Bulgaria's brill for snowboarding (From Oxford Mail)

Bulgaria's brill for snowboarding

5:13pm Friday 12th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

SNOWBOARDING is full of (what I believe to be the correct terminology) gnarley dudes enjoying a lifestyle not dissimilar to a very long boys’ weekend.

And Constantine, the man charged with turning novices into, well, not-quite-novices, on the beginners’ slope at Bansko ski resort in Bulgaria was just one such ‘dude’.

There he stood that first morning: hood up, shades down and giving off the aura of some kind of indifferent, implacable Jedi master.

Given that he constructed his sentences in a manner not unlike Yoda and he did work the relative miracle of getting two of his group relatively proficient inside two days, it’s not stretching the point too far.

“Very quickly, very quickly,” he said in his thick Eastern European accent on the second morning of lessons, “getting through the materials we are.”

Now, entirely for the sake of accuracy, I do have to admit it was not my first time on a snowboard. But a couple of lessons culminating in a spectacular crash on a plastic carpet in Bracknell 12 years previously hardly counted.

In fact, the only similarity between that and Bansko was the letter B. Scenic snowy mountains and a five-star hotel like the Kempinski are a little thin on the ground in Berkshire.

But Bansko is an ideal place for beginners to take to the slopes. The mountain is owned by the Ulen company and it provides a whole slew of teachers for group and one-on-one lessons.

I was lucky to be put in Constantine's group. On day one he was not a man to be messed with but by the second, having spotted the extra hours practice that were put in after the first two hours’ tutoring, he was the very picture of a motivating tutor.

And by the third day, when I felt confident enough to duck my lesson to take on the blue runs, he was proud to wave us off. But, echoing Yoda, he sent me off with the message: “Your mind, keep it on what you are doing.”

It was not a bad final message and one I forgot a couple of times, beginning to think too much about the stunning scenery of the Pirin mountain range and then coming a cropper and sliding a few feet on my face in a most undignified manner. But it was very much mission accomplished by then, for both Constantine and I.

You don’t want to spend your time chained to the beginners’ practice slope pootling up and down when there is a whole mountain and a ski-road down to the door of your hotel to explore.

Bansko is a relatively new resort in that it was the building of the gondola (a 25-minute ride from the town) that opened up the mountain to a broader range of holidaymakers.

That, in turn, saw an explosion in hotels, bars and apartment complexes with building still not complete.

To be truthful there is still a ‘newness’ about it as though the town is still finding its unique identity, although that is not to say you struggle to find a good night out.

Package holidays with Thomson/Crystal include a hardcore pub crawl around some excellent bars that leave a fair bit of carnage among the participants on the slopes the next morning.

The hotels are naturally modern, ranging from some good four-stars up to the five-star Kempinski.

I was lucky enough to stay there, with its excellent restaurants offering a range from more traditional Bulgarian food through to Japanese.

It is also ideally located right at the end of the 6km (3.75-mile) ski-road from the gondola station all the way down to the town – very much the done way to end your day’s skiing or boarding.

Relaxing in the sauna, pool, steam rooms and jacuzzi brings home the luxury, as does a link-up with Ulen, the slopes operator, which means no waiting in the queue for the Gondola in the morning for guests. It’s a nice half-an-hour saved when you’re gagging to get up on the mountain.

I travelled courtesy of Thomson/Crystal and everything ran seamlessly, from the transfer at Sofia Airport to hiring the gear to the lessons.

Bansko may not hold a lot for the hardcore black run skiers and boarders but for beginners and those who like red runs you’ll find it hard to beat. Two days from being flat on your butt to carving some turns speaks for itself.

Pity I’m left with visits to Bracknell again on the immediate horizon.