Vitosha

Vitosha

by Mr. BulgariaSki

Friends, I can say only few words about skiing in Vitosha today -GREAT, GREAT and GREAT. The weather was perfect: sunny and no clouds. Temperature around zero, snow brilliant (some 120 cm cover). The best skiing area is near the Aleko chalet, where the main 2-seat Romanski lift takes you almost to the top of the mountain (Cherni Vruh).

There are few very nice pistes, with no trees or bushes. Going down on the slopes there is starting a pine forest. On these slopes there are few drag lifts, one of them is taking you for few minutes exactly to the top of the mountain. From the top is starting a very pleasant piste going down and connecting to the last station of Romanski lift. Further down this piste splits into 3 other red runs. It's a shame that Vitosha was not developed into a proper ski resort. It has a lot to offer to the skiers and snowboarders. During the communism in our country, they built some hotels and big number of chalets here. Unfortunately these were not improved and generally the standard of accommodation is too basic. Some of the accommodations are even closed. The lifts here are quite old fashioned but to be honest they do the job. There are 3 main lift areas in Vitosha. Each one of them has a different company operating it and a separate lift pass is required for each area. If anyone of you wants to come here, I would recommend the area of Romanski lift, because it covers the best runs and its lift pass is valid for most lifts around. The 1 day lift pass there costs 13 EURO for adults and 8 EURO for children. The half day lift pass starts from 12.30 and is valid till 4 pm, it costs 8 EURO for adults and 5 EURO for children. Romanski lift itself is a 2-chair one with total length of 1970 m, height difference of 505 m and capacity of 600 persons per hour. It will take you to the top of the mountain for about 15 minutes. From its last station you can take a drag lift which goes exactly to the mountain peak (Cherni Vruh). The same lift pass s valid for 3 other drag lifts in the same area. The other lift area in Aleko area of Vitosha is the one of Lale 1 and Lale 2. These are 2 pistes connected to each other with 2 lifts.

These pistes have more trees around (see my previous photo report, it has been done at this area). The third skiing area in Vitosha is located on the other side of the mountain and consists of 2 relatively short pistes called Konyarnika and Vetrovala. These can be seen from Cherni Vruh if the weather is clear like today. All of us who live in Sofia are really lucky to have this beautiful mountain with excellent skiing conditions so close to our city. It took me about 40 minutes today to reach the skiing area by car from the place where I live in Sofia. There are about 5 km to pass from the city centre to where the mountain starts and another 15 km going up in the mountain to reach the skiing area. It is very convenient to go by car, there is plenty of parking space near the slopes. The other option is to take the Gondola lift, it starts from the outskirts of Sofia. Even it was not day off today (Friday) the slopes were full of local people who where enjoying the great skiing. In the weekends there are more people than Borovets or Pamporovo. People coming here say they wouldn't change skiing in Vitosha for anywhere else. I recommend you come to Vitosha if you are in Sofia during the winter. You can't find here the great night life of Borovets and Pamporovo, but you can enjoy great time on the slopes. There are few hotels near the slopes and we will include them in this website very soon.

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