Markudjik

As we walked into town this morning, I commented to Ben that, with a couple of days of confidence behind us, today felt like a day for falling over...I managed to fulfil this prophecy before even getting skis on! We planned on going to the top of the mountain, meaning once we were kitted up we had to walk to the otherside of town to the gondola. With snow boots on and skis on my shoulder, I left the kit shop, stepped outside and hit the deck hard - after a bambi-esque scramble for traction, I landed on a knee and a hand whilst the skis and poles clattered everywhere. Thankfully, no damage more than a few bruises and aches.

Walking in snow boots means a complete inability to bend or move your ankle, so we walked the jaunty snow boot walk to the gondola. A 25 minute ride to 2369m and the weather was unbelieveable, not a single cloud in the sky all day from the base to the peak of the mountain. The view was equally stunning, snow tipped mountains on the horizon in every direction.

We headed across a ski way and down Markudjik 2, a lovely wide and steep blue recommended by our rep, and enjoyed it so much we looped around and down it couple more times. The first run of the day was a bit of a killer - cold muscles complaininh the entire way. Ben was the real victim up here though - he caught a ski pole in the face from our very apologetic chair lift companion, before wiping out at the bottom of the run and almost going head over heels! Thankfully, in the latter situation, I had camera in hand and filmed the whole thing - for plentiful reruns over lunch later!

As the peak filled up we left and headed down the Musala Path, a long blue which would run us all the way back to town. We descended into tree-lined glistening valleys with curling S-bends between longer flat runs. It was absolutely beautiful and a lovely ski too, one we will definitely do again.Read more