Bovec

Bovec 10/11 Season

There are some very good reasons for coming to Bovec this coming season, firstly the long awaited link to Sella Nevea will be in place which greatly increases the ski area available to us.Secondly it is still an inexpensive place to visit despite being in the Euro zone with a large beer on the mountain is still under £2 and a meal on the mountain will be about 1/2 of one in Les Arcs.

 http://www.bovec.si/en/default.asp?id=523

Departing 11/02/11  £599

We enjoyed this trip this year getting a chance to ski in Bovec, Sella Nevea and Tarvisio in one week all on the same lift pass. The skiing is suited more to intermediates than total beginners but for better skiers the off piste potential is enormous and as yet relatively undiscovered.

Price includes 6 day international pass, half board accommodation and coach travel from Plymouth

Other Bovec Packages

These include

• Return airport transfers from Venice or Trieste.
• Half board accommodation (cooked breakfast, afternoon tea/cocktails, three course evening meal with wine and coffee as well as pre and après dinner drink).
• Three day international ski pass (covers Slovenia, Italy and Austria).
• Hucksters Top Day Out - comprises a morning of guiding over to Sella Nevea and an evening Casino show night.

• Resort minibus transfers and guiding programme.

Weekend packages available arriving either Thursday or Friday for three nights stay or short stay packages arriving Sunday or Monday.

These short breaks need a minimum of 5 persons  

Review

Bovec is a ski resort in the far northwest of Slovenia and I was quite surprised to hear that Chris Franklin had invested in a hotel and chalet there as I had never heard of it before.  Chris's previous ventures had always been to resorts attached to extensive skis areas such as Vallandry (Les Arcs), Les Brevières (Tignes), and La Tania (3 Valleys), so I was intrigued to find out why he had chosen one that appeared to be  much smaller than his others.

To check out Bovec I flew from Bristol to Venice's Marco Polo where Chris met me and during the drive to Bovec he explained about the off piste potential of this ski area.

That evening we met up with Joanna, the owner of the Hotel Alpwhere we were staying, and Dejan, my guide for the next day,  who runs a local company, xpoint.

The next morning Dejan met me with some fat Fischer twin tip skis from Outdoor Freaks, and we drove the 1km or so from the hotel to the lift station where I collected my lift pass, kindly organised for me by the new French owned lift company Transmontagne.

The bottom station is at only 430m but the 4 man gondola took us up to 2200m in just under 30 minutes and when we got out I was very pleased to see the quality of the snow was excellent and the views were amazing - on a very clear day you can see all the way to the Mediterranean.

Dejan suggested that we warm up skiing on the pistes, which was fine by me, but I knew he would be weighing me up to see if I would be a liability off piste. The runs were open, well groomed and not crowded at all in spite of it being the local half term; we didn't have to queue at any point for a lift.

Due to the poor snowfall all of the Alps had had this year we only could ski down as far as the second to last gondola station at 1650m but we did have access to all Mt Kanin chairlifts and seven separate pistes.  The skiing was a pleasant mixture of red and blues which would suit skiers who still find runs at this level a challenge but the hardened piste cruisers would soon tire of them.

After an hour or so Dejan asked if I had warmed up and suggested we take a look at some of the off piste, so we went off to the left of one of the blue runs.  I was amazed at how many untracked slopes there were and couldn't believe Dejan when he told me it had been ten days since the last snow.  In Les Arcs or Tignes the locals and saisonnaires would have trashed it all before lunch on the first day.

After that we took a longer off piste run down to the gondola station, where we found a large area of corn snow;  I was so pleased I had my fat skis which just floated over the top, rather than Dejan's skinny race skis which tended to break through the surface at the least opportune moments.

We were due to meet Joanne and Chris for lunch in the Mountain Restaurant but Dejan was keen for one more off piste adventure.  This time we went to the Veliki Graben lift and skied through some truly stunning scenery.  i was slightly unnerved when Dejan told me to stay clear of some holes in the snow as some of them were 800m deep!

The plan after lunch was to take the off piste route down to the Italian resort of Sella Nevea which you can see from the col at the bottom of the Prevala lift, but unfortunately the fog rolled in and Dejan made the decision that it wouldn't be safe to do the trip.

It certainly looked a great run and in '08 it will be a red piste with a lift coming up from the Italian resort making this quite an extensive area.

Chis pointed out  that the Bovec pass will be valid for the lifts in Sella Nevea and also for one day in each of the resorts of Tarvisio in Italy and Arnacostein in Austria; it is planned to visit each of these resorts during the course of each week.

It was a disappointment not to be able to ski over into Italy but we compensated by finding yet more untracked snow.

Dejan pointed out some huts that are used for ski mountaineering tours which I hope to do later this season - he advised using a guide for these trips.

In conclusion I would say that Bovec offers some attractive piste skiing which would suit beginners or skiers who are still learning to cope with red and blue pistes.  However, for those of you who long for miles of untracked off piste then this is an unknown gem with huge potential on both the Bovec and Sella Nevea sides of the mountains. Chris plans to use local guides and instructors so that experienced off piste skiers and those hoping to improve their skills will be well catered for.

As an added bonus eating and drinking in Bovec is much cheaper than at most resorts in Europe, for example, a large beer in the mountain restaurant was 1.5 Euros and a six day lift pass is 95 Euros for an adult and 67 for a child.  Money saved in the resort could perhaps be used to spend a couple of days exploring Venice.

I found the Slovenian people very welcoming and friendly and I would especially like to thank Dejan for his patience and expertise, Joanne for her hospitality at Hotel Alp, the Tourist office for providing my lift pass and Marco for lending me the skis.

Ski Facts

Height of top lift - 2300m

Number of lifts -  4 + cable car.

Pistes - 5 red, 3 blue

There is also the 7km Black run called the Krnica which is really an off piste tour best done with a guide.

One very reasonably priced mountain restaurant.

Masses of off piste potential

A new link is planned for the 08/09 season to Sella Nevea which would create a good interlinked system with 65km of pistes and giving access to 3 more huge off piste faces

Getting There

I flew with Easy Jet from Bristol to Venice and it took about 21/2 hours to reach the resort.  On the return journey I left Bovec at 4.30pm and was home in Plymouth by 12 midnight.

Chris will also be picking up from Trieste which has a transfer time of only 1 1/2 hrs.

Sound Skis will be running trips to Bovec in the '07/'08 season, please call us on 01752 226923 or 07970953401 for details.