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I’m a great fan of outdoor adventures, particularly those where trekking on unmarked trails is involved.
Few of my friends are as fond of this kind of tours as I am. Nevertheless, there is always one who doesn’t say no and, more than that, he proposes quite challenging trips – Georgel.
He’s the cute little boy of our group, very funny yet sometimes very annoying, bouldering addict, off trail hiker, former parkour runner, rebellious, awfully strong (8a boulderer, one arm pull-ups guy!), in short: a great chap.
This is one of the tours we made this winter (2009). We had perfect weather and visibility up on the ridge; low clouds, frosty wind (minus 10 degrees Celsius). Being fatigued and late risers, on the second day, we only climbed up to the half of the ridge, where there is a nice plateau with a cairn in the middle. The flat highland overlooks Sambata Valley, Fereastra Mare a Sambetei, Dragusului Ridge and could be a great spot for overnight camping; in wintertime, the cornices will do just a great as a wind shield for a bivouac.
On our descent, we saw a brown bear, a few hundred meters below us, on the opposite slope, across the valley, which we took as a returning trail.
Photos and video taken with phone camera.
Map of the area and trail - drag and scroll (with mouse) for zooming
Back in the early days of our climbing initiation, we used to do stuff like this – not that we don’t like to do it anymore! Here you can see Pti`s rigging and his swing up on the metal cables at 150 meters above Rasnoave Gorge. If we had been caught during this by the guys who mounted the cables…Luckily for us, we got away with it! The cables are managed by some extreme sports club, which offers bungee jumping, charging a fee per jump.
Summer is here! With all this heat upon me, my mind goes wild recollecting the days we had last year at Tyulenovo, Bulgaria.
It’s quite an usual fact for myself to loose some of the motivation for hard sport climbing during the scorching summer days. I’d rather go cycling, swimming, caving, trekking than sweating on crimpers in an awkward position up on the crux on some crazy route.
Fortunately for me, and many climbers alike, there is one activity that has both the climbing and the summery fun appeal – DWS (deep water soloing). I first learned about DWS some 6 - 7 years ago when I watched the Psicobloc video featuring Klem Loskot and his gang in Mallorca. It really made a powerful impression on me; I was in awe watching the video many times over and I started day dreaming about me and my friends doing the same wild dynos.
With this new temptation rapidly rooted into our souls we began searching the internet for venues closer to Romania where one can enjoy deep water soloing. Soon enough we found out that Bulgaria had some nice spots for this activity, no further than 50 km from our border. We also found a fellow climber (Nushu) from Brasov who went there, so we had almost all the necessary info to go and check it out for ourselves.
It was no sooner than another few years after this that we finally arrived at Tyulenovo – the small village on the seaside – hot spot for DWS in Bulgaria. Four cars, 18 people, lots of sun, warm sea (Black Sea), beautiful cliffs, a colony of cormorants, a nice beach at Shabla (6 Km North of Tyolenovo) – all this contributed to the joy of our trip which lasted three days. Cliff jumping and bathing were the basic activities; we didn’t climb on hard lines due to the big waves which hit against the rock with brute force, spraying high on the cliffs.
We followed easy routes for getting out of the water (5a – 6b) just to jump in again, in greater style. No one pushed himself/herself too hard on cruxy lines as one uncontrollable fall could have resulted in injuries – if water is still it’s far more comfortable to try harder routes but this wasn’t the case while we were there.
I can only hope for us to make another trip with at least the number of members that we had last year (summer 2008). One thing is for sure when DWS is on the menu: the bigger the crowd, the greater the courage for the climber/jumper and more fun for the whole team.
It has been about two or three years since I last climbed on a multi pitch wall. I did’t miss it that much as I climbed a lot of nice sport routes in various venues in Romania and abroad as well. Yet there was always a hint of nostalgia when the thought of long climbs came into view.
Rus (my friend) has brought the issue on the table once again, as he did in all these years of sport climbing, and decided it’s time to go out there and climb "Sperantei" route. We had some unfinished business on that route and we just could’t postpone it any longer. We teamed up with two of our climber friends - Catrinel Enache and Sabin Sasu - and went for the heights.
We were early risers on the day (20 June 2009) but we wasted way too much time by the time we got to the wall - we realised that later when it felt we were running out of time.
For me the climb seemed okay in the first third of the wall; I redpointed quite a few pitches and I enjoyed it. I was comfortable as me and Sabin were following Rus and Catri, who were leading up the route; more than that, Catri`s parents came especially for guiding us and they were giving us indications as to where the route goes, what line we must follow, etc. They were at the side of the wall, on a prominent ledge, taking photos and speaking to us. If it hadn’t been for them and Mihai Sima, another fellow climber who was on the wall on o different route that day, we would have spent the night somewhere up the wall.
Therefore, after a marathon of 14 pitches and approximately 400 meters of conglomerate we reached the ridge just when night was setting in (time 21.40). At that point we just felt relieved and, after we ate some biscuits, packed our ropes and gear and headed down for the descent which proved to be another saga in itself. Only two of us, out of four people, had headlamps and in addition to that we lost the descending trail a few times – this happens to us every once in a while even though we are familiar with the place.
At 2.00 AM we got to the climbers` hut/shelter where we refueled our bodies with sandwiches and water.
The timing looks basically like this:
- 6.00 AM Saturday – waking up
- 7.30 AM Saturday – we left Brasov
- 8.15 AM Saturday – we reached Busteni
- 10.20 AM Saturday – we reached the climbers` shelter (This would normally be the right time to enter the route!!!)
- 11.40 AM Saturday – we reached the cirque at the foot of the wall
- 12.00 PM Saturday – we started climbing on the wall
- 21.40 PM Saturday – we reached the top ridge (almost 10 hours on the wall)
- 02.00 AM Sunday – we reached the climbers` shelter (slow moving due to lack of light for two team members + lost the trail a few times)
- 04.00 AM Sunday – we reached Busteni – started driving back to Brasov
- 05.00 AM Sunday – we reached Brasov
- 05.30 AM Sunday – we went to bed for a well deserved sleep
Conclusions – we had a very bad time management – always take your headlamp with you – helmet is a must – two half ropes never proved wrong – we were fortunate to be guided up the route by Sima and Catri`s parents – if you hadn’t climbed for many years in Bucegi, choose an easier, shorter route.
Photos taken by Felicia Enache and Gheorghe Enache. A big “Thank you!” for them!!!
Preparing for camping
Above the mists
Two friends
Cairn
Preparing for camping
Above the mists
Two friends
Cairn
Me, taking off
