Krasnaya Polyana (Красная Поляна in Russian) is a ski resort located at the Western end of the Caucasus, in Russia, near the city of Sochi and the coast of the Black Sea. The resort should host the snow events (alpine and nordic) of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Krasnaya Polyana is a village located at an altitude of 600 m, surrounded by mountains of more than 2 000 m altitude. Krasnaya Polyana is located at a distance of 60 km from the center of Sochi by road and at a distance of 40 km of the Sochi-Adler airport. Its closeness to Sochi, a famous sea resort on the shores of the Black Sea, made it already a popular touristic destination at the time of the former Soviet Union, in Winter and in Summer, despite limited hotel capabilities and installations. The loss of Caucasus by Russia, following the breakup of the USSR, has made of Krasnaya Polyana one of the most sought after ski resorts in Russia; this is the favourite skiing place of president Vladimir Putin.
Krasnaïa Poliana is offering today many chalets, hotels and restaurants. Its reputation owes a lot to the development of heliskiing in the middle of the 1990s, which provides access to an important skiing ___domain. The amateurs can perform descent in the middle of a not too dense birch forest over a declivity of 1 700 m. The station has four chairlifts (lowest station at 600 m and upper station at 2 200 m) and 12 km of delimited tracks.
Coordonnées : 43°41′N 40°12′E / 43.683°N 40.200°E
2014 Olympics venues
- Russian National Sliding Centre - Luge, Bobsleigh and Skeleton
- Psekhako Ridge - Biathlon, cross-country skiing and Nordic combined
- Roza Khutor Alpine Resort - Alpine skiing and snowboard
- Alpika Service Mountain Resort - Freestyle skiing
- Russian National Ski-jumping Centre - Ski jumping and Nordic combined