The ski season is approaching its start but the controversy and discontent surrounding it have reached unprecedented levels. During a media conference on October 29 2009, a heated debate was staged by the parties involved as to what exactly was going on up the mountain, if anything at all.

Toma Belev, head of the Vitosha Nature Park, had difficulty getting his message across as to who exactly was responsible for the construction of temporary buildings in the park, the condition of the facilities, and whether they would be modernised at all. He did say, however, that Vitosha Natural Park would agree to work with anyone who wanted to upgrade the equipment, provided it was done in an appropriate and legal manner.

Meanwhile Asparuch Machirski, head of Machirski Ski School, accused Vitosha Ski of having done nothing to improve the resort, apart from developing the Lower Laleto ski run and having it covered with floodlights. Machirski accused Vitosha Ski of over-dramatising and monopolistic behaviour.

Concurrently, Valentin Stefanov, head of the Racing Department at the Bulgarian Ski Federation (BSF), which has organised ski competitions in Bulgaria for three years running, expressed his bewilderement that no-one had bothered to invite a BSF member to the media conference to represent their stance on the matter.
Stefanov said he was against the permission that had been given for the construction of bridges over ski runs, which would obstruct ski competitions.

Ultimately, the atmosphere at the media conference decended into something not too dissimilar from a pub brawl, with Sasho Dikov from Channel 3 television demanding to be given immediate access to documentation and proof of ownership from Micharski, and demanded an explanation from Belev as to who exactly was responsible for allowing construction to go ahead in the natural park.

Simultaneously, Vitosha Ski, the main operator of the ski facilities on the Vitosha Mountain, said that they had started preparing the slopes in order to "save the ski season" after weeks of uncooperative behaviour from Visotha Nature Park, which threatened to "ruin the season". Vitosha Ski began preparation of the ski slopes on October 28, after getting a nod of approval from Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naidenov. Their claim was that unless there was immediate cooperation from Belev, the ski season would be irreversibly lost.

However, Machirski, head of ski and snowboard school at Vetrovala on Vitosha, filed a complaint against Vitosha Ski with the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), accusing the concessioner of being nothing but a monopolistic organisation which does little to help the preparation for the ski season.

Furthermore, all claims of a "lack of cooperation pertaining to the preparation of slopes, which would affect the safety of skiers" were complete nonsense, Machirski said. Instead, he accused Vitosha Ski of discrimination for charging ski teachers 2000 leva for an annual ski card, whereas as the price for civilians was only 500 leva a season.

"The position of the mountain's main concessioner were supporter by Tseko Minev, president of the BSF, who went as far as to claim that the situation was so critical that Prime Minister Boiko Borissov should intervene to save the season" Machirski was quoted by Bulgarian daily Sega as saying.

"The truth could not be more different. The slopes were ready and in good condition and they could be put in service as soon as the snow cover would allow it," he said.

Vitosha Ski were attacked over the cancellation of single-journey tickets for the Romanski Lift, which was said to hurt thousands of tourists who want nothing to do with skiing and use the lift on their journey to reach the summit of Cherni Vruh. Parents were concerned that if they wanted to take their children up the mountain for a walk, they would have no other option but to purchase a card for an entire day.

Skiers were unhappy because half-day cards were unavailable from the morning until 12pm, making a cross-mountain ski trip from Cherni Vruch through Platoto, Vetrovala and down to Knyazhevo needlessly expensive, because only a single trip up the ski lift was needed for this trip. Instead, skiers were forced to buy full day cards.

Other ski schools were unhappy with Vitosha Ski, saying the company acted monopolistic. And will all that discontent, the concessioner in turn was unhappy, complaining of a lack of cooperation and a lack of support.

Meanwhile tourists are saddened with derelict lodges, dilapidated facilities, tons of rubbish splattered all over the mountain and continuous construction allowed to proceed.

And yet the ski season is only weeks away...