On our last day the weather did not please us at all - it was raining. However, this did not affect our skiing plans in any way. We arrived at the rose at 9.30, and were pleasantly surprised - there were no people, there was no queue at all for the lift.
We climbed in 15 minutes to a height of 1600 m with a transfer, first by chairlift, then by cable car, along an already worked out route. While we were climbing up on the chair we got wet through. Therefore, after a couple of descents I had to go and dry off in a cafe.
Restaurant Roza Ozero
There is a good restaurant on the Ozernaya highway - Roza Ozero. The prices are more reasonable than in “Vysota”, which we so wanted to go to (we really liked the fried suluguni with feijui jam), but the Peak was closed that day and we were not allowed up. As we understand, those with ski equipment are not allowed in.
Roza Ozero is very easy to pass by, despite the fact that the employees actively invite people passing by, we liked it most - it is new (it was still being built), the staff is polite, the food is tasty and almost inexpensive, it is warm, there are many cannons on which you can dry your clothes.
After drying off and having lunch, the skiing became much more enjoyable, and we never found a queue for the lift.
We got some benefits from the rain. Not to say that there were no people at all, but there was a lack of crowds and queues - exactly what is usually the biggest disadvantage at ski resorts during the New Year holidays. Many rode in raincoats, apparently experienced =).
In general, we liked it, despite the bad weather.
Photo inside
Where is Rosa Khutor located?
Rosa Khutor is located in the Adler district a little further from Krasnaya Polyana. You can get there by car via two parallel roads (intersect periodically).
The old road is through the Cossack Ford and the new highway through the mountain ranges. It’s better to take the new one, it has no traffic lights, bypasses Krasnaya Polyana, and leads straight into the hills of the city (Rosa Khutor)
Rosa Khutor Parking
We found out 2 options for parking at Rosa Khutor - the first option is in the Gorki city itself, there are several paid indoor parking lots, as a rule they are close (sometimes not very) to the ski lifts to the mountains - it costs 500 rubles for the whole day.
The second option was found thanks to the navigator last year, I don’t know how he got us there, but thanks to him for it, this year I had to search from memory, because... this time the navigator laid out a route to the center of the city and not a step further. By the way, it’s interesting, but 3 local employees did not answer the question of where the free parking is and where the parking is for the Rosa Stadium or the Wolf Rock ski lift.
In general, finding this parking lot is quite easy if you know where to go =). In short, when entering Gorki the city you need to keep to the left (as if bypassing) and go straight (there will be winding sections, roundabouts - straight everywhere) until you turn right right in front of the Rzhanaya River, if you don’t rush, it’s clearly visible, if you’ve passed, it doesn’t matter, then there is a U-turn and then we are allowed to exit through the median onto the Alpine Highway we need.
This road leads straight up into the mountains all the way to Rosa Stadium 940 meters. You need to drive straight all the time (there will be many exits) to the barriers - there they check the trunk and want to have a good ride). Continue a little further straight ahead to the exit to the right, it looks like there’s even a sign for Rosa Stadium and you can see some of the parked cars. You can park, you are there!
Don't confuse it with the parking lot on the left before reaching Rose Stadium, about 1 kilometer!
These are the views waiting for you in the parking lot of Rosa Khutor Rosa Stadium
As I wrote earlier, we arrived in Sochi at the end of December, that is, in the very season) And therefore we had a monumental opportunity to evaluate the resort at the moment of full loading and overload, because there were, to put it mildly, no vacationers and just onlookers these days few)
I’ll say right away that if you want to save money and are looking for a ski resort with budget prices, because Europe has become significantly more expensive, then I’ll disappoint you - this is not the place)) Although... if you do everything on time and correctly... but first things first )
Weather
The weather is quite varied) from rain, fog, to blinding sun and frost. There is a lot of snow. While I was getting ready to write this post, it had already gotten warmer and even in Krasnaya Polyana it was +7, so the snow above also melted and now there is no more than 2 meters, but only 1.9 m)) yesterday, however, when we were leaving, it was still falling , so today, perhaps, everything will be in place.
Since I’m not a snowboarder yet, I spend all my time at the bottom of the green slope, Rosa Plateau (1170 m). Here, when the weather is sunny, it even gets a little hot) But at the top, this is Rose Peak (2327 m), I went up there to admire it, it was quite frosty -11.
