Bulgaria Ski discussion board

I have just returned with a large group from Pamporovo. I have enjoyed the resort over the last 15 years, have made great friends with many of the locals from Pamporovo, Smoylan, Cheplare and Varna. I consider them to be good friends but before departing on Saturday I wished them all the very best and told them that I would not be back in the forseeable future.

1) The business people in the Pamporovo Resort are getting too greedy. 6.50lev for a 500ml bottle of coke. it's 0.95lev in Cheplare-Enough said on the prices.

2) The snow conditions have been dreadful over the last two seasons. The lift infrastructure is very poor. It has been the same for years. The only thing that has changed is that hundreds of new apartments have been built. Too many people and no infrastructure to cope. Snow canons don't work even when the temperature is right.

3) The medical facilities are dreadful. I had occasion to visit the medical centre on the mountain as one of my party, which comprised 90 people had a bad fall. Although the doctor was helpful, the x-ray machine resembled something from the 1950's. The medical centre on the mountain had no medical equipment worth talking about. No resuscitation equipment, poor hygeine standards and outdated basic equipment. The ambulance was a Land Rover with an old metal bed in the back-no defibrillator, oxygen, drip, or basic medical facilities. God help anyone who took seriously ill on the mountain.
I also noticed the ambulance in the resort parked outside the Murgavets Hotel-it looked like an old school bus with a bottle of oxygen strapped to the back of the front seats!
In conclusion the medical facilities are non-existent.

I may come back to Pamporovo in 5 years or so but many things must change.

Bulgaria is now in the EU but to justify this the infrastructure must be put in place comprising roads, medical care in the ski resorts, pricing policies, ski facilities etc.

If things don't change sooner rather than later Bulgaria will loose out to better and mor economical ski resorts.

Just back from Bansko today and I echo your concerns with regard to medical facilities.
My son broke both his arm and wrist whilst snowboarding and the pain and suffering that he endured was totally sickening.
The break in his arm was very nasty- he broke both the bones, think ulna and radius ? and he was given a shot of local anasthetic(sp) before being pinned to the bed and having his arm manipulated back into position.
He was screaming for gas and air- anything- but wasn't given anything else for the pain as they didn't have anything.My lad is not a wimp either-he was run over by a car a couple of years ago and broke his femur, and he said the pain he experienced in Bulgaria wasn't a patch on his broken femur.
I also have first hand knowledge of medical assistance in Bansko. I fell on red run 12 in Bansko and sustained a concussion which couldn't be treated at the private medical centre as I wasn't doing too good. I had total memory loss of my accident and the previous 2 days( I couldn't even remember my son had broken his arm !) so was transferred to Razlog Hospital.
I was discharged from Razlog Hospital yesterday afternoon and I have to say I have never been in such a hell hole.
The lack of hygiene and sanitation is an absoloute disgrace at best , and a real danger to it's patients. The toilet that I had to use was covered in all sorts of nasties, with a bin at the side of it overflowing with bloody dressings, toilet paper ,any everything else that you might imagine.The floor was a running sewer.
The nursing staff didn't speak english and all needed a lesson in what soap was. The nurse who shoved my drip in had black grime and muck under her finger nails,and I'm sure that this is the reason I know have an infection in my hand where the drip was situated.
The staff didn't give a damn that I was in a lot of pain where my drip was and on 2 occassions the drip became blocked so they forced a syringe full of water into the canula, which was damn painful. It worked the first time, then the same thing happened again-this time they tried to force the water through and it just shot back out.By this point the canula had 'tissued' so all the fluid was being fed into my hand instead of my vein-it swelled up to 3 times the size of the other hand. The nurse just shrugged and couldn't care less so I began to remove the drip myself.She stepped in then when she realised what I was up to and removed it, not before giving me a telling off in Bulgarian !
This is just the tip of the iceburg and there's so much more I could add to this post, but I will do a full report in due course both on here and on Skidvd.
Please please be aware of what you will be up against if you are unlucky enough to have an accident whilst in Bulgaria.
We are now looking at going to Italy in Jan 2009 instead of returning to Bulgaria.

All due respect Damo, you can't chose where you have an accident !
My son's broken arm was no fault of his own-my daughter actually crashed into him lol !

As for my accident is was just that- I caught an edge and had a tumble -simple as that.

I was with an instructor at the time and it was just one of those things.

With regard to where I was treated,I paid for private medical insurance and expected to be treated in a private hospital ,to be honest.

I was told by the taxi driver who picked me up from the hospital that even the locals don't go to Razlog hospital unless they really have too !

I wouldn't chose to do that anywhere, Bulgaria Austria, or Italy !!!