Now that the doctors confirmed my suspicion that my knee is all good again (yes!), I felt like doing some climbing this past weekend. So we headed towards Rila and more specifically Maliovitza peak. I used to ski here when I was a kid (and afterwards as well) so I’ve admired it for a very long time, can’t quite tell you why I’ve never gotten to the top before.

 
7am and the sun is slowly illuminating our goal for the day, the magnificent Maliovitza peak 🙂

 
Didn’t really take that many shots on the way up (perhaps that explains why it only took us 2.5hrs to get to the top), but just as you climb the last ridge you come across this great view — the Rila Monastery, nestled in the forest on the other side.

 
Interesting rock formations. I made a mental note to come back and explore it further 😉

 
The view from the top… well worth it! 🙂

 
Maliovitza hut, down at the bottom of the valley.

 
Lovely clouds. Interestingly, literally 30 minutes later the sky was all dark and not even an hour later it started raining. Precarious weather conditions in the mountains, you always have to be ready.

 
The fake selfie. Meaning we asked the guy who climbed after us to do a proper photo 😉

 
Not sure if you can quite tell, but it’s a 200-300m vertical drop from this ledge. Fun 🙂

 
The view west. Not a bad spot, sat there for a good 15 minutes just taking it all in.

 
I think people have done base jumping from this rock before, man I want to see that live in action. Update: here’s a video with a jump not too far from my location.

 
We came across some horses on the way down.

 
Like I said, 30 minutes after the photo of the lovely clouds above, the sky turned dark. This is a shot of Maliovitza from the other side on the way down.

 
All in all, a lovely day in the mountains. I’ll be doing more mountain trips this summer so stay tuned 😉