Mariborsko Pohorje — Attraction in Maribor

On 26.12.2021. Maribor Pohorje ski resort – Closed slopes are not indicated properly. The only sign is ONE small round road sign on a pole (smaller than the usual road sign size) at one side of the slope only, that is impossible to notice in the fog. No orange cordons, yellow tapes, flags of any kind. Nor there is a sign at the upper station of the cable car indicating which slopes are open. On the website it says park is open till 4pm (screenshot proof), clicking on any slope does not bring up more information. Nothing indicates that the slopes are closed at the lower part, the only way to get down to the bottom of the slopes is the cable car. As a result people continue skiing down to find after approx. 300 metres a slope full of rocks and patches of ground. As a result, three pairs of skis and an alpine board were damaged before being taken off to walk down. There is absolutely nobody from the management or anybody responsible for the maintenance of the ski resort, nor do they take any phone calls on a Sunday afternoon at Pohorje ski resort. On Monday morning I file a complaint at the office. They try to show me that clicking on the slope on the website will give the right information, but it does not work for them either. They state also that the closed slope was indicated according to Slovanian standards, there is no need to put any cordons or tapes in this country. However later on that day a cordon and a big yellow “closed” banner appears on the spot. The manager calls me on Monday evening shouting on the phone (recorded with his consent) that they do not take any responsibility for me and my 3 children skiing down on a closed slope, and threatening me of pressing charges against me for doing so. I have been skiing for over 40 years, I have never seen anything like that. Shame on...

We came at an unfortunate time (last week of January, so middle of winter), during day it was 4-5 degrees at the mountain. Nevertheless, we asked in advance: Will the snowcannons be used? Answer was yes. Well, they weren't.

We were beginners, and only 2 blue tracks were open at the Maribor side. One which had magic carpets. Though you cannot get onto the second magic carpet, it was so slippery. Easy to fiix with a rubber pad, but instead of fixing it, they had someone stand there and help people onto it. Other blue track was icy as hell, not even nearly smooth. Alternatively you could take a bus at the top. Which was completely inconsistent. Ticket office at the bottom said every 15 minutes. Well, we waited at least 30. Then the bus driver came, and he drove on the serpentines like a madman. I know he knows the road, and never misses anything, but many of us became sick and dizzy from how he was driving. Then backwards too. Just ruins a lot of your day if you take that bus. So we only had the 2 blue tracks, the short baby track and the icy, bumpy track.

Only reason I'M not going to 1-2 star, is because they still tried to smoothen out the tracks, and the lifts were working. Staff spoke English and was generally helpful and nice. Only the lack of snow, and the lack of using snowcannons to have some tracks actually operational was the issue. Which is a big issue if...

So the thing that at 15.55 they did not let us to ski down the hill, because: "the slopes are closed for today". Why could we not ski down? We did not want to come back up on the hill, just reach our apartment by skiing down. It did not make any sense. The slopes were not handled and get cleaned up every night, so it was actually dangerous to ski down on a friday afternoon. The buses traveling between Bolfenk and Areh, their time schedule is very rare, the bus is going only in every hour, so it was always full, you had to sit with your skiis in your hand. The buses should be starting more often. They should use actually more signs, because we did not actually know where are the tracks. The workers were so nice to us, everyone spoke in english, so it was easy for us to...