Tele Skiing the Beskids

A major low-pressure system named 'Emma' moved through central Europe last night, killing more than a dozen people in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, shutting down airports and knocking out power. We're far enough east that all we got was a lot of wind and a gloomy and rainy Sunday. What better to do than go skiing in Poland? We headed off north through Stara L'ubovna with the only clear skies around visible in our rear-view mirror. North of SL the road surface deteriorated as we headed up into the snow. Fortunately, this was only a minor pass and we descended into the rain again quickly. There's a nice wooden church in one of the villages here.

We could tell we were getting close to the Polish border by the sign and by the proliferation of small shops advertising 'Alkohol' - apparently Polish booze prices must be much higher that Slovak prices, since there were quite a few customers stocking up on Sunday morning. The actual crossing into Poland wasn't marked, but the road got even narrower. Huge chunks seemed to have washed out, so they just made it one lane - there doesn't seem to be enough traffic here to cause problems.



We found the road up to Wierchomla which appears to be a very nice hotel attached to a modest ski resort. The local mountains are known as the Beskids. The ski school claims to be the only one in Poland that teaches telemark skiing, and they had rentals, so here I was. Their biggest boots were just big enough to fit me, and the skis had the Black Diamond Skyhoy bindings which I'd never used before. I bought a punch card for 5 runs and headed up into the fog and snow. The first views were not auspicious:



All the snow on the runs is manmade, with a healthy mixture of dirt at the bottom of the hill. After an initial few hundred meters to adjust to the new gear, I got in some good turns on lousy snow. I was the only tele skier out that day - for that matter, there were only a few dozen people on the mountain. I did one run too many - my 5th time up the lift I was able to wring water out of my gloves, and I was sitting in a puddle. I really wish I'd made space for my GoreTex pants and gloves... But now I've added one more country to my list of places I've skied.



After warming up in the hotel, we headed to Stary Sacz, about 30km N from the ski area. Apparently, Sunday afternoon is a popular time in Poland and Slovakia for eating out, and we had no problem finding a restaurant. We had a hearty meal of Polish wheat soup with kielbasa, pierogies and potato pancakes with goulash. I washed mine down with a glass of Zywiec beer - tasted good, but I should have gone for the Zywiec porter. Next time...

I'll admit to having a juvenile sense of humor sometimes, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign at a small grocery - doesn't excactly make you want to buy that bottled water, does it?