Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Sorry, a footnote to my reply...
The airport ??? it is only my opinion but please people, you have eyes in your head. This is a mountain area, not conjusive to commercial airliners (the mountains are not signed well and tend not to be lit up), the uncertainity of the weather and the fact that it can change in ten minutes and the effect on the local natural area and wildlife (it`ll wake the bears). Ok, they may build a strip and small terminal and i suppose it is feasible for hopper type aircraft to use it from Sofia, Thessalonika etc but if you take into account the time it would take to change from the carrier aircraft, check in, baggage etc it will still be quicker to do the transfer which when the new ring road is complete in Sofia will be around two hours, short by alpine standards. And one last thing, `agents' Ooooo, you mean salesmen working on commission, believe every word they say

Steve C (sounding off a bit, im sorry )

Ok Steve, i will admit that if you are in a premier resort the likes of Les Arc, Tignes, Val Thoren etc whose lift system is geared to getting thousands of people up the mountain into a massive ski area i will accept that queuing is rare, pick a resort, lets say like Kirchburg in Austria, the queue for the cable car accessing the Hannakahm was unbelievable, the cable car leaving Zell am See was a similar experience, i could account for at least twenty other places. I am referring to similar sized resorts where the skiing is accessed by one lift. Economics dictate, a lift company will not install as in the case of Bansko a lift that is likely to cost millions of Euro just to cope with a rush in the morning. I skied virtually every day for nearly a month in Bansko last season and never queued for the gondola for more than ten minutes. Dont get me wrong, i hate queuing, and would love to walk on to every lift i come across, this has never been the case in small to medium resorts especially around national holidays, school holidays etc in the thirty odd years i have been skiing.

Steve C

No thats fair enough, and i have to say i have never skied in Austria but have heard similar reports from some of the resorts there with queing in the morning to get up the mountain. As i said i was speaking from my own experience but i was referring to Tignes, Val Thorens, etc. Another reason those high resorts don't have que problems is because exactly that, they are high and you can ski from your door or catch a number of chair lifts. I'd agree though that opening up the ski area in Bansko would be far more beneficial at present than building a new gondola, the area has the height and mountains to expand but obviously done so with as little impact on the natural environment, something that can be achieved easily with proper planning.

All valid points guys, the area does need expanding and hopefully in time that will happen. One little thing and maybe its something i may suggest to the ski schools here. Stagger the start times of the schools, the majority of the lost souls in the queue are actually going up to meet a group for a lesson, most at about 10.00am, their time they have to get onto the gondola is dictated. If the start times could be spread over lets say a two hour period, some earlier, some later, then i wonder if that would have an effect on the queues ??? Only a thought

Steve C