Vihren

Worth a detour

The third highest summit in the Balkan peninsula and the high point of Pirin, reached by a red-marked path from Vihren hut over the Kabata saddle. Around three hours up for most people, two to two and a half back, plus whatever you spend on top: call it six hours hut to hut. No technical climbing on the normal summer route, but the last section is broken rock and hands come out. The north wall, seen from the saddle, is the view you came for.

Story

Background

Vihren is marble, and that is most of what you need to know about it. The band of marble in northern Pirin weathers into pale, steep, badly behaved rock, and the mountain's north face drops several hundred metres into the Kazana cirque below — one of the few genuinely alpine walls in Bulgaria. From Bansko the whole thing is visible as a white wedge above the town, which is part of why the summit is so busy in August.

The standard way up starts at Vihren hut, a little under 2,000 m, sixteen kilometres from Bansko by a narrow twisting asphalt road. In the high season vehicles are stopped below the hut during the middle of the day and a shuttle minibus runs up from the Shiligarnika car park; there is also a municipal bus from Bansko a few times a day. From the hut the red markings climb to the Kabata saddle and then turn up the ridge, with a final stretch of scrambling over loose blocks. Three hours is a fair estimate for someone who walks regularly. Allow more if you do not.

The other line, over the Dzhamdzhiev ridge, is shorter, far more exposed and in a different category — that one is not a walk. Outside high summer both routes hold snow and ice in the upper section, which is where things go wrong. Cloud builds over the crest most summer afternoons, and it builds fast.