Sarajevo Bjelašnica — ski the 1984 Olympic pistes for the price of a coffee, empty most weekdays
Cheap lift tickets, empty pistes, and the 1984 ghost on every chairlift.
There is something a little surreal about taking a chairlift up the very slope where Bill Johnson took downhill gold in 1984. The signposts are still there. The old finish-line markers stand near the lift station. The mountain has not forgotten.
The setup
Bjelašnica and its neighbour Igman sit about 30 km southwest of Sarajevo. Close enough for a day trip, easy enough for a weekend. Most hotels in the city can organise transfers, or you can rent a car (winter tyres mandatory).
Lift passes are roughly €30 a day at the time of writing. Equipment rental in the village is another €20. A full ski day costs less than a single lunch at Val d’Isère.
What to expect
- Snow. Reliable December through March, often into April.
- Pistes. Maybe 12 km combined. Modest compared to the Alps, but enough for a proper weekend.
- Crowds. Weekdays you can have entire runs to yourself.
- Lifts. Mostly modernised; a few creaky chairlifts still in use date from the 1984 Olympics.
Off the slopes
The village of Šabići and the high-altitude meadows of Lukomir (Bosnia’s highest inhabited village) are nearby and worth visiting in any season. In winter you need a guide and the right shoes. In summer it is a different planet of wildflowers and shepherds’ huts. Back in the city, the Trebević cable car and the abandoned Olympic bobsled track are the other 1984 sites you can walk through.
A coffee in the lodge
The cafeteria at the base station serves the world’s most reasonable bowl of grah (bean stew) and Bosnian coffee that puts every Alpine equivalent to shame. Have both. Watch the snow come down. Ma hajde (come on), admit it’s better than the Alps. Half the price, twice the snow, the same view, no one waiting for your chair.
Sources & further reading
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