Ski Poland

Poland is home to more than 70 ski centres, although many of these are small ski hills where several different drag lifts are run in isolation from one another by private owners. Almost all are located within the Tatra mountains.

The most famous Polish ski resort however is Zakopane, which was originally a seventeenth century forestry settlement before becoming a Mecca for intellectuals in the nineteenth century and most recently its main ski town with half a dozen separate ski areas dotted around it and offering more than 50 lifts between them.

One of the pioneers in world skiing Zakopane hosted three FIS World Ski Championships – two of them before the last World war in 1929 and 1939 and the last in 1962. IIt has also hosted three Winter Universiades in 1956, 1993, 2001 and it is a centre for other winter sports besides downhill skiing, particularly biathlon, crops country and ski jumping and has been host to Biathlon World Championships, several Ski Jump World Cups, and several Nordic Combined, Nordic and Alpine European Cups.

Nearest to the town is one of the largest, Kasprowy Wierch, which offers high Alpine skiing (a rare opportunity for those who ski Poland) in two treeless bowls.