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!
Ok, so we haven’t posted for ages, that’s true, but we hope to make a recovery this fall.
Somehow, the plans didn’t go exactly as we wanted and we sacrificed the writing for riding and working :P, but we have a lots of stories to tell and a lot more going on. Mainly we wanted to make an article about each stage of Romanian Enduro Cup, that was just sick as so far. This weekend is Harghita Enduro, you can read more here, and then final stop, Metal Enduro Resita.
Ok, that’s it for now with apologies, let’s say something more meaningful. This weekend we went to a short trip to Valcan mountains (Straja resort on trailforks) and Parang mountains, 2 places that we have never ridden on.
Man, it was a good choice because we found out some serious trails here.
At Straja, we knew the terrain from last year, from Straja Enduro, but we have only been there as photographers. This year we got to ride the place. Still sorry we didn’t manage to reach the contest but next year for sure we will not miss it.
Straja has mainly 4 trails, 2 at the top of the mountains, a bit more alpine and you can reach them with a chairlift or by peddling out, and 2 long descents at the bottom where you have a gondola to help you out. The gondola and the chairlift do not always work so is good to check it out before you head there.
There is also shuttle service but it has a minimum number of riders that gets it started, at least 5 so check this out too.
The 2 main trails, the ones that run both sides of the gondola, Lupilor and Baloo by their names are just sick! you really feel that you are alive when you ride them. Your arms to :))))
For accommodation if you enjoy a basic mountain hut with cozy beds, shower, a great view and oh yeah, a great host, please check Allma Pension ;).
After a fuzzy evening with the fellas, next morning we headed out to Parâng mountains after a quick breakfast at a Medieval restaurant in the center of Petroșani (P.S. very good omelet there :D)
In Parâng we took the chairlift up. It’s an old chairlift with no support for bikes. It’s something improvised so please take care of your bikes. Check out the way they put them on the chairs and put some protections for the frame, just below the saddle because they will hang out by the saddle. We used our knee pads for this :).
From where the chairlift lets you off, we headed for Parângul Mare peak. It’s only pushbike from here, or, if your name is Ludo May, you might be able to ride it out… not us.
After 3 hours of pushbike, carrying or hiking it, we gave up and headed back. It was a bit late, so we decided to head back early. It was a bummer but the descent from Cârja peak was awesome. Steep, rough, loose technical, a real jam :D.
Form where the chairlifts let us, we rode fox trail, that takes you back to the base of the chairlift, you can find it on trailforks.
Man, that’s a very nice trail, with a lot of flow! it is a bit obscured in the middle or at the end but it’s ok, just ask the locals for directions.
Overall, it was a nice weekend, really funny with quality riding. Check the videos and photos bellow to convince yourself :D. Ride safe!
Best trail in Iezer mountains, this is it! no doubt about it!
You have to work a bit to reach it but when you start your descent, the view, the trail itself, the flow makes it perfect. We did this trail twice this year, first in the rain and next in a sunny late October day and we had the same amount of fun in both conditions 🤩. So, no matter the weather, this trail will be perfect. Just remember on the 3-4 h uphill that the best descent awaits you and you will not feel tired. Check out the other ride in the rain here, video included 🤙.
We leave you some nice footage below. Last pictures are from Ciocanu MTB trails where we took a ride the next day. Enjoy! 🚵♂⛰👊
Ciucas mountains have some amazing landscapes and awesome enduro single tracks if you haven’t heard about it yet. It’s also on our must do list of each year, and I think this year we will come again here when an event will be held to replace Ciucas Endro contest that was canceled because of the lack of implication of some parties…:(. But for sure we will come to the event because that means good people, nice bikes, beers and trails so you have it all in one place with this beautiful landscape on the background :D.
Ciucas mountains, as we also said in the previous post about Bucegi, they are also very friendly with ski touring and hiking and trail running activities. We did lots of trips here and cross this mountains in every direction but for sure there are more trails just waiting to be discovered here.
Until we come back with a different story abut Ciucas, we live you the pictures and videos bellow to better understand the beauty of these mountains!
2 weekend back we did an awesome ride in Bucegi mountains. It’s a ride that we tried for the first time last year and we like it so much that we included in the must do rides of each year :))).
As you already know by now, or if not you will, Bucegi mountains are a small group of mountains in our Carpathian range of mountains. They are ideal for ski touring and bike trail riding but also for hiking, climbing or trail running. We prefer ski and bike, but, whatever you chose you will have the same beautiful landscape that surrounds you so check out the photos bellow.
We are trail hunters, as we like to call ourself :)), so we wanted to make 3 beautiful descent this day. We started in Sinaia, taking the cabin to 2000m altitude near Furnica peak. From there we descended to Padina on a beautiful technical trail. From Padina we have like 1h pushbike to Strunga cole from were we have a long, beautiful and fun descent to Simon village. It’s one of the most beautiful single tracks in Bucegi, a must do in each year. We will go back there in autumn, hopefully with a drone to catch more of its awesomeness :D.
From Simon we took the road to Bran and then straight to the mountains to reach Long Ridge, a trail that will take us to Busteni city, on the other part of the mountain. It’s an nice retreat with an beautiful raw single track that few know of its existence :D.
Check out the clip ant the pictures bellow to see why we use so much the words beautiful and awesome :D. For track just ask us in email, we have many tracks and we want to give you all the details. Also for more detailed videos and track check out this article from last year: STRUNGA AND MUCHIA LUNGA DESCENT 2017. Enjoy and ride safe!
White Valley is one of the most iconic steep valleys in Bucegi mountains and a pleasure to ski it in spring conditions. Otherwise its pretty dangerous to be here on a full power winter and better to be with someone that knows the terrain pretty well and also do all precautionary test before heading into the valley.
