Snowfall emergency: a powdery start of my season:)

It's been two weeks already since I got back from a shred trip in the heart of the Rhodope mountains in my homeland Bulgaria. But it wasn't until now that I found the time to write something about it besides a few scarce FB updates. Sorry, if it's too long, but I'm still excited from the trip.

Jan 5. Three cars loaded with good mood, boards, booze and sandwitches headed to the resort of Chepelare. We were well aware of the exciting forecast and arrived just ahead of what was going to be an emergency situation resulting in two days without electricity, water and cellphones...and probably the best pow that I've ridden so far! 

We enjoyed dinner in a cozy tavern near the hotel, while the electricity cables were getting heavier under the new snow.

Jan 6. We woke up early this morning to get our ski passes and catch the firs lines on the slopes. Much to our surprise it was pouring outside. By the time we got to the chairlift we were already soaked. Fortunately the rain turned into snowflakes as we got higher. At the peak it was a whole new world. Over a meter of fresh pow overnight! I this is enough to describe what followed. The pistes weren’t groomed, so it was one big powdery day offering a variety of open terrain and woods.

I think this is as deep as I’ve gotten so far. I ripped until 3 PM when my soaked clothes started to freeze on me.

Frozen and happy we headed back to the hotel. And we had electricity just enough for a swim in the pool and a hot shower. We spent the evening more or less in the dark.

Jan 7. The road through Chepelare reaching nearby mountain town Smolyan and the nearby big resort Pamporovo is closed due to the heavy snowfall. No way in and out. There was no electricity nor tap water and cell network either. A state of emergency was declared in the county. Despair started to creep. Oh, the irony: so much pow and so little road and power!

In the afternoon they restored the power supply and we went riding for two hours until it blacked out again. The resort spent in the dark the 13th anniversary, marking Chepelare native Ekaterina Dafovska’s gold medal in ski biathlon during the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Bansko and Pamporovo had no electricity either.

We weren’t lucky enough for shower and hot drinks today, but the riding was worth it. Good thing we brought the huge bag with sandwiches and all that wineJ Plus, playing mystery card games in candlelight proved to be a great pass-time for 10 people.

Jan 8. Even less luck today. The information about the situation was insufficient. No power and water whatsoever. Time to unbury the cars as the road was open. It’s a pity that we couldn’t ride one last time before heading back to Sofia. Good news is we got a 2-day compensation which we’re still to figure out when to use.

I'm still dreaming about this pow!