Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Rather than have 2 threads on what appears to be a very quiet forum at this time of year Im putting two topics into 1....

Firstly how has the summer season been so far - I mean tourists & general weather conditions? I recall last year Steve C gave us the tfr and commented that it had not rained in months so dry so continually hot he so badly wanted some rain but none came and luckily for our 2 weeks in Aug it was wall to wall sunshine not a single cloud the entire holiday. Perfect & so much nicer than in the Med as in not humid in the evenings.


Secondly are there any changes to the mountian for the upcoming ski season that is known or has been found out ?
The 2012/13 ski season 20% price hike to cover the VAT which as I understand it hadn't been previously paid... owner taken to court and instead of absorbing margin simply upped prices - clearly a marketing expert understanding price to volume impacts.
I would argue price decreases outside of the weeks when the wait to get up the mountain are well worth doing- why more tourists will choose the destination higher footflow and all the business (many who are owned by the same company) would gain again. Seems utter madness and really demonstrates a huge lack of commercial nouce...
ANyway thats me ranting over - views/thoughts?

Also are Dobblerman (the lift suppliers and 20% owners of Ulen) still looking to buy out/gain controlling ownership?

Weather has been very changeable...... some weeks lovely hot sunny days and others torrential rain. Very different to last year and the year before. Been lovely this week but we are meant to be having storms again for the weekend.

Tourist numbers from our point of view are down. The town seems empty still. The gondola has finally opened up offering ski instruction, snowboard intsruction, tubing etc on the manmade slope. There are the childrens play equipment, the 5 a side footbal pitch, restaurant open and this year they are hiring bikes at the top of the gondola. Shite bikes I must say but a step forward. The only place you can bike up there is on the XC ski track as you are not allowed to ride on the pistes so this still is not any good for gravity riders or more extreme sportsman/women. Look on their facebook page for whats going on and pictures etc https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/funbansko?fref=ts

We(a group of local expats and riders) have been finding new trails for biking over the last few weeks and speaking with The National Park etc etc about the possiblity of using the lifts etc for gravity riding IE uplift and trails from the gondola to use. So hopefully moving forward with this. Still Borovets and Pamporovo continue to move their Bike Parks forward and are doing great things to improve their summer tourism. Bansko/Ulen still a way behind where MTB is concerned and promoting what else is available here.

Winter not a dicky bird!!!

Hi Gareth..

Wendy covered most, but you mentioned Dopplemayr, the lift installation and maintenance company. They actually have a slightly lower percentage of the Ulen company, but still represent a major share. It has been rumoured many times of their interest in the installation, and the desire to raise their share of Ulen. The future may offer them more opportunity, personally (and i stress this) my feelings will be that Ulen will move on to fresher fields, other possibilities with less legislation problems are available and perhaps they will concentrate on these. To have any possibility of a major ski lift company (2nd largest in the world) taking control of the reigns in Bansko would be a good thing. Their experience in the running of resorts surely allowing for Bansko to prosper, but with proper consultation.. maybe the most important being the 'clean sheet' aspect and maybe a better relationship with government, enviromentalists, municipality and local businesses alike... Time will tell
The only real issue this winter is the loss of the licence to run the new 4 man chair on Todorka The lack of an enviromental impact certificate effectively dealt the death nail for this lift in the highest court (5 judge) in Bulgaria, now deemed illegal. Now whether it will run and Ulen pay the fines (possible) or something else, i do not know.. but short of ripping it out and starting the process again the court decision cannot be reversed, so this will be interesting. To our knowledge nothing is being done for the winter (but you never know, this is BG) the summer has seen some activity at the top of the gondola, basically what was started last summer, and to this end, good on them, its a start.... As Wendy has said, we have taken pro-active measures to try to accelerate the mountainbike awareness, trail finding/clearing etc, and to this end we hope to secure the support of the National park and the municipality, effectively bypassing Ulen but even there we are hearing mumourings of interest, trail building and possibly an embracing of mtb generally....
The one thing i have come to accept here is that you never really know what is going on, you can be completely surprised somedays and either against all odds submit to congratulating people on their eventual decision... or bash your head against the nearest brickwall in desperation...