Probably the last ski day of this season, but we shell see. Not much options left, no lift access, not allowed to ride in larger groups, this kind of post apocaliptic atmosphere its nice but I don’t want to get used to it…
We put a nice patch to a rather bad season, with this last ski touring day. Looking bad, yes, we had bad snow, yes, we had less ski days and almost no powder but it was nice, I for one have good memories and got to ski some new places this year so i m pretty much satisfied. Now ill wait for the next one and hope that bike season will not be to much affected by these uncertain times… Thanks and ride safe y’all!
One of the latest ski touring days and this season gets closer to its end. Hope to get a couple of this days down until the end of this quite shitty winter. Maybe next one will be better and I manage to ski the fat animals next year 🙄.
It was so ice that my dental fillings almost fell down 😅.
But it was nice, a good mission a beautiful adventure in these uncertain times…
Until next time, enjoy and ride safe! 👊
FAGARAS MOUNTAINS BACKCOUNTRY SKIING ON A BLIZZARD WEEKEND 22.02.2020
This is from 2 weeks ago when we did some back country skiing in Fagaras mountains. It was not the perfect conditions but no regrets. Any day on the mountain its a good day, if nothing bad happens…. It was fun, riding in winter conditions on flat light and a blizzard, ingredients for a good adventure 🙂
We skied on the south side of Fagaras mountains, around Transfagarasan mountain road, just above Capra hut and bellow Transfagarasan tunnel. Enjoy!
Make Heaven from what you have … or as they say …
If you want to ski you can, quite a lot. Maybe from a quality point of view it is more sad, but we will certainly ski until April at least…
You just have to know where to go skiing, not to expect much out of it and to know how to avoid traffic 😀 these are some key factors for a satisfying ski day.
I predict that we will have a few more days like this and declare ourselves satisfied. This does not mean that we must remain blind to the things that change around us and we must be passive.
Probably the governments must take the problem of global warming and climate change more seriously, and probably technology will play a key role in solving this, but our ways of leaving must change and that is soon…
Until then, ride safe!
Ok, this country has some faults, nothing is perfect, but if you come to live with them and you love nature, you will find happiness here. We have traveled some and we liked what we saw over our borders, but somehow, I for one am always drawn back here, to Romanian mountains. Not the tallest, not the steepest, not the most beautiful, but they resemble us… complex, complicated :))
One thing I like about romanian mountains are the mountain huts. Basic, old, rugged but in a cozy kind of way. One place in particular that I’ve always come back to with pleasure is Barcaciu hut in Fagaras mountains.
Here I found knowledge, friendship, beauty, and will. The will to do something in the area, to develop and to offer free know how and that pleased me a lot.
This place is nice, Mihai, the guy in charge of the hut, along with his parents are making a great job on keeping the old hut alive.
This place is just great and if I had lived closer to the area, I would have visited it more often, alongside with the other huts in the north west part of the Făgăraș mountains.
This part of Făgăraș is the greatest, lots of trails, great amazing ridge, lot of snow in the winter and great people!
And don’t forget the food, they know how to cook a great meal! Mrs. Mariana, Mihai’s mom it’s a great cook and half of the reason I go to Barcaciu is for the meals I get :))), no lie here :D. The other half would be the trails and the snow in the winter. There are some spots there where you can have some great ski touring days if the weather and the mountain allow it.
We’ve been there already this winter and we got half lucky. Great day, not too cold and not too windy, and with decent snow conditions. We had some bad visibility, flat light on Puha descent but we had to deal with it. You cannot have it all, and you have to learn how to be grateful for what you received.
If on Saturday we had a bit of luck and we had a full ski touring day, on Sunday the snow came and we had to stay near the hut because of the bad visibility and unstable snow. But Mihai didn’t let us rest, he made sure we remembered how to use our avalanche safety and rescue equipment and had some avalanche rescue drills near the hut. We tried also to ski some of the fresh pow but the visibility was just too bad, so we called it a day. Not bad for the first ski touring weekend of the season.
If you want to discover the area in terms of ski touring, the event held by Mihai each spring is a good start, just check out Schi de tura la Barcaciu in the first weekend of spring :D. And here, another beautyful weekend spend here!
Thanks Barcaciu for all the good times! Cheers mate!
Maybe this was the last run of the season, and what a season it has been. Great snow, great touring days, great slopes and great friends. One to remember with lots of new places discovered and new things learned. That’s most important, always to learn something, never to settle for less. Another one added to the pile of memories. Cheers mates! ⛷❄🍻
This one has to be one of the best ski touring days of this season. Second time I have been on Lespezi Peak, both on skis. This beautiful 2.5k peak is also known as Corporate Everest because of its shape and relatively easy access even in winter conditions, making it pretty crowded…😅❄⛷
It’s a nice peak that offers a terrific view over Făgăraș mountains range. As you climb you can see the whole south valley of Transfăgărășan road with great peaks on each side and when you reach the top you can see Negoiou peak and Călțun lake with the great Călțun wall in all of its steepness…
As a descent route you can either go back the way you climbed, or get back 100m elevation and then enter the valley beneath the peak, or, if conditions are good, as we catch them, you can enter the valley almost directly from the peak on one of the ridges (almost spines) that forms underneath the peak.
Either way, check the conditions and get all information.
For us, was a great climb, a little windy, and a wonderful descent on a sunny afternoon.
For sure we will try it next year too. Cheers and ride safe! Enjoy!
Last Sunday we got lucky in Grohotis mountains, near Ciucas. This place has so much to offer, just this year I really got it :D. Bluebird day and some fresh powder in the mix. I was pretty tired but as one said, “you never regret going”… cheers mate! Enjoy, ride safe and have fun!
