Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Well it all began when a small Bulgarian gypsy girl started building a snowman on some hallowed ground just outside the white hart.
She gave this snowman so much attention and love, so much so that she used to talk to it as if it were one of her own family.
Anyway, just by chance, a strange old lady passed by carrying with her some mysterious bells. She saw the young girl chatting to her snowman and told her that she had some magic bells and that if you made a wish and rang the bells at midnight then your wish will come true.
Midnight came, the Gypsy girl shut her eyes and rang the bells as hard as she could. Suddenly the doors to the white Hart burst open and out fell me and a few mates. We heard the bells and thought it was closing time. Clearly it was the little gypsy girl teasing us, so we kicked her snowman over and went back inside where it was warm and cosey. That's all I remember of my first night in Pamps.

I was incredibly lucky in that the small Scottish village I lived in had a dry ski slope.

Started going as a small boy and on my first visit was handed skis, boots and pole and left to get on with it ... and much later ended up working there for seven years. They even let me go part time to get through college and uni.

We first got a snowboard in, I think, the late 80's. It looked the part but it was in actual fact just a thick bit of plastic ... no edges. It was impossible to control, and lethal!

The requests for snowboarding to be available at the slope got too numerous to ignore though, so me and a ski instructor went to Hillend in Edinburgh to get lessons on Burton Amps ... hard boards with metal plate bindings which could be used with ski boots. Lots of places did this as it meant they didn't have to buy a whole new stock of boots.

I bought a Burton Alp with the help of the slope and eventually got to grips with it on the dendix mat and on my weekly trips up to Glencoe ... putting both skis and board in the car until realising that the skis had gathered dust.

I'd always wanted to ski, one of my best friends had tried it but hadn't enjoyed his school trip and wasn't sure if he wanted to return. My partner at the time, now husband, wasn't sure but was willing to try so the three of us booked for Pamps Jan 2007. Finding this board was very useful as I had lots of questions, which people graciously answered. We jetted off but were disappointed that there was only an average of 6cm snow and therefore didn't know what to expect... It was a bad year for snow all throughout Europe!

Our instructor was Dimitar and despite the poor conditions we learned to ski and absolutely loved it! We love Bulgaria and have skiid in Pamps, Bansko and Boro and despite wanting to explore the resorts of other countries we will always return to Bulgaria as well.

Rach