Posts Tagged ‘off-piste’

Nothing can compare to snowboarding on fresh powder on a beautiful sunny day. This is not to say that you don’t need to safety conscious when out riding on your snowboard. This article mentions a few safety tips for when you’re out there on the mountains.

Looking for signs of past events is part of planning your route down a mountain safely, and is an important skill to practice. Anytime there is a huge avalanche, you hear about it on the news. The news stories do a good job of showing how devastating and unforgiving this natural disaster can be. What you may not realize is that a small avalanche can kill you just as easily as a big one. It’s really about experience when it comes to reading your routes. It’s also not the easiest skill to acquire either, but it’s not something you should ignore. It can be difficult to detect the variations in the terrain but you need to learn to study them. Doing so can show you potential hazards as well as signs of past damage to trees. Neglecting you equipment is a mistake, maintain your snowboard gear properly and inspect it regularly as every part is critical to safe snowboarding. Head to your local snowboard shop to get it checked out and services regularly.

For beginner snowboarders, be smart and get some lessons before you go out tearing it up. Learn from a very experienced buddy or a professional snowboard instructor. This is one of the cleverest things you can ever do. Think about wanting to learn the proper way to snowboard from the start because if you don’t, then you are actually putting yourself in some extent of harm’s way because you’re possibly performing a move inappropriately. Check out your first snowboard lesson online here by reading our article about the parts of a snowboard.

Obviously like any sport especially extreme sports, you can’t stop all of the potential injuries from happening while you are snowboarding, but you can do your best to prevent a lot of them.

It usually just depends on where you are snowboarding. If you’re out in the back-country, then you need to take extra precautions for obvious reasons. If something happens you might be all by yourself. Going out snowboarding alone (which is absolutely not recommended) is not a good idea as it invites extreme risks. So, give some thought to what you’re doing and where you’re going.

The snowboard resort of Bansko in Bulgaria is a snowboard resort that you have to visit with the right mind-set. Many other reviews of this resort will be very negative because the reviewer is comparing it to the more expensive snowboard resorts in France or Snowboard resorts in Austria.

Bansko is an up and coming snowboard resort and is being improved every year. There is a lot of building work going on around the resort and the town but unfortunately a lot of these buildings are half built which is more than likely down to the global recession. The area near the main gondola is not the prettiest of towns and you need to keep your wits about you at night because you may come across a few man-holes without their covers on.

There also seems to be an aweful lot of stray dogs around the town which could upset those people that are scared of dogs. They will do you know harm but it’s probably worth mentioning.

There is only one way to describe the transfer from the airport to the snowboard resort and that is different. When you’re not dodging potholes, you’re dodging oncoming traffic, the roads in Bulgaria really are terrible. The transfer from the airport is around 3.5 hours. The town of Bansko is nice and very cheap (especially compared to other snowboard resorts) to give you a rough idea, a 2 litre bottle of beer is around £2 from the shops and a Pint of beer in the pub is around £1.50. If you are a lover of meat then all of the traditional Bulgarian restaurants are perfect for you, large fillet streaks for around £6. If you’re a vegetarian then there is an excellent Italian restaurant opposite the gondola which is very popular with local people and visitors to Bansko.

The local people seem nice enough, especially down in the town and the staff on the mountains. Some of the local snowboarders and skiiers in Bansko can be very rude when it comes to queuing for the ski lift. They will cut in line and barge past you, but this is only a minority of locals.

The mountain itself is more than adequate, it is also great for snowboarding. For more advance snowboarders, you could find the mountain a little bit limiting after a while. This is not the type of snowboard resort that best suits those snowboarders that like to go as fast as they can down every piste it’s just not big enough. For a week away it’s fine, especially if it is your 1st snowboard holiday or you are beginner-intermediate snowboarders, but Bansko could be too small and unchallenging for an experienced snowboarder unless you a a fan of off-piste.

There are some nice off-piste nice tree runs between runs 5 and 10 and some gentle off-piste around the snowboard park which is particulary good for beginners. The snowboard park in Bansko isn’t really worth mentioning it has 1 kicker, 1 small pipe, 1 low box and about 5 rails, which were all badly looked after because there was no snowboard park crew. Hopefully the snowboard park in Bansko is something that will be improved over the next few seasons.

People who have been to the snowboard resort of Bansko would usually tell you they’d definitely go back there again. At a fraction of the cost of some of the other european snowboard resorts, why wouldn’t you? Everyone loves a bargain and Bansko definitely delivers this. In summary, if you visit Bansko expecting the resort to be like the three valleys then you will be truly disappointed, but if you have an open mind and treat it as a completely new experience, you will have a brilliant snowboard holiday.