Slovakia Ski Team?

[billski]

I was skiing at Burke Mountain, Vermont yesterday 3/27. About 4 chairs ahead of me was a fellow with a jacket emblazoned with "Slovakia Ski Team" on the back. He was skiing alone and gone by the time I got off the lift on top. I never saw him the remainder of the day. No one I asked knew anything about the fellow.

To explain my interest, my ancestors came from Slovakia and I have quite a few friends there. It's a very small country and it is rare to see someone from Slovakia, let alone a skier!

It seemed a little suspicious since the jacket was in English. Can anyone add to this?
Thanks,
Bill

 

[dmc]

To explain my interest, my ancestors came from Slovakia and I have quite a few friends there. It's a very small country and it is rare to see someone from Slovakia, let alone a skier!

I know a few people at Hunter that are Slovak...
Racers and ski patrol...

 

[Greg]

I'm part Slovak (father's side). Not sure which generation on his side were immigrants though. I want to say my great grandparents...

 

[ctenidae]

There's a whole town in Arkansas near where I grew up called Slovak. Not much skiing there. Not many people or much of anything else, either, but the Catholic church there is huge. That's about all I know about Slovak.

 

[dmc]

That's about all I know about Slovak.

That and the Slovak girls are pretty hot...

 

[billski]

I should write you sometime about the ski areas in Slovakia. I have a whole book of ski maps. "Rinky-dink" operation on some serious inclines is probably the best way to describe it. Addition of a "Chairlift" is considered going upscale.

Slovakia is due east of Austria. They ski in a mountain range called the "Tatras". The prior communist government put these things in, you know - the old style - equality (and mediocrity) for all philosophy. They are mostly all very old surface lifts with shacks called lodges. Not much grooming or any snowmaking/no money. It is really cheap to ski - perhaps $5 for the day, some serious terrain can be covered if you are hardy and flexible.

 

[dmc]

I should write you sometime about the ski areas in Slovakia. I have a whole book of ski maps. "Rinky-dink" operation on some serious inclines is probably the best way to describe it. Addition of a "Chairlift" is considered going upscale.

I hear it's awesome

 

[teqeeler]

are the chairs nuclear powered :lol:

 

[billski]

Nuclear

are the chairs nuclear powered :lol:

yea, powered by these suckers of soviet design, dubious safety records...

 

[ctenidae]

Heh- Soviet design. I always thought there was something attractive about how the Soviets built things. So utilitarian, so industrial. Really, so ugly. Kind of like most (emphasis on most, so as not to offend anyone) Russian women over 30. Babushka!
Considering the Slovakian ski resorts are mostlikely the result of Soviet design, it'd be interesting to compare them to any that might have been built prior to the Soviet era. Warsaw is a great example of what I'm thinking. The parts of the city that were leveled by the Germans and the Soviets were rebuilt in Soviet concrete-and-cinderblock style. Wide streets (better for driving a column of tanks down), ugly, square buildings. The old parts of Warsaw, and most of Krakow, are way cooler, kind of Amsterdam-ish.
Okay, random thoughts. 2 bourbon's down, dinner's on the stove. Still. I bet the best Slovakian skiers of yesteryear were coopted to the Soviet team early on.

 

[billski]

High Capacity lift...

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High Capacity Lift. Reminds me of Rte 95 at rush hour.
Nice snow, anyways.

Velka Raca, Slovakia

Got new chairlift? Got crowds!
Jasenska dolina, Slovakia