European Mountains
Bulgaria

Cherni Vrah (2290m), Ushite Peak (1906m),
Kamen Del (1861m), July 10 2011


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Vitosha mountain

Vitosha mountain
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Summary...

Anne and me flew from Ålesund to Bourgas on July 7th, spent the night in Sarafovo, drove across the country to the mountain village Borovets the following day and hiked Musala - the highest peak in Bulgaria - on the 9th. From the gondola between Borovets and Yastrebets, we noticed a huge mountain to the north. Later that day, we learned that this mountain was called Vitosha, and that the highest peak was Cherni Vrah - 2290m. The plan for July 10 was now set...

 

July 10 2011 - To Vitosha mountain

We left Borovets early morning, found our way through the city of Samokov, got on the right road (82), observed that the police was on traffic patrol in any small town, passed lake Iskar and joined the ringway - ul. Okolovrasten pat outside Sofia at N42.62247 E23.40491. The idea was to follow this road approx. 4,5km to the west - to the suburb Simeonovo - and locate the gondola "on sight". This plan would have worked well, had it not been for the sudden end of the ringway. Police pointed the cars in a direction that we did not want to go. Anne tried to explain our business, and she must have been successful, because we were granted access to the construction area.

Now what? We slowly made progress, passing heavy trucks on a dirt road. After a while, we could see the gondola up to our left and adjusted our course accordingly. An unfortunate turn sent us definitely in the wrong direction, but we finally escaped this small nightmare and parked (for a fee) outside the gondola station. Yeah! We were finally in the right place, and Cherni Vrah was getting closer by the minute...

 

The gondola station

The gondola station
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Gondola - again...

I was not absolutely not happy about taking the gondola again. Yesterday's ride from Borovets to Yastrebets (and back) made me get in touch with a vertigo that I hadn't felt in years. And now it was on again! A school class was ahead of us in the ticket office, but it didn't take too long until we were "airborne".

 

Leaving Simeonovo

Leaving Simeonovo
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From Aleko...
 

After a twenty-or-thirty-minutes-or-so unpleasant ride, we arrived at Aleko (1800 meters). We didn't have the time for the a la carte breakfast at our hotel in Borovets, so the soup in the Aleko restaurant was just what we needed!

We headed out from Aleko 09:57am and followed a well-worn trail up the mountain. Given the fact that a really bad weather forecast made us flee Norway, we also treasured the beautiful weather. And at this elevation, the temperature was tolerable.

 

On the way to Cherni Vrah

On the way to Cherni Vrah
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On top!

Nothing much exciting happened on our way up the mountain. It was evident that this is a popular mountain, as we could see hikers in all directions. We reached Cherni Vrah summit 11am, after a 3km hike from Aleko. The highest point is an airy rock in a boulder area, and I did not for one second consider standing upright! Neither did Anne...

 

On top of Cherni Vrah

On top of Cherni Vrah
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Heading back...


We spent a good while on the summit plateau before moving on to the radar station and the buildings to the east. Dogs near the radar station made us abort further exploration of the area, and we followed the trail back towards Aleko.

 

Cherni Vrah summit area

Cherni Vrah summit area
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Ushite Peak

Near Aleko, we decided to also visit Ushite Peak and got on a northbound trail. The peak was at least 3km to the north, but assuming that the gondola kept running until 6pm (at least), we had plenty of time. There were also a lot of hikers on this trail. Naturally - with Vitosha being Sofia's city mountain.

The main trail did not run across Ushite, but it was only 0,3km from the trail to the summit - which we reached 2:15pm. Two men were chillin' on top and we spoke briefly with both of them. Their English was not too good, but we managed to communicate fairly good. We could see that Kamen Del - 0,6km to the north - was a much more popular viewpoint, and we decided to go there afterwards.

 

Cherni Vrah seen from Ushite Peak

Cherni Vrah seen from Ushite Peak
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Kamen Del

On our way to Kamen Del, we learned that the gondola was soon closing. Possibly around 4pm - or sooner. All of a sudden, we were in a hurry, but we decided to visit Kamen Del first. We arrived on the top 2:40pm, spent a couple of minutes on pictures and marveled about the Sofia view, then left in a hurry...

 

Kamen Del viewpoint

Kamen Del viewpoint
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After 50 minutes along a 4km trail, we returned to Aleko and concluded - to our delight - that the gondola was still running. We jumped into the first gondola and never took the time to find out about the closing time. I was very happy about making it back in time, and I didn't care about my vertigo now. Back in Simeonovo, we successfully found our way onto the ringway and subsequently, onto highway 82.

We had yet another nice evening in Borovets and made two new friends from Poland - Patrycja and Grzes. They were staying at the same hotel as us, and had come here to hike mountains too.

 

 

Returning to Simeonovo

Returning to Simeonovo
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Next day: Malyovitsa

Pictures

The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 550D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6 + a Canon Powershot G12

 

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To Aleko

1. GPS profile 2. GPS tracks 3. Map of the area 4. The gondola building 5. Ski info 6. In the gondola 7. In the gondola 8. Cherni Vrah comes into view 9. In the gondola 10. Aleko 11. Aleko

To Cherni Vrah

12. On the path from Aleko 13. A well-worn path 14. On the path from Aleko 15. Aleko 16. The fly and the flower 17. Nice colors 18. Approaching the top 19. Signpost 20. The final yards 21. On top of Cherni Vrah 22. The summit building 23. The summit building

Cherni Vrah panoramas

24. Wide-angle view from Cherni Vrah 25. Wide-angle view from Cherni Vrah

Other pics from Cherni Vrah

26. Ushite Peak - next stop 27. Inside the summit building 28. The summit area 29. The high point 30. The high point 31. Radar station east of the summit 32. Buildings east of Cherni Vrah 33. Buildings east of Cherni Vrah 34. Sofia panorama 35. Sofia, zoomed in 36. Sofia, zoomed in 37. Sofia, zoomed in 38. Above Aleko

To Ushite Peak

39. To Ushite Peak 40. Local flora 41. Area info 42. Signpost 43. Area info 44. Towards Ushite Peak 45. Paraglider 46. Ushite Peak 47. Me and a lady from Sofia 48. To the summit 49. On Ushite Peak 50. On Ushite Peak 51. On Ushite Peak 52. Cherni Vrah 53. Kamen Del

Wide-angle view from Ushite Peak

54. Wide-angle view from Ushite Peak

Kamen Del

55. On Kamen Del 56. On Kamen Del 57. On Kamen Del 58. On Kamen Del 59. Paraglider 60. Sofia 61. Sofia 62. Sofia panorama 63. Nice cheese-bread 64. Back to Aleko 65. Just missed a snake 66. Ushite Peak 67. Back in the gondola 68. Returning to Borovets

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