Dima’s parents were here last year in April, but even then the snow level was 2 meters, despite the fact that in Sochi itself it was already below +30C at times. I don’t know if they generate it artificially or if it’s a miracle of nature, but it doesn’t matter, it seems to me. In the same Slovakia at this time Dima was rolling on the grass)
Road
From the house we rent to Rosa Khutor it is about 45 km. It's about a half hour drive one way. The roads, as I mentioned earlier, are new and good, the interchanges are, however, tricky and the signs are not informative enough, but this is not only relevant for Sochi, as for me. For most of the way from home to Polyana, the road is mostly two-lane with intermittent markings for overtaking. For the local congestion, even during peak season, this is more than enough. Most often the limit is 90, in very bad weather - 60. There are cameras all along the road and they work)
Along the way we pass about 5 or 6 tunnels. After passing through each one, the temperature outside gets lower and lower. One is practically a passage to Narnia, because before it there is no snow, and after it it’s immediately winter
On the road, there is often a check to check the studdedness of the tires. Without them they can turn back.
I was unpleasantly surprised that in the tunnels along the road half of the fans did not work. Because of this, in dry weather there is dust in them, which looks like fog from the outside.
Why am I writing about the road? Since the prices for hotels in the resort itself are quite European, in order to save money you can try to find accommodation outside the resort and get to Rosa Khutor in this case by buses and trains. The cost of travel by train from Adler is currently 200 rubles, and by bus it is approximately the same. But, if you still want housing in the resort itself, then knowledgeable people say that it is cheapest in the former Olympic Village, the Rosa Ski Inn hotel at an altitude of 1170. You can see it here
Rose Valley
This is the most famous part of the resort below (560 m), with which tourists associate it.
I think they did everything very beautifully. In the evenings on weekends there is live music, and maybe not only) And in general, it’s atmospheric.
Walk there with a glass of coffee in your hands in a knitted hat and mittens, mmm...
But we are all on the run, as usual)) what kind of mitts and cups?! bags with thermoses, formula and diapers))
Parking
I want to tell you separately, because the topic is quite painful. There are quite a lot of parking lots in Rosa Dolina, but at the time of the wildest load for the New Year holidays, there were still not enough of them. It got to the point that they set up controls along the road and turned cars around as the sections became clogged. For example, when the first parking lot was full, we got up and turned into the ones that were there before. When these were full, we got up outside the resort and turned into the parking lots of other resorts (Gornaya Karusel, Gazprom, etc.), when everything was over there, and this happened for several days, we turned back to Polyana for a free parking lot, from where the bus was sent. I’ll say right away that standing somewhere along the road, etc., is not an option, it will be demolished by a tow truck. They let us through because we had a paid monthly subscription for the first parking lot, but even this did not guarantee that once you got there there would be a place to stand...
The second serious problem was already inside the first parking lot. The rest seem to be designed differently, there is no such problem there. When I saw this for the first time, the hair on my head stood out, I couldn’t believe that they could do everything so stupidly. The situation was like this: you enter the parking lot and run into a queue of people leaving, because they leave along the same path along which they enter. Separating is not an option! You can wait for hours until everyone leaves, when everyone leaves. And I already thought that this was the apotheosis of idiotic design, until I saw what the parking lot looks like on normal days. It turns out that the problem is not with the designers at all. Entry and exit there are really in one place, but each direction has its own lane. But there are people, and there are a lot of them, who consider themselves the smartest. These people parked outside the parking spaces, along the walls, occupying that very second lane, leaving only one for entry and exit! This led to the collapse. Where are people's brains?? Don’t tell me, I know... What amazes me most is that they park like that, damn it, even when there are still more than a hundred normal parking spaces. Because they, bitch, don’t want to go down and go up to the floor above, even though there is an elevator.
Now there are warnings on the walls everywhere that you cannot park along the walls. Do you think people read? Maybe they don't know how? I think only good fines could fix this...
There is also a road that leads up to Rosa Plateau, theoretically it would be possible to get there and leave the car there, I saw them there, but most likely they just won’t let you in there. Maybe someday we’ll try to go there too.
Nowadays the first parking lot is only full on weekends, but you can easily park in the rest, just take a couple of minutes longer to walk to the ski lift. The parking fee is 400 rubles per day.