Last weekend we have been to Iezer mountains on our annual ski touring trip there. I think this is the 4th year that we made it here, and it is my 4th year of ski touring :)))… man, time flies so fast…
Each year was similar but somehow different. In terms of snow conditions, this year was a lot more snow and we had some pow in the first descent on the upper part near the ridge of the mountain. Being so hot all of a sudden, I don’t think it was 100% safe to try new lines or spots, so we stayed chill and shred the classic descent from the ridge directly to Iezer refuge. Maybe next year we will try a descent from the peak, that will be cool ;D. I remember last year I was feeling brave and took a climb just beneath the peak. My luck was that fog come and “ruin” my descent :))))
This year the ski party was made by me, Tiberiu, Nicu and Bogdan A. We started touring just directly from Voina Hut, that was a premier because none of the previous years had snow right from the parking lot… What a luck, otherwise we should have walked that stupid forest road until the shepherd’s hut in the alpin area where the forest stops.
It’s a long climb/walk to Crucea Ateneului, around 10 miles or so with at least 1250m elevation. We had great weather, sunny and no wind.
Once we descanted, we had some nice pow at the beginning and some crud later on.
The refuge is looking good, by our standards :D. The guys from mountain patrol are really trying to make it better each year.
We made 3 descents in the first day and then stayed in the refuge, talking and making ourselves some tee and some soup. Nicu had some digging to do in order to get some water. The guys from mountain patrol indicate us the spot to dig for water, thanks guys! It was a nice evening and we took some good night sleep. The sky was full of stars that night and the refuge was pretty warm because of the sunny day we had :D.
We slept like tired skiers :))).
Next day the sun didn’t show his face just until we almost made it back to our cars. We also took 3 descents and then a last one in the fog. At the end of the final descent the sun showed up but the snow was bad, pulling on our knees a bit to hard… it was like we had our skins on our skis :))). In the forest, we just found more heavy snow and sweet our asses off until we reached our car. We stayed to eat something at Voina and then drove our way back home.
The track from the first day you find it here. The retreat was on the same path as the ascent. We leave you some pics and an edit. Enjoy!
This is not a recent one, but we just haven’t had time to write something about it.
It happen last mouth in one of the perfect weather weekends that we had. It was an weekend with all inclusive, powder, joy, happiness, problems, panic, doctors and again… powder :))). But all turned out alright as you will see. And we have the pictures to back it all up :P.
The plan was to claim a room that we paid over 2 months ago at Paltinu mountain hut (nice place by the way, VRR approved :D). We hunted this good weather weekend and now it’s here.
I haven’t been to Balea on more then one occasion, doing an avalanche course last yearso I was pretty eager to go and better discover the place. Once up by the cabin we went directly to Paltinu to live Bubble (Cosmin’s dog) and go touring.
We climbed to Capra Lake and on the ridge of the mountain to Vaiuga peak. It was the most beautiful ridge walk I have taken so far, man that feeling. After this we made a first descent from under Vaiuga peak to Balea valley and on to the start of the cabin.
After this we took the cabin back up and go again to Paltiu to check how Bubble was doing. It seemed he driven the guys from the hut mad, so we had to take him with us. Bad idea! It was pow day and the dog is like 15 cm tall :))). This being told, Cosmin ended up carrying the dog almost all descent. Then, after following Cosmin on an narrow couloir and straight underneath Balea Cascada, disaster stroke. Cosmin took a silly fall and had his operated shoulder injured. We then had to go to Sibiu and go to hospital to check his shoulder out. We had some luck because Nicu stayed at Paltinu for this last descent and he could send to us some stuff and my car keys in order to go with Cosmin to hospital…. after the hospital experiences, Cosmin’s arm was immobilized and he took the next day off from riding. That night we go out to grab a pizza and then straight to a colleague of mine that helped us with accommodation for that night, thanks!
Next day was a bit cloudy. Cosmin stayed at Balea Cascada, at the start of the cabin, and I have gone up for one last ride with Nicu that ramaind at Paltinu to claim the room :)). We did a nice run to Doamnei Valley and back to the cabin. It was also powder day and the clouds ware low and over 2000m we had such a beautiful day.
After some further consulting, it turned out that Cosmin shoulder was ok and only needed some rest. One important advice, don’t take small dogs on powder days! :)))
02 of January was the last day of my winter holiday so I tried to make it count :P. The snow on the mountains is not too present these days so I decide to go to Ciucas Mountains. It was a track that I made it 1 year ago (much more snow then). It follows the same climb as in Ciucas Enduro contest, Bratocea ridge, but in the place called “La Tigai”, you follow the peak track to Ciucas peak (1954m). The weather, at the start of the track was not that promising but in the last part, the sky open up and I had the most beautiful landscape view from the peak. We have a call here in Ro, the weather looks at a person soul and reflects it :D… just saying :P.
After the peak, I decide to make a descent on the first valley that you see when looking south from the peak. This takes you to the marked track that runs between La Tigai and Ciucas Hut, so it was perfect to do so. The snow was ok, a bit hard at the start, near the peak, but then spring goodness after :D. No risk involved.
After, I took the way back to La tigai and then follow the track back on Bratocea ridge to Bratocea pass where I left the car. Bratocea pass makes the passing between Ciucas and Grohotis mountains, we did a bike track on these to mountains that you can find it here :).
On my way back I did another short descent. There are many valleys on the south face, and on the north, not very steep, just perfect! The track of the run you can find it here and I leave you a short edit and some pictures to confirm my landscape affirmation :))). Enjoy and ride safe!
Vertical Riding Romania 