Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi Nicola, we live in Samokov and have been bringing our grandchildren here from the UK for skiing in Borovets for the last three years, they are nearly 6 and 9 years old now. We have found that from 5 years old they can progress really well, before that age it is good to get them on skis, but not to expect too much, just let them enjoy the experience and have fun.When they are young they do not really have the strength or the concentration to want to ski for too long, they want to make snowballs, roll in the snow or ride on a sledge. But once it all clicks and especially when they can manage a drag lift they are off and skiing, children have no fear and a low center of gravity so they have a big advantage over an adult learner.

This year we have had excellent snow conditions which has seen all the runs open at Easter, as we are locked into school holidays this has been the best year we have had with our grandchildren and they can now both ski Markudjik 1 and the Musala pathway.

You could say we are biased because we live here but we think Borovets is a good place to learn, it is possible each day to move on to a slope that is a bit more challenging, after one week a lot of children will be capable of skiing blue slopes.

Hi Nicola
I am sorry that as a first time user of this forum, you found your enquiry hijacked by one of our 'regular' trolls who will find fault with all things Bulgarian at every possible opportunity! I do hope that this hasn't put you off using the forum and asking other members any further questions about Bulgaria or about skiing in general.

As a first time user - can I suggest that you choose a different name for yourself on this forum - as 'Nicola' is already in use by someone else with 180 posts? Make sure you let us know what you choose!

Hi Nicola, yes we did meet Steve and his friends in the summer sitting outside of Sunnys restaurant in Borovets. Sandra overheard one of them mention the Spider bridge and she used to live not far from Allenton so that started them talking. It turned out that one of the group used to work with Sandra's sisters husband at DHL. As you say a small world.

Hope the comments on skiing for kids was useful, you will see in one of the replies from Emjay who stayed with us this season about his son learning with Hunters ski school, one of the reasons that works so well is that for this season the children's groups have had two instructors with them.This makes it much easier to the keep the lessons running, there is always one that will want the loo, and the little ones need help with carrying their skis and poles. Also when it was very icy and slippery a horse taxi was provided to take the children from the depot to the nursery slopes.

we brought out a kids ski team for the fourth year running this year to borovetz (Mr M as cyrillic is a phonic language i dont think there is a 'correct' way to spell Boro in english!!!) there are two main reasons for this, one the FIS childrens races (again mr M will know all about this as apparently he is an 'ex racer' if i have managed to decipher his posts correctly) and the other is that I feel that if you can ski Boro you can ski anywhere and its a lot better for the kids to learn technique on varied terrain. Last year our youngest 'racer' was 6 hes now 7 and tears down all the blacks with the others. British racing has come on leaps and bounds (again as an expert on this mr M will Know this) Dave Ryding was 2nd in the Europa race in Pamps this year, and Brit Racers are far higher up the rankings than any BG racers! So whilst its true skiing on carpets and motorways (thall confuse him) is better in USA and some French resorts, Boro is better to actually learn how to ski on real terrain
Have a nice summer everyone, sking for us isnt over, loads of plastic races and indoor in the ski domes and race training in Landgraaf alongside the Swiss ladies ....again....... such a hard life

That's fine FR
Enjoy your skiing !
Just noticed that as before you were up and down the forum defending anything BGish this time round there is nothing to shout.
Corduroy skiing can be found in any resort under the sun when it comes to off piste skiing then it becomes a ittle rarer to find good places.
There are not any good BG skiers at the moment because there is no money for kids most of the wealthy ones go abroad with parents and most never come back.
As tourists orientation of the BG resosrts go they have deteriorated and have shown that there is not only cash now and run away for good after not looking proper after the very young and catering for the boozing brigades of tourists which have decided to have a drown of a sessions and directing the image even further down.
With old and AFTER. END DATE facilities like the gondola in BOROVETS (for you Fr this is the way to write that place) which is 10years out of possible service and some drags there. And zero investment for the future Boro is in danger to be dead in few years.
In other places in BG where they have poured money(Ban4ko) they have created resort in 900m above the sea level and builded like mad flats which no one wants, which is crazy as well.
Like the good old Pamporovo which is fighting to survive in the world of high mountain resorts and reliability of the snow and with its 1900m above the sea level can only smiles every 10 years or so when there is better than normal snow levels to make it possible to use the runs for skiing not Ice glading or skiing in ''la soup''
Or even like Vitosha which although next door to a Capital has stayed shut(how dumm that can be) because of one persons stupidity.
With so many difficulties and bad managements in all directions BG resorts have the clocks running out unless something magical happens and things start moving fast.
If not there will be people including a lot of the regular forumers on here which will have for life unselable Tiny properties in places with zero future with locals going away to better pastures.