Here you can see the first parking lot. It's a multi-story building in the lower right corner. It is located as close as possible to the ski lift, which is why it is more popular than the others.
Lifts
Now everything is fine with them, but during the New Year holidays there were huge queues, especially at Olympia for the descent. They were not designed for such a flow (This becomes especially critical when just onlookers go up to Rosa Plateau to gawk. In such a situation, it is better, of course, to go down from Strela; this lift is located higher for more experienced skiers, who, bypassing Rosa Plateau, rise immediately to Rosa 1600, from there you can also go down to Rosa Valley.
I think that after such holidays there will be significantly fewer people who want to come back here)
Regarding ski passes. Dima did everything very competently, he took seasonal ones as soon as we decided to go here, somewhere in the beginning of autumn, in my opinion. One seasonal one cost 25k then, a child's one - only 9k (this is for my brother). Now the price for it is already 40k. The difference is simply colossal. Therefore, it is better to do everything in advance. Taking others is not an option for us. Even for Dima’s parents, who are here only during their youngest son’s holidays and on certain weekends, a seasonal ski pass is more profitable than others.
And this is something from the field of nanotechnology, apparently)
Okay, actually normal lifts)
There are, however, a few that do not work. I don't know for what reason.
Trails
Probably, most who are curious about this topic are interested in learning about the routes, and not the parking lots)) But there’s a problem - I’m a beginner, so I was only on the green ones, which, by the way, are also of different levels. On the second day of my “skating” they dragged me to the very top of B52. I got down from there with great difficulty) Partially even on foot)) And why all? Because this part of the route, although green, is very narrow for beginners, with cliffs and wild bends at the very top. It was only later that Dima and I finally looked at the map of the trails and learned that for people like me, there is a “Plateau” trail, ideal for crawling out of the paddling pool. As you understand, I can’t say anything about the rest)
I tried to find out from Dima, he said: “the tracks are like tracks, go and have a look”)) By summer, probably))
All
I like the names here. They are so nice)
Reserved forest, Peshkov Bridge, Gazebo, Skazka and even there is the Veronica track, but it is already on the other side of the mountain)
At the height of Rosa Plateau, in a building with an information center, a canteen, and a school, there is also a locker
There you can rent lockers of different sizes from one to five places. Large lockers with drying, single ones - without, they are only for boots. It’s actually convenient, we have a five-seater for the whole season, so we leave all our equipment there and come/leave light. Costs from 7k for the whole season. But when we first arrived, catching a free locker was simply unrealistic. Only after the holidays did we manage to catch one, and while one was paying, the other was guarding) Such is the ill-conceived logic of renting. Now there are already free ones, albeit a few.
I was only in the cafe-dining room in “Winter”. It is located on the Rose Plateau. Prices there are at the Shokoladnitsa level somewhere. You can probably go a couple of times, but if you ride every day, then it’s not serious) That’s why we take food with us)
But this is not the only place, of course. We go there because it's next to the locker. Why everyone else goes there, I don’t know, since I saw three more of these cafes/restaurants at the same height, without looking too closely. So during the weekend there are long lines at the cash register and all the tables are occupied.
And this is a restaurant located on Rose Peak)
This is probably all that concerns Rosa Khutor. When there are not too many people, it is very good here. The rest of the time, as a teapot, it’s quite difficult for me to cope with a large number of other teapots on the track), but this is solely my problem.
There are other resorts, the prices there are slightly lower, they are located nearby, they say there are fewer slopes and it seems to be a little worse, but these are only rumors from passengers on the ski lift. It seems to me that people don’t know about them, that’s why they only go to Rosa Khutor, which is simply not designed for so many people (So know, there’s also Gornaya Karusel and Gazprom nearby, maybe it’s worth paying attention to them, if anything.
And this is me, the teapot. I asked Dima to record himself so that he could look at it from the outside. This is tough))) But now I understand very well what I’m doing wrong) It’s a shame, of course, but that’s how it is. Until mid-January, without a nanny, Dima and I took turns skating every other day, because someone had to stay with the children. Then I injured my left elbow, and the next day Dima injured his right arm and we hung out here for two weeks) I mean, even though a month has passed, I’m on day 6 or 7 here. But still...))
