Planica, Slovenia

Planica. Pronounced like “pizza” with a “plan” = Plan-izza. 

Planica is a place you want to learn to pronounce. You’ll be hearing it a lot in the lead-up to the 2023 Nordic World Championships in Planica, Slovenia. Planica isn’t a village. Technically, it’s the name of a valley in the northwestern corner of Slovenia, less than 10km from the 3-country border with Italy and Austria. For all intents and purposes, Planica is a Nordic ski venue. Specifically, a ski jumping venue, best known as host of the final ski flying World Cup of the year, the last weekend in March. That’s this weekend. Since the cross country World Cup season is over, this event is worth tuning into, likely on Peacock.

The hill record in Planica is 252m set in 2019 by Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi...only 1.5 m shy of the ski flying World Record. That’s further than two football fields, goal-post to goal-post. Sunny skies in late-March offer a stunning backdrop to the skiers flying through the air with the Julian Alps in Slovenia’s Triglav National Park towering in the background. As the last competition of the season, the wax cabins turn into a post-comp party after Sunday’s team event. All the jumpers bring traditional food from their country and serve their competitors. Think burgers from the US, sausages and beer from Germany, waffles with brown cheese from Norway, traditional ramen noodles from Japan and even fresh rainbow trout from Slovenia, caught nearby in the Sova River. Na zdravje!!

The Planica ski jump infrastructure has been in place since the 1930s, but their cross country infrastructure has developed mostly in the past 10 years. My first time in Planica was for a Europa Cup competition in 2007. At the time, the cross country course was mostly etched into an open field in the middle of the valley. Since then, they have built an Olympic Training Center, wind tunnel for ski jump training, Ski Museum and 3-story parking garage that doubles as an indoor ski tunnel in the summer--one of the most impressive facilities I have seen.

In the winter, the Nordic center fills with skiers from Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, who make the one hour drive to ski the trails in the heart of the Julian Alps. The trail network is FIS homologated for World Cup competitions and goes across the border into Italy. For the 2023 World Championships, there is talk of the 30/50 km marathon going from Tarvisio, Italy along that trail, finishing in Planica, similar to the point-to-point Engadin course in the World Cup finals last week. A fitting finish to the international championships.

Interested in skiing in Planica? Lumi Experiences offers several trips to the region. This summer, visit the Fischer & Salomon factories in Austria, ski the Dachstein Glacier above Ramsau, hike in the Julian Alps and ski in the tunnel in Planica on our Factory Tour Trip. If the trip is cancelled this summer, we will be offering it in summer 2022 as well. Want to watch the World Championships live in Planica? We already have rooms booked and are taking early reservations. Email me directly if you are interested in getting on the list: info@lumiexperiences.com.

See you on the trail!
Garrott Kuzzy
Lumi Experiences
Cross Country Ski Vacations