Winter Season in Tatra Mountains Coming to End, Influenced by Warm Weather

       Vysoke Tatry, April 12 (TASR) - The unveiling of a new memorial plaque commemorating the visit of British Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 at Hrebienok on Friday symbolically ended the winter tourist season in the High Tatra mountains.
        Although it'll still be possible to ski at Strbske Pleso and Tatranska Lomnica during the weekend, the Tatra people are slowly getting ready for the summer. Tourism official Lucia Blaskova confirmed that the exceptionally warm weather was the main reason for the winter visitor numbers. However, the numbers were partly increased by hikers.
        "We've recently received the results as of the end of February from the Statistics Office. They show that the winter season was very well started, January was very good, in February the temperatures began to rise, so ski tours and so on dropped out. As for the number of overnight stays, we exceeded last year, but we haven't yet caught up with the successful years before the pandemic," she said, adding that the visitor numbers will also be affected by the March results, including Easter, when visitors took advantage of hiking in addition to skiing.
        Manager of the Vysoke Tatry mountain resort Lukas Brodansky confirmed that it was the warmest season in Slovakia's history. "Since January, we've had only a few frosty nights, the slopes were slightly frozen, yet we managed to keep skiing for a month longer than in other resorts in Slovakia. This is thanks to the higher altitude, but also to the precise technological preparation of the slopes," stated Brodansky, adding that there are currently still three metres of snow on Lomnicke sedlo.