Pirin

Three rescue operations were carried out over the last 24 hours. A group of tourists is still being searched for, the Mountain Rescue Service told Focus News Agency. 

A three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) repealed the decision of Environment Minister Nino Dimov not to carry out an environmental assessment of the changes in the management of Pirin Park. Separately, the supreme magistrates give obligatory directions to Dimov to observe the laws on protected areas and the protection of the environment.

There is high avalanche risk in the Rila, Pirin and Rhodope mountains, the Mountain Rescue Service with the Bulgarian Red Cross told Focus News Agency. The weather is cloudy and calm, light wind blowing in some parts. The avalanche danger increases as the weather gets better.

Bulgaria's mountain rescue service on 23rd of January are warning of a high avalanche danger in the coming days. The highest risk of avalanches is in Pirin mountain as there is already 30 cm new snow. By Sunday, the snow cover is expected to reach 1 m, reports BNT. 

The weather conditions are dangerous for both tourists and fans of extreme sports and skiing off piste.

Environmentalists have achieved a major victory after a court battle to stop a Bulgarian national park being turned into a ski resort, reported the Independent. 

Bulgaria's top court ruled that Pirin National Park, a world heritage site and home to bears and wolves, must be protected from development.

Environmentalists in Bulgaria scored a victory Wednesday in a long-running court battle to prevent enlargement of a ski resort in the Pirin mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage site, reports AFP. 

The five Macedonian snowboarders who had fallen into a furrow in Pirin were successfully rescued. They were snowboarding and skiing outside designated areas, Mountain Rescue Service (MAS) said.

Two people died after an avalanche in Pirin in the Bansko area, announced the Mountain Rescue Service at the Bulgarian Red Cross. The dead were fond of extreme winter sports and were on the western slopes of Todorka peak, reports Dnevnik.

In front of the Council of Ministers, the protests of environmentalists are resumed after the news that Marc Girardelli is the owner of the concession company of the Bansko ski area.

This morning activists came with skiing and other winter equipment in the triangle of power.

The conditions for hiking in the mountains are bad, Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) announced to the Bulgarian Red Cross.
 
Ski and hiking conditions are not suitable anywhere because of the bad weather in the high mountains except Pirin. The overgrown belt is foggy, low in temperature and in most places there is a very strong wind.