The media once flashed a message about 10,000 parking spaces on the territory of the Krasnaya Polyana ski resorts. Is it so? And can everyone who comes count on convenient parking near the cable cars and place of residence? I'll try to cover the topic to the best of my knowledge.
10,000 parking spaces - happiness for everyone?
I counted less than 6,000 official parking spaces. But taking into account parking in the courtyards of the private sector, mini-hotels, guest houses and hotels, which are private and not accessible to most visitors, the figure of 10,000 is quite realistic.
I will talk about publicly accessible parking lots and lots.
Scheme of Krasnaya Polyana parking lots
I got this diagram, seamless. The quality is not worse, but I tried to restore it. This way you can get an idea of possible parking locations.
Found the original map:
We must not forget that many parking lots are paid and the prices are not the most affordable. In general, 500 rubles for a day’s parking does not seem to be an exaggeration.
Please note that parking on the streets of Krasnaya Polyana and ski resorts is PROHIBITED! Tow trucks are working. They work “purely in the southern way.” Details from Veronica:
Zhenya RIDERHELP also writes about this:
Gorki City & Mountain Carousel
Entrance to the territory of Gorki through a barrier, with passes, guest cards and reservations. There is parking in front of the entrance, but it is unclear how accessible it will be.
There are no public parking areas on the territory of GG.
Laura - Gazprom
Powerful parking for 450 spaces - paid. Before the holidays it was 500 rubles a day.
Rosa Khutor parking scheme
There is a diagram on the resort’s website that shows mostly indoor parking.
But there are open-air parking lots on Rosa Plateau. In the area of the NAGANO and Wolf Rock cable cars, through the tunnel under the Olympic Mountain Village. Travel to them is not limited - I looked this evening, but no one knows how they will work and whether there are ticket offices for ski passes there. There is such a queue at the information center that I don’t have time to stand. I'll try to find out.
Separately about the Mountain Olympic Village. Entry is required with passes. They are issued to employees and hotel residents. You can also take a taxi to the hotel if you have a guest card or a hotel reservation. Parking on the territory itself is also prohibited, but there is parking and free parking, which will apparently be full.
There is a free parking lot in front of the mountain Olympic Village, but you won’t be able to park there and go to the ski lifts without a pass. And there are rumors that it will be banned.
Parking algorithm at the ski resorts of Krasnaya Polyana
To guarantee a place near the ski lifts, there is only one way out - to arrive as little as possible. There will not be many free places - they will be occupied primarily by those living in hotels. In fact, they are designed for them.
To solve the parking problem as much as possible, it makes sense to look for free parking (who can tell where they are?) and get to the resorts by bus. They run every 5-10 minutes.
It is worth paying attention to the parking lot on the site of the former Olympic bus depot - it is the largest with about 2,000 parking spaces. Located before the entrance to Esto-Sadok on the left.
I wish everyone a pleasant New Year and a wonderful holiday!
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We have equipped the next expedition of the Powder bathyscaphe in order to help you better navigate the slopes and ski lifts of the resort, not overpay and not put yourself in uncomfortable situations while skiing.
Part of the Rosa Khutor resort is closed. What to do?
Option 1: Due to avalanche danger the bay is closed O most of the resort.
After heavy snowfalls, large areas of resorts are closed to skiing - the precipitation increases the avalanche danger.
Rosa Khutor - most of the trails are closed
This is the most undesirable situation. On the Caucasian Express lift (the only one that takes people to the highest point of the Rosa Peak resort 2320 m), you can only go up to the Rosa 1600 m mark. Here you will be strongly asked to get off.
The entire left side of the resort (look at the map), the Southern Slope (the area facing Abkhazia) and most of the slopes on the right above this mark will be inaccessible for skiing.
Above this mark you can climb on two other chairlifts, running one after the other from the top station of the Strela lift (Skazka and Kaban lifts), but you still won’t get to the very top.
In addition, these lifts do not always work in case of increased avalanche danger.
In such circumstances, opportunities for freeride are greatly reduced, long queues form at the lifts, and people ride shoulder to shoulder on the slopes.
Option 2: Ober Khutor and Southern Slope are closed due to avalanche danger
Rosa Khutor - Ober Khutor and Southern Slope are closed
On the Caucasian Express you take off to the coveted height of 2,320 m, but they don’t let you go towards Ober Khutor - there are guards standing there and they are very sorry that they can’t let you in.
