ortovox safety academy

Ortovox Safety Academy

book now
Exploration on skis through the Balkans

Bulgaria- Ski touring in the Rila and Pirin Mountains

The Rila and Pirin Mountains in Bulgaria are made for ski touring. The highest peaks are slightly lower than 3,000 metres and the skiing is challenging and spectacular.

From1,050 €
From 28th February to 6th March 2021
Duration: 8 Days
Participants:
min. 4
Difficulty:

MEETING POINT

Request more info  

You like adventurous skiing? Then Bulgaria has much to offer. On our tour we will visit both of the principal Bulgarian mountain groups, the Rila and Pirin Mountains, south of the capital city Sofia. Both massifs have summits approaching 3000m in altitude, the highest in the Balkans providing a dramatic mountain landscape with some sharp ridges and jagged peaks. Our tours will cover an average of 1,000m climbing per day, but we can easily change this and do shorter days or add longer climbs to make days more. We shall be aiming to ski several peaks including Mt Moussala 2,925m, Bulgaria's highest.

We begin the trip with some tours in the Rila Mountains, the most breathtaking mountain chain in Bulgaria. After three days we move south to the Pirin National park. The nearby city of Bansko which lies at the foot of the mountain range, is a world heritage site. The city has an old, charming centre with a lot of good restaurants serving delicious Balkan food! 
From Bansko we leave on a two-day tour with the aim to climb some great ski peaks such as Polezan (2850m), Djano (2665m) and Bezbog (2645m). On the last day we will put the cherry on the cake and climb Vihren (2915m) probably the most iconic Bulgarian summit.

From
1,050 €
Duration: 8 Days
Participants:
min. 4
Difficulty:
Dates:
From 28th February to 6th March 2021

Information about the area:
The Rila Mountains in the southwest of Bulgaria are the most majestic mountains in the country and are famous for their breathtaking scenery. The highest peak is Musala (2,925m). The Pirin Mountains are home to Bulgaria’s second highest peak, the Mount Vihren (2,914 m). Pirin National Park is a World Cultural and National Heritage site.
The area is the location of Bulgaria's most famous monastery – Rila Monastery - and the country's oldest winter resort - Borovets. The Rila National Park is one of the youngest Bulgarian national parks and covers nearly half of the Rila mountain range.
Bansko is Bulgaria’s best known ski resort.
Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. It is the highest capital city in Europe and is situated at the foot of the Vitosha Mountains. The city has many fascinating tourist attractions including UNESCO world heritage sites.

Prerequisites:
Our tours will involve around 3-5hrs of skinning per day, achieving around 800 – 1000m of vertical ascent. We would expect you to be able skin to a pace of 300m of vertical ascent per hour. You need to be able to execute good uphill kick turns on steeper slopes and have some familiarity with use of crampons and ice axe. You need to be a reasonably strong off-piste skier able to deal with a variety of snow conditions (powder, crust, slush) and able to ski on steeper and narrower slopes with the requisite ability and confidence for exposed sections.

For this trip you need to have a ski touring set up with skins, ski crampons, boot crampons and ice-axe. Harnesses are not required. It's unlikely that you'll use the boot crampons and ice-axe very much during the trip but they need to be taken.

Climate:
The best season for ski touring trips in Bulgaria is between February and April-May, depending on the conditions during the current year.

Day 1: Travel day.
Arrive Sofia and transfer to the town of Bansko on the northern slopes of Mount Rila (60 km). Overnight and Dinner in Hotel.

Day 2: Mt. Moussala (2,925m)
Bulgaria's highest summit and the highest in the Balkans. 15 min transfer to the ski station at Borovets, then by gondola to the Jastrebets mountain hut at 2,376m. From there we tour to the summit of Mt Moussala, skiing back to Borovets. 
700m up / 1,300 down

Day: 2 
This morning we take the chairlift to Rila Lakes Hut, located at the foot of the famous Seven Lakes and do a few warm-up runs. After lunch and a short avalanche refresher session, we ascend to the main ridge of the mountain and ski down to the hut and further through the forests to the bottom lift station. Overnight back in Govedartsi

Day 3
Half an hour drive from the hotel takes us to the starting point for today’s tour at 1730m. From there we climb Malyovitsa (2729m) passing Malyovitsa hut and the Dears Lake on the way. Descend along the slopes of Malyovitsa and follow the beautiful valley back to the start point. We return to Govedartsi, for our third and last night in the hotel.

Day 4
Our aim today is the highest point on the Balkans, Musala (2925m). We start with a 30 minute drive to Borovets ski resort, where we take the gondola to 2360m. A short ski down is followed by a 3-4 hours ascent to the top of Musala. The last section is climbed on foot. We ski back down to Borovets. From here it is a 2 hour taxi transfer to Bansko. On the way we can visit the famous Rila Monastery.
Stay overnight in Bansko. 

Day 5
From the hotel a short drive takes us to the bottom station of Bezbog chairlift. We take it up to Bezbog hut at 2240m. From there we ascend to one of the highest peaks of the Pirin Mountains – Polezan (2851m). We’ll ski the western slopes of the Damyanitsa valley before we climb for few more hours to the remote Tevno lake hut (2500m). Stay overnight in the hut.

Day 6
We start the day with an hours skin up to the Demir Kapia pass before skiing great slopes towards Popovo lake. There we put skins back on and climb the summit of Bezbog. From the summit we ski long slopes back to our van. Return to the hotel in Bansko.

Day 7
On our last day we will climb the highest peak in the Pirin national park Vihren (2915m). The climb will take us around 5 hours. We’ll ski long slopes back down to the parking lot and return to the hotel for our last night.

Day 8:Fly home
We transfer back to Sofia. If time allows we can enjoy a sightseeing tour of the city before heading to the airport for return flights.

  • Visit Rila and Pirin Mountains 
  • Climb the two highest peaks of the Balkans
  • Ski in a world heritage site
  • Challenging and spectacular skiing
  • Sleep in luxury 4-star-hotels

EQUIPMENT RENTAL.

Mmove into nature offers an extensive equipment rental service for your perfect outdoor holidays.

Book now
Experience nature

ACTIVITIES IN DETAILS

Whether you prefer water or rock, we have the perfect adventure for you.