Weather Forecast: End Of Ski Season Video

As the Bansko ski season comes to end, the snow on Monday made for excellent ski conditions higher up yesterday — and today they are good too. With lower temperatures, it’s looking reasonably okay until the end of the last day of the ski season, which is on Sunday 11th April.

It’s a fine time to make a trip to Bansko. Please come and enjoy the end of season parties, and get that final run in. There’s still snow. There’s 20% off lift passes from Ulen, the lift operator.

How Was The Ski Season For You?

Mountain Reflection On Gondola

How was your Bansko experience this year? What could have been better? Please let me know.

Overall I thought it was pretty good. Much of the negativity on people’s Bansko experience has been directed at Ulen. Their inability to manage queues properly over the busy New Year period was inexcusable. A shortage of the white stuff didn’t help them, but there are so many simple measures that they can use to alleviate the pressures. Then there was 14th of February. Greek holidays combined with UK many other European school holidays. It was simply awful. I took the pictures of the lift queues and left town.

Ulen, you must know what you need to do — because everyone else does. My rant over, but feel free to comment below.

When Should I visit Bansko For Skiing?

It depends what you are looking for. New Year is excellent fun. The New Year fireworks are like no other you’ll see, but with some lifts closed there were some lengthy lines this year. The end of season Easter time has yet again paid off, good skiing in the morning, no lift lines and plenty of warm sunshine. More people should book for this last week. However, there always seems to be uncertainty when exactly the last day Ulen will operate the lifts, so bear this in mind. Lets hope Ulen will be more specific when next season will end.

The Herd Instinct

Have you noticed how we all, in general, we all tend to do the same things at the same time? It’s like there is a mass thought control going on. Of course, much of this is based around national and school holidays, but also based on perceptions of weather, media influence and our friends. For example, several Bulgarian friends kept on saying that the season would be over on 1st March — it’s like weather abides by official seasons. Err… nope it doesn’t. Time and time again, weather patterns do not conform to stereotype. There was always a good chance it would cool down again for the last weeks of the season. And it did, thankfully. No queues and great skiing are amongst the many rewards for those in Bansko as I type.

Pirin Moutain Stream, Chalin Valog

The diversity of nationalities was astounding this year. A big presence of Israelis and Turkish as well as more from the Ukraine and Russia. Slightly fewer from the UK and Ireland. But many more from Romania, Macedonia and Serbia. This year I bumped into Swedes, Danish, French and Germans as well. No surprise that drinking cheaply features highly on the Scandinavians’ list of reasons for coming to Bulgaria.

Then there are week days. If you have the flexibility to snowboard/ski during the week, or travel outside the usual Saturday, then the reward is fewer people — which often means that the prepared snow lasts all day. Overall, I would predict Bansko visitors numbers were not less than last year. it seems more people gave Bansko a try this year — and most seemed to liked it. Especially those who were prepared and did their research.

With a decent lunch still possible on the mountain for 5 EUR, compared to 25 EUR in many French resorts, Bulgaria’s ski resorts have some significant price advantages. Affordable ski school and hire, as well as food and drink, make Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo are cheaper and excellent alternatives to Western Europe resorts.

Free T Shirt

If you enjoyed this then why not sign up for more like this? Until 30th April new subscribers to the BanskoBlog newsletter will be entered into a free draw. There will be two lucky winners of the “No Snow, No Show” Eric Clapton replica T shirt I model in the video at the top of this post. In addition, all subscribers will receive a 15% discount code for clothes from submitandremix. com.

I’ll be bringing more info to your email inbox on the hidden restaurant and nightclub gems in Sofia, along with the top activities and tours in and around Bansko.

Tip Of The Day

Haggle hard for a deal on end of season ski and snowboard gear. George, at Banskoskimania, is selling ex hire skis from around 90 lev, up to around 190 lv for ex hire VIP skis.

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