I’ve always said that my favorite winter resort is “Vitosha Ski”, but it was always hard to explain why.
Today I’ve met my best friends from mid-school. Thouse are the guys with which I began to snowboard back in 2003. We are meeting from time to time, for a drink or ride occasionally. It doesn’t matter how long we have not seen each other, it’s always been a good time with thouse folks.
Today nobody of us did have any reservation where we gonna ride. We hoped that we would not stuck at the only opened marked slope, but this was a mystery before get to the top.
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We did hear that the oldest chair lift is working today – “Romanski”, called after a skier died in Vitosha mountain. This chair is the oldest and slowest one, it has only two seats but we all have been sitting on it for quiet a lot time back in the years. It’s the most iconic chair at Vitosha mountain, it takes to the “Golian Rezen” which is very close to the highest point you can take with chair.
Then we saw that another one chair called “Vitoshko Lale 2″ is working too, this one is a lot more faster and features 3 seats. It’s really rare to see that one running because it’s build on very inappropriate place, a lot of wind and lack of snow normally stops that chair lift from working. But not TODAY!
Today there was a plenty of snow all around Vitosha mountain, we all were waiting for that snow since the beginning of the season in December. Of course there are still some rocks and cliffs around, but this is normal for such an mountain.
Not to forget that the wind was almost 0m/s which is abnormal for Vitosha. Here normally there is at least 10m/s wind which drops the temperature at least 3-5 degrees celsius down.
We tooked some chairs on that lift, even lost myself a little and did miss the lift station. So we needed to take the fist part of this chair lift in order to get back on that.
An hour or two later the mountain shown us what is capable of. The conditions turned from perfect one to total oposite – fast wind, accompanied with fog and snowy clouds that hidden the sun in a seconds.
So we went back to the old school classy two-seated chair-lift Romanski, this was somewhere around noon. Then the ride continue all around the other options over with the other part of Vitosha, which was not touched by anyone in last couple of days. An amazing dream, wide open steep slopes, on which nobody did take runs. A dream come true. I was so thrill from the runs, that I’ve even skip the noon brake for lunch. We did ride until the chair lift personnel forbid us getting up.
From time to time to conditions were not so great, because the visibility was different every downhill. The good thing was that we all know our home mountain good. So this was not a problem at all. You just watch for a new line, somewhere where nobody did split the snow yet.
To be all mountain snowboarder / skier for me does not mean that you need only to ride all-around the mountain. For me that means that you should be able to ride and have fun no matter how bad or good are the conditions. You just need to forget about the -15 degree child, the 15m/s wind and all the fog around and start having FUN.
After that day, I now can clearly say why I love this mountain the most, without any doubts.
1. This is my home-mountain, just 30min away form my yard, you can be on the snowboard just an hour.
2. The terrain is amazing – you have so big and different choice you can make every time you are on top.
3. Last but not least important – You are here with all your folks from school, neighborhood or whatever. The people with which you grew up all your life. All of your memories probably involve them at a lot in your life and mountain adventures.
I love my friends, I love the mother nature and it’s weather as much as I love my home mountain.
Here are some pictures from this epic day. Enjoy them.
View from the chair lift "Romanski"
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View from the chair lift "Romanski"
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View from the chair lift "Romanski"
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My at the chair
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The hill in my eyes
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Going there – to shred
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What await us
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Some fog ahead
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It's coldy on the chair
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My moustache frozen up
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My moustache remain frozen even after the run
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Lubo trying water-skiing during winter
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Hommies
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Taking some tea at Aleko challet
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