Guide to snowkiting spots in Bulgaria

If you wish to visit Bulgaria and enjoy the best spots out there then don’t hesitate and read my own experience from several places I have visited.

In my last post I took you to a very beautiful snowkite spot called Kartala. Today I will introduce you to other spots and update a bit the information I have read about them here. For this time I will focus more on the description than on my usual talk and experiences.

Rila lakes – Seven Rila lakes

It’s a pretty well-known freeride ski resort, so if fresh snow falls, expect big queues at the local old double chair. You’ll find the resort a short walk from the renowned Spareva Banya spa. After skiing, you can warm up in the pool, although it’s admittedly quite expensive by Bulgarian standards. The town is a proper mess, lots of tourist shops and nonsense. We stuck with the town mainly because Covid stopped everything. Here you can find the lower station of the tow.

The car journey to the car park after a snowfall is really hellish, you may not get there at all. We drove for about three days after a week of heavy snowfall and the last two hundred meters I drove full throttle in second gear, the kids were jumping through the roof, and luckily I have very good tires. Nowhere else on the whole trip did I have as much trouble getting anywhere as I did here.

The season is ongoing and the lifts run until about early to mid April. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find out when it ends because the covid and Bulgarian interpretation of lockdown is quite peculiar. If you arrive after the end of the season, expect one hell of a hike. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to go. But compared to the hill on Kartala, it’s still a weak concoction.

Anyway, you better make sure the lifts are running. You have to buy more than one ride to get to the top of the spot. Either a full day or half day pass. Due to being close to the crazy town, the lifts and staff behave accordingly. While we used to ride Kartala for free sometimes because the local lift guys (very nice, smiling and easy going guys) didn’t care, here they were like crazy. Moreover, the hill was totally frozen and unplowed. Skiresort is a sight to behold (see below).

I bought a day pass because I wanted to ride if it wasn’t blowing and Jitka bought one ride. I bought the ticket not knowing the hill was an iceberg. We rode up with the whole family. There we decided it was too cold for the kids, so I continued up to kite and Jitka and the kids down. But the woman in the booth wouldn’t let her go because she didn’t have a round ticket, but only an up ticket. Mind you, Rila lakes is the only place on earth where there is a booth up on the lift and a granny sits in it even at the end of the season and sells downward tickets.

The witch decided that the mommy is walking down with her two kids because she doesn’t have a ticket. We had no money and I didn’t get that information downstairs. I sent her to hell and gave Jitka my pass, saying that I would somehow talk her up the other lift. Witch refused, saying she didn’t have a snowboard, but children, so she was not a skier, but a tourist (!!!). I almost refuted the booth. I brought Jitka my snowboard, saying she would throw it down the lift. But then came a normal lift operator, who also sent the girl to hell… and put Jitka and the whole ensemble on the seats facing down.

They wanted 33 Leva for a full day ticket, 12 Leva for one ride and 20 Leva for a roundtrip. Be careful, you can’t get up to the spot with a single ride or a roundtrip. If you don’t talk the lift operator down, you walk the last kilometer.

The spot itself is a plateau above the cauldron just above the upper lift (Tatrapoma). The spot is big, you can ride on both sides of the lift. I rode to the left of the lift, there were no tracks. When I was going to Rila, I had in my head an article from my friend Krutič. He said it was a hard spot, especially good for kiteflying. Later I discussed it with him and he clarified that he meant the mountains in the area.

This is the spot where I was riding. 

If we’re talking about the spot right next to the lift, it’s an easy spot and unless you do something stupid (e.g. fall over the edge of the cliff) there’s no risk at all. In light conditions you can try high altitude snowkiting. Of course, if you’re a complete beginner and you’re in danger of having a kite dragging you three hundred meters on your belly before you do anything with it, Rila lakes won’t be for you.

The cliff is facing northeast away from you, so with this wind direction it’s right at your back. Downwind the hill is gentle, I didn’t see any cliff there. If the fog comes in, you can get your bearings by the poles that form a hiking trail across the spot. The sticks are the only obstacle on the spot. But they are welcome, you can hook a leash or harness behind them and land your kite unaided.

The directions that work there are NW, N, NE, E and SE. S and SW don’t work because the wind blows over the high mountains.

If we’re talking about the surrounding mountains, that’s a different story. For snowkiting there you definitely need experience with high mountains, very good terrain awareness (there are a lot of avalanche slopes) and I highly recommend skis with tracks or a splitboard. Given the rugged terrain, accessibility is difficult. You could theoretically ride even here.

See here the current weather and how much wind is blowing.

Although the slope was an unplowed ice, the snow was great up there. A little harder powder, so the ride was fast, enjoyable, no pine. I did get comfortably and painlessly impaled in a fall. The wind was slightly off-putting, but when it did blow, it was beautifully stable and carried beautifully. I had a great time riding and jumping.

Summary

• Great, safe, clear spot for high altitude mountain snowkiting.
• Nice wind, lots of snow.
• If the lift is running, the way to the spot is very comfortable.
• No obstacles or holes in the snow.
• If there is anything in the forecast from the north or east, there is a good chance it will blow here.
• Beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, which could be used for extreme snowkiting.

