Bulgaria’s winter resorts ‘in no hurry to open ski season’
Unlike previous years, none of Bulgaria’s mountain resorts that offers winter sports is in a hurry to open the ski season, according to Ivan Obreykov, marketing director of Bansko ski area concession-holder Ulen.
“The wait is connected both with the lack of enough snow and with the epidemic situation in the country,” Bulgarian National Radio reported Obreykov as saying on December 14.
He said that Bansko had operated its ski lift on December 8 – celebrated in Bulgaria as the Day of the Student, which usually sees many young people heading to mountain resorts – but had stopped it again because of a lack of people.
Obreykov said that all the anti-epidemic measures that apply to Bulgaria’s ski and snowboard results were being complied with in Bansko.
BNR reported that because of the relatively high temperatures in Borovets, the resort could not specify when the winter ski season would officially open. The report said that there was about 25 to 30cm of snow in the higher reaches of the mountain above Borovets.
Preparations for the season in Borovets were continuing in earnest. Georgi Kochov, director of the concession-holder of the ski area, said that in compliance with anti-epidemic measures, “we have provided disinfection everywhere, our employees will monitor distancing, we had a lot of people over the weekend.”
In the mountain resort of Pamporovo, clarity was awaited about the epidemic situation and what anti-Covid measures there will be after December 21, the date on which the current heightened measures are scheduled to expire. On December 14, Bulgaria’s Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said that he would insist on continuing the heightened measures after that date.
Marian Belyakov of Pamporovo Ltd told BNR: “We hope to open the restaurants at the hotels, we hope to get moving”.
BNR said that this past weekend, the Simeonovo lift on Vitosha mountain near Sofia went into operation. During the season, the lift will operate on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 4.30pm.
There was still not enough snow and the relatively high temperatures were not conducive to producing artificial snow, the report said.
Kostadin Kostadinov of Vitosha Ski told BNR: “”We have installed a ski trail on Mecha Polyana, which will be able to take many skiers for training and skiing”.
(Photo via banskoblog.com)
The Sofia Globe’s coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria is supported by the Embassies of Switzerland and Finland.
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