What to carry
Food, water and a phone that still works when you need it. The three things people get wrong most often, and none of them are about expensive equipment.
Food and energy
A long day in Rila or Pirin burns more than most people expect. The mistake is not carrying too little food overall — it is eating nothing for four hours and then trying to catch up.
Eat little and often
Roughly 40 to 60 grams of carbohydrate an hour is the range endurance athletes work to, and it holds for a long mountain day. That is about one cereal bar or a banana every hour, starting in the first hour rather than when you feel empty.
Real food beats gels here
Bulgarian huts sell bob chorba, banitsa and lukanka for a fraction of what imported energy products cost, and they sit better over eight hours. Carry gels only for the last climb.
Something salty
You lose salt as well as water when you sweat, and cramp on a long descent usually follows a day of drinking plain water and eating only sweet things. Salted nuts or a piece of cheese does the job.
Water
Bulgaria is generous with mountain water in most ranges and gives you almost none in one. Knowing which is which is the difference between a light pack and a serious problem.
Half a litre an hour in summer
On a hot August day above the treeline, closer to a litre. Two litres is a sensible minimum to leave with for any full day.
Rila and Stara Planina are wet
Rila is the source of the Iskar, Maritsa and Mesta, and there are fountains at most huts. Take running water above the huts rather than from lakes or below a hut's outflow.
Slavyanka has nothing
Limestone swallows every stream. There are effectively no reliable sources on the mountain — carry three litres for a summer day and plan on refilling only back in Goleshovo. Pirin's marble does the same on a smaller scale.
Keeping your phone alive
Your phone is your map, your camera and your call to 112 when something goes wrong. It is also the first thing the cold kills.
Cold drains batteries fast
Lithium-ion cells lose a large share of their usable capacity near freezing, and a phone showing 40 per cent in your hand can shut down within minutes on a cold ridge. Carry it in an inside pocket against your body, not in the outside pocket of your pack.
Airplane mode is the single biggest saving
With no signal, the phone burns power hunting for a tower it will not find. Airplane mode with GPS left on still gives you your position, because GPS receives and does not transmit.
Download the map before you leave
There is no signal above the treeline in most of Rila and Pirin. A map that needs a connection is not a map. Save what you need while you still have wifi.
A 10,000 mAh bank is plenty
That is roughly two full phone charges, which covers a hut-to-hut weekend. Keep it warm too — a cold power bank delivers less than a warm one.
A headtorch is not optional
Even for a day walk that should finish at four. A phone torch flattens the battery you may need for a rescue call.
Call 112 and ask for Mountain Rescue, or call PSS directly, 24 hours a day, on 02 963 2000, 0887 100 237 or 0887 100 238. The old short number 1470 was closed in August 2026. Give your position, the number of people and the nature of the injury.