Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Apart from the Mt Blanc tragedy, The Alps were in the news for another reason last week.
Pretty much everyone knows that last winter (06/07) was a poor one in Europe , but was it really as bad as all that?

Nobody can dispute that around Christmas and New Year, snow conditions were desperate. images of grassy slopes and idle snow cannons made the news around the globe, as if they provided certain evidence of Global Warming.
However, it wasn't long before the snow arrived and although it was rarely deep at low altitudes, higher resorts did pretty well and snow depths above 2000m were average or better than average. Apart from a late start, the season was typical of the prevailing North Atlantic Oscillation that brought a lot of warm and moist air off the Atlantic . If you are in any doubt, just take a look at the record of snow-depths at a resort like Tignes over the past 15 years and the NAO pattern is obvious.


Lately, several tour operators have been blaming the media for sensationalist and inaccurate reporting. Nothing new there, you may think, but what’s unusual is that most of the anger is directed towards the BBC who have been accused of running images of green slopes in news reports long after they were covered in snow and of course this probably led to cancellations and falling bookings even after snow had fallen.

Well for a start - Tignes is almost an all -year resort as it is basically glacier skiing so that has no bearing on the climate in Bulgaria,

Having skied Bulgaria now for 15 consecutive years I can assure you (and I went in December and February last season) it was the worst year for snow by a mile for many years and there was nothing typical about it whatsoever. I don't go with this Global Warming thing - it just happened to be a bad year and that happens every now and then. Nor do I blame the BBC as I found their reports last year to be very accurate.

However, we are having some pretty crazy weather of our own at present and it does seem that the seasons have lost the plot - so lets just hope normality returns this winter and we can all enjoy some quality skiing.

PP