Bansko – a real winter tale!

Bansko – a real winter tale!

The ski area around the almost unknown before some years small town, called Bansko, is on it’s way to become one of the most developed and provided with all utilities ski resorts in Bulgaria. The place became famous among the enthusiastic skiers during the last 10 years.

A hard push for improving of the facilities was made mostly the last year, when the concessionaire Yulen Co. started the building works for improving the equipment in the ski center. It continues even now, during the winter season. Two helicopters are crossing the sky above the mountain all the time, carrying concrete and heavy metal constructions. Four new ski runs with the numbers 1, 3, 5 and 8 are already working. The older ones are widened and cleaned from roots, bushes and stones.

All the ski runs in the resort have new numbers from 1 to 13, despite of their old names. They have coloured marks according to the international standards for difficulty. Ski run number 8 is the ex learning children ski run, in the area called Shiligarnika (the first station of the four seats lift). It is longer now 800 meters and it has a new lift, from the anchor type. The expected from everyone new lift - gondola type, must be ready, according to the projects at the end of February, but after 2 weeks bad weather in December, the building works were delayed a bit, so probably it will start functioning March or April.

The first station is just behind hotel Strajite, close to the road going to Shiligarnika. The gondola will bring you up to the area called Bunderishka poliana for 15 minutes. The capacity of the lift is 2400 passengers per hour. The working speed is 6m/sec. From Bunderishka poliana, you can reach the height of 2540m (almost to Todorka peak) with two four seats lifts with shields against wind and heavy rain or snowfalls. The first lift will be 1560 meters long and the second - 960. Their speed will be 5m/sec. Capacity – 2500 passengers. This means that the whole equipment of the resort can handle 4500-5000 customers per hour. And…no more long queues for the lift.

The idea of making two small seat lift, instead of one, comes from the different meteorological conditions. Like that, they can be used always – when up is cold and windy, the skiers can take only the first lift. And the other way around – when the spring comes, the skiing is possible only at the top, because most of the heavy snow is still there and down the grass is already green.

A new ski path from the top will go down to Bansko. It will cross the main ski runs at some points for facilitation of the eginners. According to the chief of the ski school Yulen, Mr. Hristo Plevenliev soon there must be created a specialized ski police, which should observe for incapable skiers, which can damage or endanger the health of the other people on the ski run. He mentioned also that the ski teachers in his school are very high qualified, most of them are with 2 languages and have long experience.

Another new ski run situated on the so called Plateau will have special equipment, which can measure the time for the natural born competitors. It will work with counters at the price of 2 lv. and everyone can check how fast he is. All the lifts are controlled by a modern computer system connected directly with the main company - the Austrian Ski-Data.

The new lift passes are actually special electronic chip-cards, for which u pay deposit of 8 lv. more (over the normal price) and recharge everyday. So, on the return of the card, they are giving u back the 8 lv. Some more words about the night life in Bansko. It is not so impressing like the wild nights in the other two main resorts, Borovets and Pamporovo, because this is a town with quiet local people.

The place is full with taverns and pubs. Two of the most famous are Dedo Pene and Molerova kushta. There you can mainly…eat. A lot. Usually surrounded by some musicians from a folk orchestra. It is exotic somehow and interesting to see it the first 2-3 evenings, but not more. The 2 or 3 discotheques (No name and the one in Strajite hotel) in town are a bit strange, because of the strong presence of the hot tempered local youth. My advice is not to mess with them. However, Bansko is more family oriented vacation village. The next big event on the gorgeous ski runs, will be the International snowboard extreme competition (13-16 February), which promises to gather together the best snowboarders around and to provide great entertainment and show for the spectators.