Adventures in the Făgăraş Mountains in 2018
Inna persuaded me to take a two-day ice climbing course in the Făgăraş Mountains and as the course was taking place at Bâlea Lake it made sense for me to approach the mountain range from the south because of the shorter driving distance even though it meant that I had to climb up to the lake instead of taking the cable car that is available on the northern side. It also made sense, at least in my humble opinion, to make full use of the relatively long drive and climb some mountains before the course started.
Already getting to my intended starting point, Cabana Capra, proved to be an adventure in itself. Cabana Capra is a mountain hut/hotel along the famous Transfăgărășan road, which is partly closed during the winter months because of heavy snowfall. One can however get quite high using the road even in the winter - it's just not possible to cross the whole mountain range. It turned out that the HERE navigator in my phone didn't know this and instead of Transfăgărășan I ended up driving on a very narrow and snowy dirt road somewhere in the Carpathian forests.
I didn't realize at first what a long detour I was about to make and thought I'd be done with it pretty quickly. The detour turned out to be almost fifty kilometers long and very, very slow to drive. At about half way through the road took a sharp turn right on a relatively steep hill and I got stuck with the car. I reversed and tried to get up three or four times before almost making it. I stopped the car there and used one of my ice axes to cut away snow and ice around the front tires of the car hoping that it would give me the extra friction needed to get up the curve. No cigar.
When even the ice axe failed to work I was almost ready to give up and drive the horrible road back to civilization. I decided to give the turn one more try and boom! Using the first gear and more revs than seemed appropriate worked and I was able to continue further into the woods. The road didn't exactly get better but I managed not to get stuck anymore and made it back to the Transfăgărășan road in one piece, but well behind schedule.
I made it to Cabana Conacu Ursului at about 1500m without problems but the road from there to Cabana Capra hadn't been cleaned when I got there. I tried to drive higher but got stuck again and had to drive back down to Conacu Ursului. It was well past midnight when I parked my car and started cooking some dinner and breakfast for the next morning. Finally at 2 a.m. I was lying in my new tent and trying to fall asleep.
One of the ice axes worked well as a peg for the tent.
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