Tag Archives: freeride

Fresh meat at Bârcaciu, and they lovin it

This year, Bârcaciu ski touring event hold place, a bit underground, among friends but it had happen. And it was a great weekend to spend on the mountain with beautiful snow, fresh lines and bluebird days. It was also the birthday of the man in charge, the one and only Sherpa from Carpati, Mihai Petre, and seems the gods favor him that we had this briliant conditions.

I feel that i’m repeating myself but this area has so much to offer in terms of mountain acces, lines, trails, tracks and anything in between (good food and good accommodation😊)

Don’t be shy, check it whenever you have the opportunity. I will not continue buzzing you with the same details, just check the pictures and movies bellow and if you want, the the past articles like Bârcaciu Skitouring VRR Edition or Făgăraș from peak to creek #barcaciu. Enjoy and ride safe!

Sketchiest day so far at Balea Lake

Sketchiest day so far at Balea Lake. I know that from the cover it doesn’t look that way, but it was. Things can change very fast on the mountain, so expect anything. We had a beautiful start of the day, with a decent descent from the ridge of the mountain to Capra lake, but then, the fog came and it stayed for diner… and breakfast next day too :))).

After that, we tried to become friends but she wont open up to us…😆 hard to make a bond when there’s no communication, you feel like talking to the walls :))). Enough with the funny talk, here are some pictures and 2 movies to judge by yourselves. Also for more riding in Balea Lake, you can check BALEA LAKE POWDER DAYS. Enjoy and ride safe!

Ciucas mountains ski touring day

This is a classic tour for us, each year we do one or tow rides in Ciucas. Why? because its accesibile, usually holds good snow despite of the windy ridge, has good slope with moderate inclination and you can have 2 or 3 decent descent in one day. I recomand a tour in Ciucas for intermediar to advance skiers and the recommendation is to check the weather and in before you go there. You can also look for a guide to take you there, its 1 day job and for sure you will find some good ones here like our friends from Massif Experience. if its heavy snow after a long dry period, better stay bellow the tree line or on mellow slopes. If not, you can try even a descent from the peak. each way you do it, check the conditions on the spot ;).

To better get a feel of the terrain there, check out some of our old articles like CIUCAS MOUNTAINS BACKCOUNTRY SKIING DAY or Ciucas skitouring reloaded.

Enjoy and ride safe!

Post lockdown ride in Leaota Mountains

FREEEEDOOOM!

Yes, we really deserved this ride. Please don’t be scared of the number of people in the picture, yes, we did know that we will meet but we were separated groups of 3 persons or less that met there and happened to take the same ride in Leaota mountains, so don’t judge.

It was a well deserved ride, hard, but we enjoyed it very much. Leaota mountains are quite underestimated. They hold a bunch of awesome trails, hard to access because you have to pedal your way up but, let me confirm that you will not regret the climb of a few hours.

The terrain is wild, natural, technical and offers a great view over the horizon and the other mountains in proximity like Bucegi, Iezer or Piatra Craiului.

Only the view is enough for rewording the climb, but if you consider the trails, clearly you are the winner.

Not long after the start we kind of forgot the harsh past 2 months and we gave ourselves to the ride, enjoyed it and made laughs of our rusty bodies …. this is truly a medicine for the heart, mountains are beautiful and bikes are awesome

Until next time, enjoy and ride safe, we sure will!

Link to garmin connect for the ride track here!

LESPEZI PEAK SPRING SKIING, FAGARAS MOUNTAINS

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!

BALEA LAKE POWDER DAYS

An experience of some weekends ago, probably the only powdered days of the year.
Balea Lac and Fagaras mountains remain one of the coolest back country and freeride areas in RO and probably the only mountains with serious lines. Easy to admire but dangerous to approach 😆😅💪… I m glad we chose to go there. In the first day we skin our way up from Capra cottage to Balea Lac, then ski down to Doamnei valley, skin up again and made a final descent on Balea Valley, just under the cable car. We had fresh snow and was nice to remember how that feels. Then we took the cable car up and parked out skis at Balea Lac.
We sincerely liked to stay at Balea Lac or Balea Lac 2 cottage, clean rooms, clean bathrooms, hot water and good food, we clearly recommend it.
The second day spent at Balea we skin our way up vaiuga , near Vanatoarea lui Buteanu peak, made a descent to Capra lake, skin up again and then chose to go down the south part, in the sun and at a later hour, following a group of austrian skiers that had a guide. I would honestly  recomand to avoid this area on clearer days and with temperatures over 5-6C degrees, especially when there is fresh snow accumulations. I found the snow quite heavy…
Ofcourse, we had to go down anyway because we had our car at Capra and we would either go down now or later…The transfer to the south part during the heating periods is very debatable.
Until next time, ride safe!

VALEA CERBULUI DRIFTING ON AN ICY DAY

SKITOURING TO VALEA CERBULUI ON AN ICY DAY

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 on a blizzard weekend

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!

CIUCAS MOUNTAINS BACKCOUNTRY SKIING DAY

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!

Ski touring and Romanian mountain hut, Bărcaciu, Făgăraș mountains

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!

Ski touring on Lespezi peak, Făgăraș mountains, Romania

Ok, judging from the first pic of this post, this is a proper winter for shredding… but take a look at the other pictures… and this happens in January 12, 2020… this is critical…

Not even in spring did we catch these conditions here. Don’t look too far, we ourselves are the cause. But how radical the situation must become in order for us to change this… I’m really curious if technology or something else will save this one…ok, let’s leave this aside, for now.

This weekend we did the Lespezi descent, a bit too early because of the poor snow and spring conditions.

Lespezi peak is one of the easiest to access 2500m peak in Făgăraș mountains, and one that you can ski from the very top.

It’s a nice tour, the pictures from the last part of the climb, and from the peak are just awesome, as well as the descent. This one calmed my appetite for ski, but not for long. I really hope it’s one of those late winters that shows their strength in March :D, how wonderful would it be!

Until then ride safe!

WHITE VALLEY SPRING SKIING

WHITE VALLEY SPRING SKIING

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! ⛷❄🍻

LESPEZI PEAK SKI TOURING DAY

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!