Perfect pistes. Snow coming. World cup action

Picture taken 14th February 2012. Bansko snow road

Another Bansko day of just simply sublime skiing.  Ski conditions here in Bansko are near perfection. This is a magical time to be here. Nearly three metres of snow on Todorka.

Just checking the weather charts, I see there could be some more snow Tuesday. I am as excited as a kid in a candy store… It will get a lot warmer day from Saturday. The town will be wet with melting snow. Be warned.

Whatever happens, there are many good days to be had due to the excellent snow cover.

The last few snowy days

Whilst high winds shut the plateau today (16th February),  finding space to enjoy some first class skiing all over the mountain was easy enough. Ridiculously long morning lift lines of the 14th February, don’t seem to have been repeated. Many skiers have been making their way up in minivans and taxis.

As usual, for me, this weather means Chalin Valog.

In cool and windy weather, the Chalin Valog area delivers protection from biting cold winds. Few, or none at all, lift queues. When it’s cold, like today, my tip is to check out this area.  Wednesday BBQ here is reported to be good (2 lev beer helps).

Many new tracks were made off piste, winding down through the trees, and under the chair lifts. Snow on this scale means a larger skiable domain — a little secret of Bansko revealed to many more visitors over the last few days.

World Cup effects

Gondola lift: Picture taken 15th February 2012.

World cup piste and run closures have created morning pressure points on the lifts. However, later on there have been fewer queues and we’ll see how Saturday and Sunday race days fare.

Joining in the party at Banderishka Poliana and watching the action live from the stadium is surprisingly exciting. I’ll leave the hype to other media — but frankly holding the World cup in Bansko, in peak holiday season, is far from ideal.

I hope never again do we have a World Cup in February or a holiday period. At least not until the day arrives when Bansko has much more lift capacity — and many more kilometres of pistes.

That said, Mr Tomba himself is here — so big publicity.  This weekend will be a superb show.

Watch out for pictures on twitter @bansko.

There are hotel coupons available for saving on World Cup action.

Download my app (it’s free)

My Bansko app is now ready to download here for all iphone owners.

All for free.

I’ve designed it to show the things that I most wanted to see most in a Bansko app. So we worked hard to keep it attractive and fresh looking. But simple, useful and uncomplicated.

You’ll see the live Q cam, Ulen’s piste cams, a piste map, snow reports, open/close status for the ski lifts and pistes. And the BanskoBlog YouTube channel is integrated for over 180 and growing Bansko videos.

All the essential functions for iphone, ipod touch and ipad users. Just a FREE download away.

Using some cool technology it links into an interactive map showing restaurants, bars and before long hotels and other Bansko businesses.

The Bansko Blog iphone app is available for download at the itunes store right now. I’m now working on getting it on all other major mobile platforms for those resisting the pleasures of an iphone (so that’s android, blackberry and windows). All for free.