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Similar Mountain and tourism c, Rosa Khutor Alpine Re, Alpika‑Servis, Laura Biathlon & Ski Comp, Mount Akhun | ||
Gornaya Karusel (Горная Карусель) is a sports and tourism area on the Northern slopes of Mount Aibga in Estosadok, Sochi.
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Sochi snowboard tour day 1 gornaya karusel
Skiing area
From the launch pad in the valley bottom (540m) three new gondola type ropeways bring the tourists up to three transfer levels (960m, 1460m, 2200m). The uppermost station on Mount Aibga opens a 360° panoramic sight and with two chair ropeways one reaches the adjacent peak in the east (Circus 2 and Circus 3). The skiing area called Gornaya Karusel is not to be confused with the two Olympic venues Gazprom Mountain Resort (with Laura, the biathlon and cross country centres) and the snowboard/freestyle and Alpine centres in Rosa Khutor (Роза Хутор).
History
The sports complex now promoted exclusively under the Russian name Gornaya Karusel (literally Mountain Circus) used to be referred to by the company name Аlpika Service (А́льпика-Се́рвис) which from 1993 on had constructed the first ski lifts for the vast skiing area on the northern slopes of Mount Aibga. In 2008, Gazprom bought the company for a low price and started to promote the area building new ropeways and several hotel villages to host tourists coming to Krasnaya Polyana during the Olympic Games 2014.
Alpika Service was closed due to controversial court decisions and it was rumoured that the governor of Krasnodar, Aleksandr Tkachyov, a high-ranking official of Vladimir Putin's party, had made several authorities to close Alpika Service and to bankrupt the company.