It is useless to persuade (and there is no need) - several years ago at the resort an avalanche fell right onto the highway and people died.
There are a little more slopes available for skiing, the Skazka and Kaban ski lifts are open, but in the high season (January-March) the slopes will still be crowded with skiers, and they will also form long queues for the ski lifts (read below for how to wait less in queues).
Solution: It’s best to call the resort at 8-800-5000-555 from the hotel or go to the local information site riderhelp.ru (information is updated by 9.00) and find out the situation.
If some of the trails are closed and it’s high season, it’s better to go to other resorts: Gornaya Karusel (now the Krasnaya Polyana resort), Gazprom and Alpika (part of the Gazprom resort).
The first one is also often partially blocked (for the same reasons as Rosa Khutor), but, in principle, there are slightly fewer queues.
At Gazprom, the level of avalanche danger is always lower than at the Rosa Khutor and Gornaya Karusel resorts, so the roads are almost never closed. But they may close due to the arrival of important people from our (or neighboring) government.
If there are none nearby (the roads are not blocked), then it is better to go for a ride here.
From experience, I have never stood in line at Gazprom for more than 10 minutes, unless I climbed the training slopes served by rope tows. There, not always successfully, beginners learn to handle this strange lift, as in this video:
Alpika, which has finally opened, is also a good option. Here, due to the lack of green and blue trails, there are few people, and the trails themselves are wide. This is also the only resort in Krasnaya Polyana where you can ski or board down to the lowest point of the resort. Let it be rolled out to the bottom in the 2019-2020 season.
(At other resorts, to do this you need to take off your skis and get on the ski lift).
There is another reason why Rosa Khutor creates crowds on the slopes and queues at the ski lifts - holding competitions. Here what they write about this on social networks.
In this case, it is better to go to neighboring resorts.
Why you shouldn't buy multi-day ski passes
Think about what is written in the previous paragraph and decide whether it is worth buying multi-day ski passes to the Rosa Khutor resort.
You may not save a couple of hundred rubles on purchasing multi-day passes, but you can go to another resort at any time.
In addition, ski passes at other Krasnaya Polyana resorts are cheaper than at Rosa Khutor.
Until the end of March, the cost of a day ski pass per adult is as follows:
- Rosa Khutor - 2,950 rubles (weekdays) and 3,450 rubles (New Year's)
- Mountain Carousel — 2,500 rub.
- Gazprom - 2,500 rubles (weekdays).
Avoid the Wolf Rock and Beseda ski lifts
From 11.00 to 14.00 (during the peak season - January-March), the Rose Stadium mark of 940 meters (marked on the map) can be called a bad place. People fascinated by wide roads Cascade, Nagano 98, Chamonix 24, Vancouver 10 They don’t suspect that they all converge in one place, from which no one was able to quickly get out (it worked, but more on that below).
There are only two chair lifts for skiers here. The first is a 4-seater - to say that it is leisurely is to say nothing - it is simply dead - with the appropriate name Conversation.
Lift Conversation
You can not only talk on it, you can also quarrel and have time to make peace, and then sleep.
One day, when there were 20 minutes left before the lifts closed, we decided that we would have time to ski again and sat down on Beseda. When we got up, the trails were already closed.
The other is a 6-seater, many times more powerful and faster than the first, but still does not have time to transport the vacationers who accumulate here.
In a queue where you can spend up to an hour, you often hear: if we had known, we would never have come here.
The area marked in red on the map will lead you inevitably to these lifts. To avoid this, do not go below the blue line Labyrinth And Triton(they go along the upper edge of the red zone), along them you will still be able to roll out to other lifts.
Trails leading to Volchaya Rock and Beseda - Rosa Khutor
But I don’t get too upset if I have to stand - I can talk to people, read text messages, tell my wife and daughter that I love them.
Other “prisoners”, having nothing better to do, take photographs of the huge queue and, to the delight of envious people who were unable to go skiing, flood social networks.
Content update 2019!
Just 100 meters from Wolf Rock, a new Dryad ski lift was opened. It is not visible from the ski lift, but if you ask, the staff will indicate the direction. In the two years of work here, there have never been queues longer than 5 minutes.
