Last July we reported that Skiways had become the new majority owner of RTC Žičnice Kranjska Gora, and that for them a gondola lift to the summit of Vitranc was a priority. The construction permit was supposed to have arrived by autumn.
Autumn 2017 has passed and there is still no news from the Upper Sava Valley. So we asked mayor Janez Horvat how – and if at all – the project was progressing.
The lower station in the place of the old 'anchor'
"The project has moved on insofar as we have received the consent of all land owners – individuals, the Kranjska Gora Farming Community and the Church," explained the mayor.
At the request of the new owner, the project’s designers are now revising the original plans for the lower gondola lift station. They discovered that a lot of space was needed in the lower part of the building – for maintenance facilities, equipment rental, catering, but primarily for toilets, the lack of which is at this time a burning issue in this ski resort.

What will be the route of the new gondola lift? The lower station will be built where the old ski lift Preseka is currently located, between the ski lifts Vitranc 1 and Dolenčev Rut. The lift’s steel cable will cross Preseka on its way to the summit of Vitranc. All Kranjska Gora ski lifts, except Preseka, will remain unchanged regardless of the new project.

The upper station will be at the very top of 1600m high Mount Vitranc. The route will include seven pylons and a 1800m long cable will pull between 22 and 25 cabins, each of which will hold 10 people. The capacity of this circulating lift will thus be 1000 persons per hour.

The cost of the project is estimated at eight million euros.

So when might construction actually begin? "Realistically speaking? Next year, or even 2020. I had been counting on this year, but as you see things have been delayed,' admits the mayor. He says that construction could be completed very quickly, in a matter of months, but it would need to be started in spring, immediately after the winter season. ‘We could start felling trees and preparing the groundworks in April, after which only a month would be needed for the build itself."
There is, however, one problem – The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning insists that, at the mountain top, the gondola lift and all catering services should be built concurrently. This means that the gondola lift installation and the renovation of both the dilapidated hut Dom na Vitrancu and the hut Mojčina koča will need to be undertaken at the same time. Like a number of hotels in Kranjska Gora, Dom na Vitrancu is owned by the Hit Company, whereas Mojčina koča is owned privately. The ski slope itself will also have to be renovated, widened by clear-cutting and protected against avalanches.

"In an ideal scenario, we could be skiing from the top of Vitranc by 2020," says the mayor of Kranjska Gora, adding that, in summer, the ski slope from the peak could be used as a trail of the Kranjska Gora Bike Park, which is currently located below Mount Vitranc.