The I.V.A.N. Experience Project: In the Air

Flying above the Seven Pirin Lakes

Elevating Sustainability: Carbon-Free Hot Air Balloon Flight Soars from the Seven Pirin Lakes, to the Seven Emirates, Championing Climate Benefits

“A pick that points to heaven. Beneath it, blue lakes, bright colors and the unfinished drawing … that drawing challenged me to redraw it in my own way a “complete the picture”. One legacy from the last century and a challenge for this century?

I always remembered this page from my Grandfathers Diary as my challenge to visit the Seven Rila Lakes and “live” the moment of staring at it and experience the beauty of the mountain, as depicted in this photo.  Over the years this sketch was “sealed” in my head. Over the years I was wondering how to draw the rest of it especially that I am not a painter. So, a few years ago, I did a location scouting at the bottom of the Seven Rila Lakes with my friend Lazar Goushev, a Hollywood photographer, just to investigate the surrounding area and see if it is suitable to make a special event for Extreme and Aviation sports. In fact, part of my story was featured in a Russian Aviation magazine.  

Thus was born the idea to organize my flights with balloons against the backdrop of our beautiful peaks. I shared my idea with a young architect who wanted to organize some hot air ballooning flights in Melnik. And soon he called me that he has organized to fly five hot air balloons above the Seven Rila Lakes. I said: Why not seven? It goes perfect with the symbol Seven for the Lakes, the Seven Samurais, it is the Seventh month, etc. so we visualized the spirit and concept of the Flight above the Seven Rila Lakes… Now after completing this project, I decided to turn another page of my Grandfather’s Diary that resembles the region of Svoge. So, lately I am working on the concept to organza helicopter, moto paragliding and moto hangliding above the Iskar Gorge and have an unforgettable experience with my new collection of Fortis Swiss Watches “, says Ivan Kristoff.

7x7x7x7
Our next  goal is to rise 7 hot air balloons, fly with 7 Fortis watches on the 7th month of the year, with 7 Samurais by heart… That is the idea for the The I.V.A.N. Experience Project: Above the Seven Rila Lakes.  If you own a Fortis watch, you can fly for free in one of the seven hot air balloons in Rila – the highest mountain in Bulgaria. If you would like to have your own experience with Fortis Watches, contact us and we will arrange you a flight during next special event, 2016

Sky is the limit. Your sky. Your limit.

We performed successful flights over the cites of Sofia, Bansko and Bistrica. The latest dream and our destination was the Seven Rila Lakes. The idea was to fly with 7 hot air balloons on 23 – 24 July at sunrise. On the 22th of July we transferred the heavy equipment and hot air balloons with a helicopter to the LZ’s near the Rila Lake’s Hut.