The Seven Rila Lakes in October
Most people walk the Seven Rila Lakes in July, when the chairlift runs every few minutes and the ridge looks like a queue. I went in the first week of October instead, and for most of the second day I did not see another person.
The lift was already closed for the season, which adds about ninety minutes of steady climbing from the Pionerska hut. Worth it. By the time the trail opens up above the Bliznaka lake the light is low and sideways, and the water goes from green to almost black depending on where the clouds sit.
What I carried
- One body and one lens. A 35 mm on a mechanical camera, so the cold never worried me.
- Three rolls of Tri-X. I shot two and a half.
- A proper shell, a warm layer and gloves. At sunrise the thermometer on my pack read −3 °C.
- Water for the whole day. The hut at the lakes had already stopped selling anything.
Exposure notes
Snow had not arrived yet, but the frost on the grass in the early morning fooled the meter in exactly the way you would expect. I ended up rating the film at 320 and opening up a stop in the shadows of the cirque. Developed in D-76 1+1, eleven minutes at 20 °C, and the negatives are dense but printable.
The best frames came from the hour after sunrise, when the wind dropped and the lakes went flat like glass.
If you go
Check the weather the evening before and again at the hut. Fog can roll over the ridge in twenty minutes, and the upper path between the Eye and the Tear lakes is easy to lose. Leave early, turn back early, and carry a paper map. Phone signal comes and goes.