Below are couple of pictures from my just-completed skying trip to Javorniky mountains with my family. We stayed at the Portas hotel. As usually I did cross-country skying every day, with my family doing mostly down-hill skying. There wasn’t much snow, but that did not curb my enthusiasm as in the elevations above 900 m there was enough of the white stuff to do decent skying. Outside of forest (logging roads, meadows…) one could ski even in the lower elevations. Nevertheless it was practically impossible to avoid hitting a snowless spot or a rock and as a result the base of my skis took real beating. I have to get a new pair – something I planned to do anyways, but the kind I want is on back order in most on-line retailers.
The weather was perfect – every day the temperatures were below the freezing point and most days were sunny with great views.
The map above shows where the Portas hotel is. It does not show though that it is located on a long narrow ridge about 950 meters (3100 feet) above the sea level – a quite important fact, as I am mentioning above with regard to the snow depth.
This si a picture of a Portas militia group that I met at the ridge one day.
The region’s mountains slopes and valleys were once inhabited by sheep shepherds and woodcutters who built their houses from wood – often solo standing, or in small hamlets. The pictures above show some elements of local architecture.
Picture of my father at the top of the Stratenec mountain. That was the last day of our trip and as it was windy and the air humidity was high, it was cold.