Info on Vlasic

[Killian]

Hi,

Hoping that people may be able to help me. I am off to Mostar and Travnik over the christmas break and will be going to Vlasic for a couple of days. I have a couple of questions.

1. Do I need to book ski hire or will there be sufficent supply at this busy time of year?

2. Is there snow in Vlasic now?

3. The resort seems quite small, is it possible to go to the top of the mountain (at 1900 metres) on a skidoo?

4. I would like to try and learn to do off piste, in deep snow, is there english speaking instructors and how much is there rate per hour?

5. Why in any maps I have seen of the resort is there no sign of the ski lift "Visovi"?

Thanks in advance.

[bosanac]

There is snow,but not enough for skiing,not today...
We expect more snow in incoming days.
Dont have to book for the ski equipment.
You can go at the beautiful top of the mountin only by retrack.

[oggy]

1. You should be able to find skis without booking in advance. Unfortunately, the selection of equipment isn't the greatest (at least in the rent shops that I've been to)

4. The "standard" rate for an instructor is about 10 Euros/h (per person), I don't know how much is the surcharge for an English speaking one. As for off-piste, Vlasic isn't exactly an off-piste paradise (unless you consider the customary poorly groomed pistes as off-piste) since all tracks are surrounded by forest.

5. Visovi hasn't been operational since beginning of the war. The only two working lifts are Babanovac and Markovac. Unfortunately, Markovac doesn't work most of the time. Lift workers deem that it doesn't pay off for them to start it unless there's a huge crowd at Babanovac. However they're still quite happy to charge you the full price of the ski pass.

I'm not sure about 2 and 3. Ask Benjamin from this forum, he's a local.

[Killian]

Bosanac and Oggy, thanks for the helpful information. I see from the webcam on the hotel pahuljica website that there has been a good coating on snow.

I understand that it is only about 10cms so lets hope for more over the next few days.

If either of you have other webcams links for vlasic i would appreciate it. The webcams on the BiH Telecom site never seem to work.

Thanks.

[stekan]

Killian, if you used to ski in European or US resorts, please come with low expectations regarding skiing. Vlašić is beautiful mountain, but infrastructure is on VERY LOW level compared to western resorts.

[Killian]

Stekan, I have skiied in both Jahorina Igman and Bjelesnica, in 1999. I really loved Jahorina, it was cheap, some good runs, nice bars and no queues. Less said about the music, extremely slow chair lifts and erractic electricty supply the better.

At the time Bjelesnica had appaling queues for the one lift i think was working. That said the ski run was amazing. In Igman all I remember is the mine tape that ran along the piste edge, so be careful where you fell.

My expectations are realistic I'm just terrified that there will be no snow and I will be stuck up in a mountain in Bosnia - bored.

Are there any firm plans for redevelopment of the ski infrastructure, installing more lifts, replacing old ones on any of the ski resorts. I have always thought that the Sarajevo area is an ideal position as a ski centre.

[stekan]

Are there any firm plans for redevelopment of the ski infrastructure, installing more lifts, replacing old ones on any of the ski resorts. I have always thought that the Sarajevo area is an ideal position as a ski centre.

Privatization is the key word. Nothing will happen till then.

[Killian]

Any timetable on when privitisation will take place? I thought that there was quite a bit of accomdation construction going on in Bjelesnica, and it seems to me that a whole lot more ski lifts could be put on the mountain to open it up. Is it the BiH State or ZOI who are still the legal owners of the mountain and the lifts on it.

I think that in France it is the state that owns most of the ski infrastructure. Private companies build and operate the lifts on long term licences.

[oggy]

Yep, accomodations have been built on Bjelasnica. The building was done in a surprisingly well-organized manner (unlike Jahorina or Vlasic). There's also a new drag lift there this year (that makes it a total of 3 drags and 1 chair lift, if I'm not mistaken).

As for Jahorina, the only difference to 1999 is that its queues are much larger now It's especially bad on weekends and when the weather is bad, because there's only one lift that runs in the lower part of the mountain (where the forest protects you from the wind). Though they did do a more-or-less decent job of grooming the pistes last year.

I imagine that privatization, as with most other companies, is delayed by the resorts' managements, because the current situation is ideal for diverting money into their own pockets.

[Benjamin]

Sorry for waiting
1. Do I need to book ski hire or will there be sufficent supply at this busy time of year?
No, it will be sufficient supply for all season.

2. Is there snow in Vlasic now?
15 cm

3. The resort seems quite small, is it possible to go to the top of the mountain (at 1900 metres) on a skidoo?
You can contact management of Hotel Pahuljica (Mr. Amer Coric), he is a member of Snowmobile Team Babanovac. One time per week they driving to top of the mountain-Paljenik 1943 m

4. I would like to try and learn to do off piste, in deep snow, is there english speaking instructors and how much is there rate per hour?
You can contact Mr. Mahir Lendo, Ski Team Babanovac ski-instructor (mahir@skiteambabanovac.com or mobile: +387 61 233 260).

5. Why in any maps I have seen of the resort is there no sign of the ski lift "Visovi"?
Ski lift Visovi is totally destroyed during the war in Bosnia. Before war that ski lift is used only for oficial (low level) alpine skiing races in ex Yugoslavia.

Sorry for my terible English, but i only try to help you.
With Best Regards,
Benjamin www.babanovac.net