Mariborsko Pohorje: the back story

About Mariborsko Pohorje: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Few cities have a ski area like this one. From the southern edge of Maribor, Slovenia’s second city, a gondola climbs through the forest of Pohorje to a plateau of pistes, and in the evening the slopes stay lit, so you can ski down almost to the streets of the town.

A city mountain

Pohorje is a long, wooded massif of rounded summits that rises straight behind Maribor. Transport has run up it since 1957; today the Pohorska vzpenjača, a gondola with 64 cabins built in 2009 and a new middle station added in 2023, climbs 714 metres in about ten minutes, from 328 metres at the edge of town to 1,042 metres among the beech and spruce. The city bus G6 runs to the bottom station.

Pistes for every level

Above the gondola, Marprom, the public company that runs the area, counts 25 runs and about 35 km of pistes together with Areh, on the sunny side of the mountain: about 22.6 km of blue, 9.9 km of red and 2.5 km of black, served by 13 lifts and three magic carpets. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings about 7 km stay lit from 6pm to 9pm, down from the top of the gondola via the Čopova piste to the Snow Stadium, and in the slots after night skiing the slopes open for traditional pležuh sledges.

Take the city bus to the gondola, and ski.

The Golden Fox

Pohorje is the traditional home of the Golden Fox, the women’s World Cup slalom and giant slalom, raced on the steep course above the valley station. In recent snow-short winters the race was moved to Kranjska Gora.

Every budget

An adult day pass cost €42 on weekdays in 2025/26, and night skiing €36. Areh adds an Elan test centre, cross-country skiing and a terrace restaurant with views over Maribor, while Funpark Žigart, renovated for 2025/26, has 12 features and its own lift. In town, Maribor is a wine city, with the world’s oldest vine growing on the façade of the Old Vine House in Lent.

Our advice: ski Pohorje by day and by night from a hotel at the foot of the gondola, and keep an evening for the wine bars of Lent and one for Hiša Denk, a short drive north in the hills.

Mariborsko Pohorje in brief

From Marprom (visitpohorje.si) and Visit Maribor (visitmaribor.si), October 2026.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Mariborsko Pohorje: the back story before you go.