Peak 26 | Musala, Bulgaria | 2925m

This would be my final and highest peak in the Balkans. The plan was to originally do this in the previous week, but after having some delays it meant that we had to leave this one until after our Cyprus trip.

The highest point of Bulgaria — Click here to view Instagram post

Quick Summary

• Start point - Gondola, Borovets

• Route taken - Yastrebets to Musala

• Total ascent - 700m

• Total length - 12.8 km round trip

• Total time for the climb - 5 hours

• Expense category - #Low

• Equipment - #StandardHike

• Difficulty - #Level2 of 5

• Enjoyment - #3stars of 5*

The highest point of Bulgaria

So we arrived at the town of Borovets at the bottom of the mountain on a Monday to start with. The plan was to take the Gondola up and come back down the same day.

However, as it turned out the Gondola lift was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I had a decision to make. I really wasn't keen on using the Gondola but it was the only way the Iain could realistically do the peak. We made the decision to head back to Sofia once again, pick up our other friend Tom and head back to stay around the mountain the following day.

Finally, when Wednesday came we headed to the now open Gondola that took us up to 2369m.

After arriving at the gondola station we noticed that everyone was heading on what looked to be a road track to one of the mountain huts. But we could see Musala in the distance and what looked to be a nice ridge to walk along to get there. So we opted for the ridge walk.

This turned out to be the best decision. We escaped the crowds and the views were much better.

The main trail was one of the busiest paths I've seen on the project. There was one large group of maybe 50 people!

The weather had shown the possibility of a thunders storm that day and as we reached the summit the clouds had started to change grey. We didn't stay there for long and quickly headed down.

We could hear thunder rumbling the distance but luckily there was nothing close by

On our way back I and Iain had supported briefly and he had found his way off-trail. I was looking for him and all of a sudden I heard a shout and a rock the size of a football hurting down the side of the mountain and onto the trail. Thankfully it missed everyone but there were many loose rocks at the side of the trail that reminds you of the dangers.