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

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.