White valley was the first step valley that we skied and it seams the last for this winter. We started the season with it and ended with it and it was beautiful. Always a pleasure to do some back country skiing in Bucegi Mountains because they are so beautiful and they have so much to offer in terms of ski, bike, hike and many related activities. And the landscape is just superb!
We leave you with some pictures and movie about our experience on White Valley and we hope that next ski season will be as good as this one! Cheers!
When March comes, we know is time for Barcaciu ski touring event! This year it come in the last weekend of March, on an not so skier friendly weather… but how cares, like we say, make haven of what you got, so that’s what we did :D.
We ware pretty happy just before the weekend because some fresh snow was in the forecast, but by the time of the event, the sudden warm up of the weather screw up the conditions and we had a consistent layer of heavy melting snow that made our skis not want to turn when we did :))).
But that didn’t ruin our skiing, at least the snow didn’t but the wind… trying to ski at almost 100km/h winds its something you must try :)))).
But, even that didn’t stop us and we almost made it to Puha Valley :D… but it was beautiful. The hut, the food, the friends and the whole picture of the event make it that way. We had a great time and new experiences like all the years before.
Barcaciu mountain hut is situated at 1550m altitude, in the west part of Fagaras mountains. It’s the second mountain hut in Fagaras, starting from west, and a very casual and welcoming one. Mihai and his parents make it like that, oh, and the food, so great :))).
From the hut you can reach, very easily Scara peak, or Serbota peak and you can ski some pretty nice lines from there right in Puha valley and then all the way down to the trail that goes from Barcaciu hut to Negoiu hut. It’s a beautiful descent that offers lots of lines and is easily accessible if the snow conditions allows it!
Ski touring at Barcaciu is an event held by Mihai in order to develop the ski touring practice in the area. There are marks pointing to the hut and above and you can always count on Mihai to give you some advice about the routes and the conditions there, the guy knows the area like the back of his hand!
The event usually is held during 2 or 3 days and includes a bed over night, food and guiding thru the area as the weather allows it. His main purposes is, as I said, to develop the ski touring in the area and the costs merely covers the goods and the trouble needed for the event.
As these been said, please feel free to check out Barcaciu Mountain Hut whenever you want, summer or winter, it’s always there waiting for you to discover all skiing and biking routs 🙂 . Oh, have we mentioned biking? check this trip out to 😉 you might enjoy it: Fagaras enduro and freeraid tracks.
Bellow we leave you some foto/video material to better get a feel of Barcaciu ski touring event and here are the links for some of the routes we take day 1, day 2. Enjoy!
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! :)))
This is a small retrospective of the last year in terms of mountain biking. Almost all footage is from Romania, except for a few seconds from Tour do Mont Blanc that we did in September. Awesome time riding here in RO and hope that this year will be at least as good as 2017. Check out this blog for more detailed content. Enjoy and ride safe!
Last Sunday we made it back to Ciucas mountains for a second ascent to the peak. We did this almost same track in the second day of the new year, in similar conditions :D. Ciucas mountains are perfect for ski touring. You have a south face that is perfect when it hasn’t snowed much and it’s a sunny day, you will have the perfect snow (but avoid the south part when is clouded, cold and windy. P.S.: It’s always windy in Ciucas mountains), and you have a north face that is perfect when it snowed recently, you have every chance to find some perfect pow there. Personally, I haven’t skied the north part of the mountain, but I can’t wait for a fresh snow to head back to Ciucas mountains.
This track was similar with the one from the beginning of the year, second and last descent ware a bit different but not so much, you have the track here, and bellow some pics and a video so enjoy and ride safe!
This one is from last weekend, best day so far this season. It was a close call, we were not so sure we wanna go to Lespezi peak but decided in the last moment and it turned out to be the best decision. It was the perfect day, the weather was as such that we felt the harness of the mountain because of the cold (-15 degrees Celsius) but also the beauty of it because of the bright sunny day and the beautiful pow that awaited for us on descent…
Lespezi peak is also called corporate Everest because it is an easy accessible peak from Fagaras mountains that happens to have a good height of 2517m. We took the ridge track that takes us from Transfagarasan road (Piscu Negru) and passes near a shepherd hut where you can sleep in the winter (1h from the road) and up on the highest ground till the very peak (4h from the road).
All the way, if you have good weather, you will have great view over Fagaras mountain range.
You can find the track right here, don’t mind the ending point, I forgot to stop the activity when we reach our car, but I stopped it when we reached Conacul Ursului where we had a great meal!
We leave you the video and the pics bellow. Until next time, ride safe!
The pictures and the movie are from Sunday. After on Saturday we stayed on the slopes of Valea Dorului (Sinaia, Bucegi mountains), on Sunday we said to our self that we have to take advantage of the beautiful weather and made some touring skiing to Paduchiosu’ peak. First we climbed on Varful cu Dor peak and made a descent near Vanturis waterfall, then we climbed on Paduchiosu” peak and then back to the slopes.
It took us almost 5h, with snack breaks, pictures and all inclusive. Nice touring day.
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!
There, you can find some nice trails done by the local riders community. There are a sum of 4 tracks there, that average from 2 to 3 km long and with an elevation between 300m and 400m meters.
Are dirt trails, with some nice features done to them, like small drops, switchbacks and some natural roots section. Because of the altitude (starts at 800m), and that all tracks run thru forest, they are a good alternative to a bad weather day.
There is no shuttle there or cable for that matter but there is a forest road that takes you right to the starting point of the tracks.
We did a day and a night descent there. It is nice to descent a track at night. It’s like the track is totally new, like you discover it then, way more fun than the day descent. So, when you get tired of doing a trail, try to do it by night, rediscover that trail :D.
Vertical Riding Romania 