On the Road

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Romania - Moldoveano

We just have returned from the Alpes and here's a few days holiday coming up at the beginning of September. We didn't even have time for preparation. I had an idea in advance to visit Romania. Meanwhile Nicky called to say he is leaving with a big group for Balea Lake and this solved all my fluctuations with the choice of destination. Valio liked the idea as well.
So one Wendsday evening we took of - Valio, Eli and me. We should meet the group of Nicky on the way.
The first night, or what was left of it, we slept in the bushes over the cave Orlova Tchuka near Russe. The next morning we met the rest of the group at Russe, but this was only to cross the border. Some went on to Bucharest and we drove directly to Balea Lake. In spite of the promising forecast we arrived in rain.

It was forbidden to camp near the lake, so we had to go back a few kilometers on the road and spend the night there.

The weather didn't seem to hurry to get better, the fog was hiding the views, but fortunately it wasn't raining. The rest of the group slept up at the hut of Salvemont near the lake.
They left in a long string towards Negoio and we started for the highest peak Moldoviano.

Even that the high distance between Balea Lake and Moldoviano is only 500 meters, it was obvious from the beginning that the road will be hard. With all the goings up and down we finally recorded 2700 meters embarkation and 27 kilometers walking.

At the beginning we didn't hurry.

And the weather started to get better.

We passed the first turnout to Podragu hut and carried on on the ridge. There were places with ropes and chains for security.

The ridge itself wasn't gentle at all.

Somewhere in the middle of the road we surmounted the beautiful peak Mircii. The descending was brutal from here.

Somewhere here we realized that we will get nowhere going like this and decided to separate, Eli to wait for us at Podragu hut and me and Valio to hurry up to the peak.
Here is the Podragu hut and the lake:

The next distance wasn't that hard as the previous ones.

With a very serious pace we arrived bellow Moldoviano.

And reached the peak.

We went down to the hut running. I hurried to buy couple of beers and call Eli.

We drunk the beers and an hour before dark we took the way back, it was not exactly the same way back, as we decided to take a hacking path which wasn't a good idea. We didn't know that the ascendings and descendings there are very foolish.
Having passed the first hill we met two Germans, who told us we have five hours more to go to the lake. It was already dark...

Link to all photos
link GPStrack

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Bezbog - Gorno Breznichko - Kremenski ezera

Photos

GPS track

Bezbog hut - Kaimaktchal

And the bear:

The Photos

GPS track

Italy 2012 - Punta Penia (3343 м)

Punta Penia is the highest peak in Marmolada and Dolomiti. The common climbing is from North, Passo Fedoia (a bit more than 2000 m.) and then with the lift which goes up to 2600 m.

We walked up the glacier and the last sector we climbed a ferrata . At this time of the year (the end of August) the snow melt was progressing and climbing the glacier wasn't easy at all.
The key areas were two:

Hacking the polished ice at the beginning of the glacier was a terrifying thing to do for our group. Jumping over the crevices was quite scary also, but all this was nothing comparing to the main оbstructions.

The second major difficulty was the place between the glacier and the ferrata. There was a one meter or even more big crevice and the wall of the ferrata was a few meters high plumb and the only possibility to hold was a tied rope thick as a shoelace. We had to drop a rope for assurance.

Here we are at the start of the ferrata. On the bottom of the photo you can see the crowding on this difficult part, where on our way back we had to wait and therefore missed the lift.

Italy 2012 - Gran Paradiso (4061m)

Gran Paradiso (4061m) is the highest Italian peak situated entirely in Italy. This sounds a little bit strange as there are a few more peaks on the border which are much higher.

In a few words here is the story:
We intended to go to Bernina after Marmolada, but after series of bad luck (first the traffic jams in Kanazei, then a motorcycle crush blocked the road and after a long wait we turned to look for bypass roads) we arrived at the start point Campo Moro late in the afternoon where it was starting to rain. We planned to be at the first hut (Refugio Carate - Brianza) the same day.
After having checked the forecast, it turned out that nothing good was expected the next few days. So we decided to change plans and go south to Gran Paradiso with the hope to avoid the bad weather. We were lucky. The day we climbed was great.

All photos
GPS track

Italy 2012 (first and second day)

The first day of our trip as usually we got to the camping Aquileia. It was 2012-08-18.

The second day, in spite of the driving, we had planned a visit to the museum of Reinhold Messner - the one in the Dolomiti - an interesting and panoramic place (600meters denivelation from the parking to the top where was situated the museum).

Then we drove on to Canazei, where should start our climbing part of the program. There was no free places in the first camping. Probably there was an event in town, as it was full of people and tourists and the traffic was heavy. We stayed at this camping. It was a good place with a lot of extras but the price was also good (we had to pay 18 euros for each one of us but they made a discount and we payed 15 euros).

The pictures on both days
Track log of the path of the car

Track from the parking to the museum

Maja e Jezerces

We left one dark, rainy Saturday after work in the end of September. The first day we slept in a cornfield near Kruchevatz, that we have marked beforehand.

Next day, late in the afternoon we reached the village Vusanje, which seemed more as villa zone. It is situated near the border with Albania. We knew that there was a border post, where we had to register and leave the cars for more security. But it turned out that the border post was abandoned. We talked to people that we met and they assured us that it is safe to leave the cars here. But then a man showed us a house and said: "Open the door and get the car in the yard. No problem." This sounded strange to us.

We moved on a unpaved road after the end of the village to the next border post transformed in a shieling.

There we arrived before dark. Afterwards we had to walk 400 meters up to the lake Buni Jezerce where we considered to camp. It was amazing walking in the dark among the black silhouettes of the sharp cusps hanging over us and disappearing in the night. We pitched our tents at the upper lake which was almost empty.