Bulgaria

Bansko

Off season
Official site

No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.

Typical snowfall
164cm

A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →

Elevation
993–2,516 m
Across
9.3 km

We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified. Snow report on the official site ↗

Bansko, in Bulgaria, runs from 993 m at the base to 2,516 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 9.3 km across, with 41 marked runs and 20 lifts (about 34 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 164 cm of snowfall a season, 1,485th (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 1st in Bulgaria. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2014/15 (222 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2023/24 (94 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 52 cm.

How much snow it gets

Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Seasonal snowfall
164cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
94cm
The middle winter of the 12: 169 cm. The best: 222 cm.
World rank
1485
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
1
of 5 in Bulgaria
Elevation rank
4
Highest to lowest, of 5 in Bulgaria. The centre point sits at 1,521 m, 4 m below the national median.

Runs and lifts

Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Marked runs
41
Run length
34km
Lifts
20
Vertical
1,522m
Top 2,516 m · base 993 m

Run map

NoviceEasyIntermediateAdvancedOther Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map4.0 km
Steepest pitch29°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs11.2°

Which way the slopes face

North 76%
East 18%
South 1%
West 5%

94% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.

By difficulty

Novice 5 · 3.5 km
Easy 18 · 15 km
Intermediate 13 · 8.3 km
Advanced 4 · 3.4 km
Other 1 · 4 km

Lift types

  • Chairlift9
  • Rope tow4
  • Drag lift3
  • Gondola2
  • Platter1
  • Magic carpet1

See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗

Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

The most snow falls in January. March brings 77% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in Bulgaria (100%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. In amount, March brings 40 cm, about the same as the median of 36 cm.

39cm
Dec
52cm
Jan
33cm
Feb
40cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 164 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2023/24 with 94 cm; the biggest was 2014/15 with 222 cm (2.4 times as much). For 40% of the 5 ski areas in Bulgaria the leanest winter was 2015/16; here it was a different one.

222
99
119
216
177
161
203
220
146
94
136
177
14/1515/1616/1717/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/2323/2424/2525/26

Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.

Live cameras

Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.

Map

The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.

Official piste map ↗

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗

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