terrain for more advanced skiers, served by a modern high-speed Doppelmayr gondola and a four-seater chairlift to Čučoriedky. Two wide red pistes, recently reprofiled, come down from the top and are fairly demanding, especially in their upper sections. Higher still is the terrain for the best skiers: a two-seater chairlift goes up to Lomnické sedlo, from where two black pistes lead down to Skalnaté pleso; one of them, the French Mogul (Francúzska mulda), is usually left ungroomed. From Lomnické sedlo you can ski all the way to the bottom in one go, which adds up to more than 6 km of piste and 1,300 metres of vertical, a figure worthy of many an Alpine resort. It should be added that the Slovaks have looked after not only the quality of the lifts but the rest of the infrastructure too: there are convenient, modern free car parks and a wide choice of restaurants and bars, including some more upmarket ones, while below the valley station stands the Humno music club, one of the best places in Slovakia for après-ski and an evening out. From a Polish skier's point of view, we can only look at Tatranská Lomnica with envy: it changes rapidly year after year, turning into a modern Alpine-style resort, which looks truly impressive against the sorry state of skiing in Zakopane.