The Balkan's highest: Grand Musala

*Marked as difficult due to distance and elevation gain*

Finally, I was able to conquer this beast! Although, to be honest, to summit this peak is quite an easy and not technical hike from Borovets. At least the way I took! It took me 4 hours to summit. The granite rocks were wet just before the summit so it took me longer to go up.

I will say that while Rila National Park isn't as dramatic as Pirin, it has a lot more variety in regards to its peaks and terrain. Even if there was a lot of fog, I noticed the east and west side of the park are so different! The west seemed closer to Pirin (more rugged, dramatic and unforgiving) but the east side where I was (at least that section), the summits were quite flat and the saddles/passes/ridges were as well. This is probably why this hike felt easier than the others in Pirin. Would be good explore it more!

As for the trails in this recording, as said, they are quite easy and gentle (maybe except the one I took after the Maritsa hut - had more up and down but still quite wide and comfortable). After Pesokliva Vapa, there is no trail to go down to the valley/river but the ridge is flat and easy to go down except at the end. There were some small pine trees that were making it difficult to progress and it was a bit steeper to go down. But nothing too tricky.

Other than when I was a top, I took mostly roads that serviced the gondola stations and a couple of ski slopes. However, if you don't take the gondola, I do recommend taking the road I took west of the town to summit. It's quite open and very little forest and you get to see good views shortly after the beginning. And you get to see your challenger (Musala) shortly after passing the second gondola station, good views on the east/west and if you squint, you can see the Pirin Mountains 😄

The other issue I had is I had confused the Maritsa hut with an old house and I didn't check the fork (thinking I was on the right path). So obviously, I went the wrong way on some road leading nowhere close to Borovets. You will see in the recording that I improvised a way to climb UP to the trail (100mts) from the road instead of going back. This was a bit after passing the hut (maybe less than a km). It was steep and had to do a bit of climbing. Not cool. So keep an eye out at the fork (after crossing the river). Then, on the way back I took some shortcuts via ski slopes and also, via the gondola line. Both very steep and painful but wanted that beer really badly 😢

Lastly, no pics coming down as half-way through the hike, clouds decided to accompany me. So visibility was rare and not very good for quite a bit of the hike. I felt not satisfied enough because I couldn't see the extent of the mountain range. But oh well, too bad! Maybe next time.