About 130km directly south of Wrocław lays a mountain ‘resort’ named The Black Mountain. Czarna Góra, as it’s known in Polish, is probably the nearest ski resort to Wrocław. But the thing is that once you get in the general mountain area about 120km south of Wrocław you hit the mountain region of Sudety and you have quite a few lifts to choose from. All however a too far apart from each other forcing you to pick just one for your one day ski trip.

I was very impressed with the quality of the lifts themselves at the Black Mountain resort. It’s mostly spankin’ new equipment with 4 people lifts that take 15 minutes to reach the very top of the mountain. Well, 15 minutes total, waiting in line and all; I timed it just to see how many times per hour we can snowboard down the mountain. There were 2 main lifts with smaller ones serving all the learners out there. Most everyone here wears a helmet for safety. It’s mandatory for everyone under 15 years of age and recommended to everyone else due to the number of douche bags on slope. People here ski fast, really fast, with a complete lack of imagination of what can happen if someone just in front of them takes a dive. I’m no ski expert, but it seems to me that people in the States are more careful and pay more attention to their surroundings on the slope.

Making things even more interesting was snow making equipment blowing snow all over the place all day long. It was kind of fun to see and snowboard trough a wall of snow the first few times, but once it got cold and windy I hated the fact that there was snow all over the place being blown right into my face. I was thankful to my goggles that I bought just a day earlier, without them I’d be sitting this trip out over at the lounge.

And speaking of the lounge, you have no idea what weak beer tastes like until you order yourself a pint of Lech at the official Lech Beer stand in Czarna Góra. Holy crap it was the most awful beer flavored water I have ever tasted. I know that most all beer in places like that is watered down more than usual, but for God sakes leave some beer in it!!!

While sitting on the lift I noticed a whole lot of mountain bike routes down below. With wooden ramps and jumps it must be great to ride during the summer. Luckily my bike is on its way so I’ll find out soon!

Half of the photos here are courtesy of Michał, a buddy of mine who I went with on this trip. I’m not skilled enough to board and record at the same time.