Vitosha

The most notorious, most famous and undoubtedly the best snowkiting spot in Bulgaria. It is located just outside Sofia. You can even take a cable car directly from the city. The top station of the gondola is about one kilometer from the road to the spot. The road is slightly downhill, nothing that can’t be reached unless you want to trudge up by car. By the way, it’s a crazy drive up to Vitosha, on cat heads the whole way. I cried as our car rattled along. You can park here.

After reading Krutič’s article I got the impression that Vitosha is definitely not for us, because it is a long hike, and we won’t do that with kids. Besides, what are the kids going to do up there. I got the wrong impression, and that’s why we spent only two days there. If I had known that, we would have been there longer. Vitosha has two levels. The lower floor is at 1850m and is very close to the car. It’s about three hundred meters from the road where you can park. Even Fanynka, a 1.8-year-old sweety at the time, made it. The bottom spot is huge, you can drive for miles and you won’t get bored. The kites are being launched just off the incoming road.

There are trees and shrubs, pretty much all over the spot. But even a beginner can ride there, because there are big spots between the trees without obstacles. It’s a full-sized spot, so if you don’t want to scramble all the way up, you’ll have a nice ride.

The best wind direction for the bottom floor is definitely North. You can also ride NW, NE, E to SE. S, SW and W there blow over the main ridge and are terribly choppy on the lower plateau. But it’s rideable. We had a lot of wind one day and it was still from the SE. We wanted to go all the way up, but there were a lot of kiters on the lower plateau, so we stayed there. The wind sucked, but we had some fun.

Of course, the day before it was blowing a beautiful NW. We got to the lower plateau, rigged kites at the closest possible spot. Jitka rode the 9 and then went to the car with the kids. I blew a 12 and, following the pattern of the locals, went to the top spot. The exit was harsh, it was blowing parallel to the contours. So I was really only climbing what I had saved with my heels and was able to wave at the edge of the windscreen. The snow was wet at the top of the hill, so it held me up, but again, it wasn’t too slippery. It was hard work, but it paid off. A large upper plain opened up at the top.

The upper level is a beautiful and huge spot shaped like a shallow cauldron. The edges of the cauldron are rounded peaks that are not broken by the wind, so the spot is open in almost every direction. Only when it blows S and SE the wind goes over the top of Vitoshi (Black Hill, 2290 m). If it’s blowing anything from the north, you can go all the way to the top of Black Peak. This will open up more possibilities for traversing the ridge and the spot becomes “endless”. Unfortunately I don’t have any nice photos from the upper floor.

You can check the current weather and forecast here.

Summary

• An easily accessible, safe, clear spot right on Sofia’s doorstep.
• Nice wind, lots of snow.
• Close to the car (lower spot), longer hike (upper spot). With the right winds, you can kite to the higher spot and kite back from it.
• Trees on the lower spot, but plenty of room, so with a little care it’s fine.
• Vitosha is the windiest spot in Bulgaria, supposedly it blows almost every day.

Borovets

The second largest ski resort in Bulgaria. Located in the Rila mountains, just like the Rila lakes. We really liked it there, beautiful slopes, from milder to proper hellish slopes. It consists of two hills, the lower one is all wooded, so you can ride there even in the fog. The higher one is bare, where I imagined beautiful snowkiting. It looks very promising from below.

When I came up with my kite on my back, it wasn’t blowing, although it should have been, and I couldn’t find any good spot. Above the lifts there is a drop off into the valley on the other side and not much space between the lifts. As you can see here.

Maybe you could hike to the other side across the valley and find a spot there, but there are plenty of places like that in Bulgaria. I guess it would be possible, but it’s not easy to get there when the wind is right. It might be possible here. Here you can follow the weather and wind in Borovets.

So I have assessed Borovets as a snowkiting insignificant location.

Pamporovo and Perelik Peak

Pamporovo is a beautiful ski resort close to the Greek border. We enjoyed it the most. It snowed there for ten days, so we had an incredible time enjoying the powder. I have to admit though, when it snows for this long, being in the car with the kids gets pretty tiring.

Ten days of this and I almost stopped liking winter :-). Luckily we discovered the thermal pool, which increased the resort’s score from 100% to 200% 😊.

Near Pamporovo is the local peak Perelik. It is said that it is a snowkiting spot. We made an expedition there. We drove quite close by car to the road station. Further on, the road was blown with snow. It was even blowing. But it was about a mile walk to the spot anyway. Partly on flat ground and then uphill. It was cold, foggy and snowing. I decided that I didn’t want to leave the kids and Jitka alone in the car and go somewhere who knows where, so I gave up.

Perelik can get a lot of snow :-).It is located south of the Perelik hut and is waiting for some of you. We had great freerides in Pamporovo :-).

Kopaonik – Serbia

We stopped in the Serbian resort of Kopaonik out of curiosity on our way to Bulgaria. Quite an intense experience, less positive rather than more. You can read more about it in the link above.

However, with any luck on the conditions, Kopaonik could be quite nice for snowkiting. There’s a plateau there, not exactly big, but it’s there. You could see by the blowing snow that it was occasionally windy and there were no high mountains anywhere in the area. However, we had no wind and a completely icy mountain, so nothing for snowkiting.

The article was translated with the author’s permission from Mystic Blog.

You can buy perfect kiting equipment from Mystic and North in Czech Mystic Store. Delivery all over the Europe without any problems.

Author: Spots4Kite

The team behind Spots4Kite.