Bulgaria Ski discussion board

hi all
second time at bansko, had a great week last year but this year.....
firstly no boards or ski's came on the flight from newcastle, later found manchester the same story (balkan), spent 1.5 hours in airport filling forms. some people only had the rags they were wearing! hired a board/boots for the first day, good conditions but only 1 chair lift running so very heavy queues.
day 2. shut the gondola at noon, leaving second day learners to navigate the 8km ski road home, still only 1 chairlift running, board turned up that night.
day 3. full mountain access.
day 4. the same, mid afternoon, coming down the edge of a run at mach speed and 2 elderly skiers that were waiting at the edge moved out into my path without checking, had nowhere to go apart from digging my heels in and hoping to stop, stopped about 2 feet from them, whilst doing so pulled a muscle in my calf. day over.
day 5. bomb scare. all shut. no info given about what was happening.
day 6. the same
gondola queues in the morning after 9.00 are a nightmare, took over an hour one day.
2 of the party had board lessons, worst tuition i have seen, they learnt more in an hour from myself than with 2 days from the instructor, he spent most of his time texting than instructing!!!!!
all in all a poor week, conditions were great but the whole place just seems to be unorganised and the reps and the lift operaters just either dont know or just dont care.

it will be the last time at bansko for myself and most of the people we spoke to.

but on a good note it is still very cheap, and conditions would have been good if the place was open, the amount of building work and the mess can be overlooked if your on the slopes every day, but the place aint too pretty for a stroll about when your bored!!!

hope everybody thats heading there have a better week than we did and hope the snow conditions are good.

russ

So Mr Hurricane is there anything else u want to add.
Thanks Russ for the info.So in short---5 hours transfer(plovdiv and 2.5 hours from sofia if you are lucky,low place, ugly in town where you will spent the apres ski,reliance on only one gondola to take you to ski area ,massive queues (I remebber I had to fight very hard with pressure from all sides to keep my children alive-nearly like Hassel disaster just before you go on to the gondola- pure nightmare).the same experience had almost every friend which has tried the Bansko and its gondola.Of course if you go at lunch time or before 8.30 you will be ok.much better just drive up to the new 4 seater chair area (to the eastern side of the ski area).The future looks not rosy for very ambitious Bansko-with the amount of hotels staffed with appartments which will be filling up with hopefulls for a holiday from next year.Bansko will double in size for next year so whatever is now it will be manic next season.this is called uncontrolled growing which is bound to cause alot of problems and the environmental issues with Bansko will be greater and I bet by then will be heard outside the country and mark down.