Chairlift to Pustevny

The chairlift from the Ráztoka station, which offers a comfortable ride to Pustevny (1018 m above sea level) with an interesting bird's-eye view of the landscape, is inseparable from hiking in the Pustevny area. Its boarding station is located near the Ráztoka Hotel in Trojanovice at an altitude of 620 m.

A similar view of the Trojanovice valley as we can see today was enjoyed by visitors as early as 1940. Trips to Pustevny and Radhošt’ to see the iconic sites of the Beskydy Mountains are still very popular.

The chairlift, which takes families with small children and prams, elderly tourists or cyclists up to the top, is a big contributor to this. It is even busier in the winter season, when the chairlift seats are also occupied by skiers.

The construction of the original chairlift took place in an incredibly short time and under extremely unfavourable climatic conditions, with frosts reaching almost -30 degrees Celsius. On 8 January 1940 the foundation of the upper station was started.

A test run was held on Saturday, March 3, 1940, and regular service began the following day. More than 3,000 people were transported in the first month. At the same time, seven freight cars were used to transport visitors’ luggage. In 1956, the ČSD started a general reconstruction of the chairlift. The mechanical and electrical equipment was modernized and the original supports were replaced by steel truss structures.

The conveyor rope carried 89 new seats, at a speed of 1.7 m/s the capacity increased to 321 passengers per hour and the journey time was reduced to 8.1 min. It was in regular service until 31 December 1982. During its existence it carried nearly 6 million passengers.

At the end of the 1970s it was decided to replace it with a new chairlift. It was built between 1983 and 1986 and began operation on 1 January 1987. The supplier of the new cableway was Tatranský podnik miestneho průmyslu of the Poprad district in Kežmarok. It is a single-rope orbit Tatrapoma TS-2 with two-seater seats. The lower station is located much lower in the Ráztoka valley, so the inclined length of the ropeway has almost doubled.

The new route has a total elevation gain of 400 metres. There are 162 seats every 20 metres on the transport rope, its capacity is 720 persons per hour at 2 m/s in summer and 900 persons per hour at 2.5 m/s in winter. The chairlift carries over 200,000 people a year.