Solution: If you don't want to waste time in queues, then avoid going down the mentioned routes. Or accept the fact that you will pay with precious time for riding them.
For the sake of objectivity, it must be said that the peak of queues occurs between 11.00 and 14.00. At other times there are fewer people here.
There is another option for “prison escape” - a taxi. Having seen many heads on Wolf Rock, crowded helmet to helmet, we realized that we would not have time to pick up the children at the instructor school and called a taxi.
It appeared in 10 minutes, and after another five it took us to the Rose Plateau 1170 m, to the Reserved Forest ski lift. For 800 rubles, 200 rubles each. per person. A little expensive, but it is my responsibility to notify you of the existence of such an option.
Free parking and skip-the-line ski passes
Since we are talking about the negative things that await nervous people at the Rosa Stadium 940 m (this is where the Volchya Skala ski lift is located), we must also talk about the good. Since the 2015/16 season, free parking, sale of ski passes and rentals have been organized here. Not everyone knows about this yet.
While people suffer in the queues below (and sometimes go crazy, unjustifiably accusing ski pass sellers of being slow, it’s not their fault), you can calmly and for “zero” rubles park your car, buy a ski pass and rent equipment no queues or hassle.
You can view the route to Rosa Stadium using this link.
But below (Rosa Dolina 540 m) there are no free parking lots. But there is an opportunity to save money, read on.
Saving on parking at Rosa Dolina 540 m
Not all motorists, especially those who come from afar, as well as those who study the resort’s website, know that on the territory of Rosa Dolina 540 m there is parking for 800 rubles. per day, and there is for 400 rubles. These rates are the only ones that are suitable for skiers.
The distance between them is 5-10 minutes walk. In the picture I circled in red the one that costs 800 rubles, and in blue the rest - 400 rubles each. I always use P3, it is closest to the ticket office and lifts.
More information about rates and parking rules can be found on the resort website.
Ski passes at the Strela lift - shorter queues
Near the Strela lift (under McDonald's) there are ticket offices, the existence of which not everyone knows. You can also buy ski passes there. As a rule, the queues there are shorter.
Red arrows mark the main ticket offices (Olympia lift), blue arrows mark the ticket offices of the Strela lift.
People come to these ticket offices in waves when the resort announces the existence of an alternative, so it makes sense, upon arriving at Rosa, to immediately rush to Strela. This will give you a chance to get in between the tides. The life hack is not super-useful, but you need to know about the existence of other cash registers.
T-shirts The Powder from Krasnaya Polyana To choose your favorite design, go to our online store.
Parking on the streets of Rosa Dolina
You can leave your car outside the parking zones on the territory of Rosa Dolina for a maximum of 10 minutes. If the car is parked longer, it will not be towed, but the number will be blacklisted, and you will not be able to enter the resort for the next 2 days.
If you do not need to enter the resort territory every day, then you can break the rule once - do not enter the parking lot, but leave the car at the sidewalk and go about your business - you do not have to pay for parking and the car will not be towed.
But I don’t recommend overusing it, this can be done in emergency cases, I don’t do this myself, even though I have a store at the resort.
Also remember that the rules change.
How to avoid standing in line on the Caucasian Express
Some people don’t know (others don’t remember this in time) that there is another turnstile on the Caucasian Express lift - on the opposite side. To get to it, you need to go around the lift. This will take 5 minutes.
The red arrows mark the end of the queue for the lift, and the green arrows indicate how to get to the empty turnstile.
Anomaly! I write and am amazed, because many people know that there is no queue there, but they remember too late, when they can no longer get out of the queue.
This secret will help you save 20-30 minutes of standing in line during high season.
Warmth, soft chairs, coffee and ski-porn
Powder Store Inexpensive food at the Rosa Khutor resort
What is expensive, what is not so expensive, everyone decides for themselves, and I will express my point of view.
The cheapest places (250-400 rubles) are McDonald's and the cafe of the Perekrestok store (the latter is not very tasty, but the prices can be kept at 200 rubles or even less).
Let's surface!
For today, these are all the secrets that I know about the Rosa Khutor ski resort. Over time there will be more of them, because Krasnaya Polyana is developing at a rapid pace.
Do you have anything to add to what you wrote? Write in the comments. Blog readers will only benefit from this.
