TRIP SUMMARY: HARRACHOV (30 December 2004 – 2 January 2005)
The snow conditions were not great on Thursday and Friday. The official base was 30cm. In some places there were many bare spots and it was very difficult going. In other places the snow was decent. Because of the Christmas-New Year rush, the qeues were very long on Thursday and Friday. It started to snow Friday afternoon, and snowed through the evening. Conditions Saturday morning were quite good. The bare spots had been groomed and the additional snow (and some man-made snow) made it more skiable. The qeues were short on Friday; in most cases we could ski right up and take the next chair. On Sunday the temperature was slightly above zero, so there was a rain/snow mix at the base; there had been very little new snow Saturday night. Given the conditions, we decided not to ski on Sunday and returned to Prague early.
There are two quad lifts at the resort. Both go to the top of the mountain, and there is a small, flat (slightly uphill in some places) trail to get from one side of the mountaint to the other. In the afternoon, the Rýžoviště side becomes less crowded, as most people have hotels or pensions on the Harrachov side, and want to make it back to the Harrachov side before the lifts close.
The intermediate run on the Harrachov side tends to get congested at the bottom because there is a tow-lift that takes people about half way up the mountain, and these skiiers merge into those coming from the top. The Rýžoviště side of the moutain has three runs: one beginner (blue); one intermediate (red); and one expert (black). The expert run was not open, but that didn’t stop some people from skiing it. The red run was quite good, especially on Saturday, and was not very busy.
There is a snowboard park with a couple of rails, but no half-pipe.
One of the only real chances to get some air is near the bottom of the run on the Rýžoviště side, if you stay to the left of the trail, there is a small ridge you can jump from before getting to the bottom – but be careful, there can be a lot of traffic in front of the lift, and the landing was very icy becauase of all of the traffic.
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We stayed at the Sporthotel Rýžoviště (
http://www.hotel-prague.us/accn-sporthotel-ryzoviste, or
http://www.hotel-pension.cz/hotel.php?hid=73). The hotel is right at the bottom of the Rýžoviště quad chair lift, so in the morning we took our skis out of the lockers, stepped into them, and we were off. The accomodation was spartan, but clean. The service was very good, both at the front desk and in the restaurant. The cost was CZK 570 per person per night – this was during the peak New Years weekend. The cost includes parking and a locker for ski equipment – we were able to get two pairs of skis, boots and poles into one locker. It is a 15 minute walk to Harrachov.
Summary: basic, no-frills, accomodation with ski-in/out in Harrachov/Rýžoviště.
Recommended restaurant: Verde Rosa. Prices were reasonable, the salmon is excellent, as are the pizzas. It is a small restaurant (ten tables) and the service is excellent. They also run a small pension (
http://www.hotel-pension.cz/hotel.php?hid=453) if you’re interested in staying in the village of Harrachov. It is short walk/ski to the Harrachov quad lift.
