On that day, we had planned to cross the Pirin starting at the Vihren hut and then crossing the Banderichka pass. Alas, the weather forecast was not good. Therefore we were suggested to make a tour in the Western Rhodopes. This mountain range is limited to the west by the Mesta river that later becomes Nestos when entering Greece....

Some two years ago I climbed Vihren in November. Back then, there was already some snow on the slopes and we could not follow the normal path to the top. This time, as we were earlier in the season, the conditions were quite different, although we got some rain. This time we started further down along the road. This does not...

As we could not pass the dry lake the day before, we decided to do a small hike to this place. But before climbing up there we visited the museum of the Rila Monastery. Then we took the bus to reach the starting point of our hike. The starting point is nearly at the end of the Rila valley and is called Kirilova Polyana (Kiril's...

The weather forecast for that day was not really good. We were intending to cross from Malyovitsa and passing by Popovokapski and reaching the mountain pass at Kobilino Branitse and to go down to Kirilova Polyana. From there we would have had a transfer to the Rila monastery. Although the forecast did not clearly specify that it...

The day before, as well as part of the night, we experienced heavy rainfall and storms. The weather forecast for the second day was not quite clear, but it mentioned that other thunderstorms should be expected. My plan was to climb Mount Malyovitsa. But because of the uncertainty, I decided to climb as far high as possible and go...

It was actually the third time that I was in Bulgaria for hiking. Although the first two times, I did not really had time to do extensive hikes, I could get an idea about the possibilities. This third time, I took the opportunity to discover regions that I knew very little of. The first tour I made was to the 7 lakes of Rila, a...

Following to the long debates and discussions of the General Assembly of UIMLA, it was time to perform something more physical. Our Bulgarian colleagues organized the hike on that Sunday. However, when they announced their plans, I was a bit worried. How could we possibly climb to 2914 meters of altitude at that season. I forgot...

After our UIMLA General Assembly, I thought it was time to get some fresh air. Since the assembly took place in the hotel where we were staying and that is located right on the foot of Mount Vitosha, it was logical to go into the nature park. Starting from Dragalevtsi, I took the path that leads to the Nature Park House and to...

As I am attending the General Assembly of UIMLA (see http://www.uimla.org/cms/), I decided to extend my stay in order to be able to perform a couple of tours. The first tour was about climbing the Vitosha, the local mountain of near Sofia. As advised, I did not climb directly starting from Dragalevtsi, but passing by the spires...