Yablunytsia ski resort

This is a mid-2000s travel note on the Yablunytsia ski resort, not a current status or price guide. Yablunytsia is a village at 960 m elevation on the highest point of the road from Ivano-Frankivsk to Uzhhorod. It was accessible by car or minibus from Ivano-Frankivsk train station or by narrow-gauge diesel train from the same train station. The resort is located between the highest mountain ranges of the Carpathians, but there is only about a 150 m elevation drop on the slopes. Runs were for beginners and intermediate skiers, with one reasonably short mountain. Slopes were not groomed, but moguls usually didn't form. There were five tow lifts at Yablunytsia - one on one side of the highway and four on the other side. Each of the tows belonged to a different owner, so you had to buy different tickets for different lifts, and the runs were on three separate mountains that are close but didn't connect to each other.
Often one or more of the lifts were out of order. Lines of more than 20 minutes' wait were usual on weekends.

Ski rentals and accommodations were readily available in Yablunytsia. The village itself is located right by the ski slopes, and there was a great souvenir market (actually, probably the best in the Carpathians) at the top of the pass that was often visited by foreign tour groups.

We recommended Yablunytsia for beginning and lower-intermediate skiers.

www.skiukraine.info

Places mentioned

Ivano-Frankivsk