The demand for skiing has been continually rising in the High Tatras. Due to the natural conditions in the area, the terrain in Tatranská Lomnica is ideal mainly for less experienced skiers, beginners and ski courses. This is what the resort of Tatranská Lomnica is famous for.
“The Tatras are preferred mainly for relaxing skiing, ski courses and clubs if they are offered good training conditions. Many locals as well as tourists still remember Jamy as an ideal location for such activities. By restoring and modernising the resort, skiers could enjoy new slopes that are needed in Tatranská Lomnica because the turnout numbers are growing,” comments Dušan Slavkovský, the general manager of the mountain resort of Vysoké Tatry on the reasons for skiing restoration at Jamy.
“The resort of Jamy is attractive because besides easy pistes, there are great conditions for creating a piste for more advanced skiers which could serve for training of ski clubs and young ski racers. Most of the pistes are east-facing, which is very special and guarantees operation of cableways and lifts also in strong wind and better snow conditions,” adds Mr. Slavkovský.
The plan is to build ski pistes including a snowmaking system which is necessary to operate a winter resort at similar altitudes nowadays. “Our suggestion should meet not only the needs of skiers but also help solve the traffic situation in Tatranská Lomnica. A new resort entrance and a car park with connecting cableways as the main means of transport are crucial for that,” says Mr. Slavkovský.
The offer of accommodation and gastronomy facilities will be extended too as a tourist hostel** with a restaurant shall be built inside the building of the former water treatment plant which is not used anymore. The facilities will be opened all year round.
Suggested ski pistes and cableways respect the terrain and environment
New cableways named Jamy 1, Jamy 2 and ski pistes are planned to be built behind the southwestern edge of the built-up area of Tatranská Lomnica. There are 3 versions of the suggestion that differ in the location of the cableways or their pylons or the location of the ski tracks. When designing the pistes, it was mainly the territorial conditions and buffer zones of the local water source, other nature and landscape conservation elements as well as the connection to the existing pistes that were taken into account. Night skiing should be restored in the complex of Jamy too. It has been officially allowed but is not offered at present.
The pistes of Jamy have been designed to get connected to the already existing slopes. That is why a new resort entrance (multi-purpose building) needs to be built so that skiers could use interconnected cableways to get to tge ski pistes without taking their skis off.
The entrance shall replace the previous one which is old and does not meet the required criteria. The access from the planned car park will run across a bridge over the road, the existing car park and the adjacent pavement. The original entrance will be renewed and the old ski lifts of Jamy will be dismantled.
Better traffic conditions thanks to a car park and a planned train stop
The current traffic problems in Tatranská Lomnica need to be solved as soon as possible because they will be getting only worse due to the expected turnout increase at the resort. The suggestion of the Jamy restoration includes creating a car park on the western edge of the built-up area in Tatranská Lomnica above tram rails.
By increasing the capacity of car parks in Tatranská Lomnica, the critical traffic situation should be helped and the number of cars looking for available parking spaces inside the settlement or occupying spaces designated for local inhabitants should be reduced. The suggested car park location on the edge of Lomnica will significantly reduce the number of cars passing through the settlement and has been already approved by the inhabitants and local authorities. The connection to the suggested car park had been included even in the project documentation of the roundabout that was built last year.
The car park is expected to be used all year round, also outside the winter season, mainly for the purpose of various cultural-sports events. There will be enough space for offering additional services at the car park too, e.g. bike stands or an EV charging station.
The traffic situation in Tatranská Lomnica might be helped also by public transport, e.g. by increasing the number of train stops. The project submitter aims to create a train stop in the area of the planned car park located near railroad no. 184 of the Slovak Railways between Starý Smokovec and Tatranská Lomnica. This means skiers and other tourists could use public transport to come to the Tatras and get off the train comfortably right next to a ski piste.
History of skiing at Jamy
The idea to create a training sports complex in the area of Jamy was born after the success of the World Championships of 1970. A lot of support was offered to create better conditions for Slovak skiers so that they could take part in significant international events to come, such as world championships and Olympic Games. Schools were supposed to be the first stage so a school sports club was created at the primary school of Tatranská Lomnica in the school year of 1972/1973. Several successful racers grew up there and represented Czechoslovakia or Slovakia at Olympic games, world championships, junior world championships, universiades and world cups.
Jamy was established as a complex ski resort that offered of a slalom track with a ski lift, the so called 500, two ski jumps P-35 and P-55, as well as summer and winter cross-country skiing and running tracks on the Golf meadow and in the area of Jamy. Both ski jumps were later covered with plastic and man-made snow was used there as well as on the ski slopes.
Another ski piste, the so called 1,000 or Zadné Jamy (Back end Jamy) was opened only for a short period. The access from there to the lower station was very difficult and ran from the upper station of the 500-lift across a clay road. That is why it was not so popular and used by skiers only rarely. Various ski club races were held there but for financial reasons, the piste and the ski lift were both closed around 1986.
Once the complex was bought by the Tatranské lanové dráhy (TLD) company, only the 500piste with a snowmaking system were opened and used mainly for ski courses and physical education classes of schools from the region. A lighting system was installed for night skiing. The resort was used by the ski club of Lomnica for a long period. For several years, it was opened all day long – for pupils from nearby schools and their PE lessons in the morning, for the wide public afterwards and for night skiing that was popular mainly with people from the area in the evening.
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Tatry mountain resorts, a.s. (TMR) is the leader in tourism in Central and Eastern Europe; it owns and operates attractive mountain resorts, amusement parks, restaurant facilities, sports services, shops and hotels. In the Low Tatras TMR owns and operates the resort Jasná Nízke Tatry and hotels Wellness hotel Grand Jasná, Boutique Hotel Tri Studničky, Chalets Jasná De Luxe, Hotel Srdiečko, and Hotel Rotunda. TMR is also the owner of Aquapark Tatralandia, the largest Slovak aquapark with year-round operation, which besides water entertainment includes Tropical Paradise, a special tropical indoor hall with sea water, as well as Fun Park, and accommodation in bungalows and apartments of Holiday Village Tatralandia. In the High Tatras TMR owns and operates the resort Vysoké Tatry with mountain areas of Tatranská Lomnica, Starý Smokovec, and Štrbské Pleso, which TMR co-manages. In the High Tatras TMR also owns hotels Grandhotel Praha Tatranská Lomnica, Grandhotel Starý Smokovec, Hotel FIS Štrbské Pleso and Mountain hotel Hrebienok. TMR also owns a 9.5 % share in Melida, a.s., which leases and operates the resort Špindlerův Mlýn in the Czech Republic. TMR also leases and operates the ski resort Ještěd. In Poland TMR owns a 97% share in the mountain resort Szczyrkowski Ośrodek Narciarski S.A. (SON), a 75% share in a company that owns and operates Silesian Amusement Park (Śląskie Wesołe Miasteczko) and a 7.3% share in an amusement-educational project via the Polish company Korona Ziemi Sp. z.o.o. TMR also owns and leases hotels Slovakia, Kosodrevina, Liptov and Ski&Fun Záhradky a Bungalovy to third parties. By the end of 2017, more than EUR 300 mil. had been invested into development and modernisation of TMR’s resorts. TMR shares are traded on three European stock exchanges – in Bratislava, Prague, and Warsaw.