It's just Maria gaining altitude

The trip went with a bang and I am very pleased with it. There were hardships and joys, terrible frosts and hot baths, icy winds and mesmerizing fires, great company and unimaginable landscapes of mountains and forests. I thank the OutdoorUkraine tourist club and everyone who shared with me the positive experience that I received on the hike!

Summer. End of August. He stood on the top of the mountain, and the sun played pleasantly on his skin. Peering at the nearby peaks, he said to himself: “I'll be back!” And he returned...

Day one. Operation Snowflake begins

One experienced tourist once told me: “Winter Goverla is summer Elbrus.” I have not been to the Caucasus, but I can say for sure that the Carpathians in winter are not an easy walk at all. Not easy at all.

The first day began according to tradition in Ivano-Frankivsk. The group gathered quickly, boarded the bus and headed off into the arms of the mountains. Before boarding, they convinced me that the sleeping bag should have at least a comfort temperature of -10; I had a sleeping bag with a comfort temperature of -5. I decided to play it safe and rent a more reliable sleeping bag and, thank the cookies, how grateful I was to myself for this action later.

Having arrived at the checkpoint and traditionally taking photos, the “Simply Maria” squad began to climb (I’ll tell you about the wonderful name of the squad later). The goal of the first day is the peak of Kukul (about 1500 meters). The climb was unexpectedly steep and difficult, just like the first day. The body is not yet accustomed to the stress, but it has already crept up unnoticed in the form of slippery snow and heavy backpacks. We reached the top when the moon rose above the horizon. Exhausted by the first day of climbing, our small flock arrived to spend the night in a shepherd's house (kolyba).

I rushed things when I began to rejoice that the overnight stay would be in a house away from the cold wind, which was seriously blowing up at the top. The house was blown by all the winds and also had a leaky roof (snow literally fell on our heads when we were eating and sitting near the fire). Having somehow dried their clothes and gotten ready for bed, everyone scattered into their bags and sleep came, if you could call it that, because from the morning conversations it became clear that the record holder for sleep was a man who slept for 5 hours (believe me, he was incredibly lucky if he managed to sleep for that long in the cold).

In order to somehow warm up, the eight of us slept on the same bunks. Thus ended the first day, which brought the first difficulties and the realization that we were not at a resort at all.

Day two. A ray of heat in the kingdom of ice

Only the sunlight broke through the clouds, and the “Simply Maria” squad was ready to carry out new tasks. After having a hearty breakfast and thanking our house for its hospitality, we set off further along the Montenegrin ridge. The forest greeted us with fabulous landscapes that seemed to only appear in carefully retouched pictures. Real nature is hundreds of times more beautiful than what any picture can show you. After the long climb of the first day there was a long descent of the second day. During the descent, the group met on its way 100-year-old boundary posts that marked the old territories of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Yes, we went to Transcarpathia, where there was no Ukraine before and where there is now a different time zone.

Having reached the tourist shelter, we decided to relax in the warmth and treat ourselves to a bathhouse. Special thanks to the owner of the Kozmeschik shelter, Misha, who gave us the opportunity to relax after a 2-day trek. After steaming in the bathhouse, the most desperate ones began to run outside, wipe themselves with snow and dive into the ice hole (your humble servant was one of these “vidchaydukhs”). The second day was such a contrast to the first. We were completely rested and recharged for the third day. The instructor’s alarming command: “Tomorrow we will get up early and go a lot upward” foreshadowed new difficulties and hardships that I will not forget about for the rest of my life....

Day three. Endless day

Abandon hope, everyone who enters here.

The third day was hellishly difficult and it started with losses. The first casualties appeared in the “Simply Maria” detachment. Two of us caught colds and were forced to leave the route. It was a great pity to lose our comrades, but with a body temperature of +39 degrees you can’t fight much. Having said goodbye to Zhenya and Tanya, we set off in orderly row.

We started at an altitude of 974 meters. You can say lowland by the standards of the Carpathians. It was 8 am, the weather spoiled us with no wind and deep snow. As we gained altitude, the forest became denser and the spruce trees became taller. Giant spruces with their snowy crowns sheltered us from gusts of cold wind. Even at an altitude of 1400 meters, we played snowballs and jumped into snowdrifts, had photo sessions and enjoyed life and the snow like 10-year-old kids.

Everything changed starting above 1600 meters. The higher we rose, the gloomier the picture became. The dense forest disappeared, and the snow increased. With the fir trees gone, the cold wind began to take the reins into its frosty hands. Sensing something was wrong, “Simply Maria” began to warm up. Additional headbands, balaclavas and scarves were used.

At an altitude of 1700 meters, the detachment caught up with a group of snowboarders who decided to ride down from Goverla. The snowboarders were completely exhausted, every second one just sat on the snow in the piercing wind. The glassy gaze of their guide indicated that their climb was over. A bit of disappointment and fear of the unknown rubbed off on me. I think each of us began to doubt whether we should continue to climb or not. Armed with snowshoes and pulling on ski masks, the detachment moved upward.

The picture on the approaches to the top of Goverla appeared before us as truly apocalyptic. An exact copy of the story about global cooling. The remains of vegetation and spruce were completely hidden under piles of snow. Where were the trees? There were icy cones of snow. The wind rose like a hurricane, visibility was 5 meters maximum (I only saw the neighbor in front and behind, everything else was in the “milk”). Every meter was difficult. Where previously we covered 100 meters in half an hour (up), at around 1800 meters this distance took three times longer.

I thought a gale-force icy wind, zero visibility, a heavy backpack and numb fingers would be the end of my suffering, but a new problem appeared. Overcoming another snowy slope, we began to fall into waist-deep snow. To dig yourself out of this hole you need to put in a lot of effort, which is almost gone anyway. Having met another group of tourists before the final assault on the peak of the mountain, I had a tiny hope that we would go up without backpacks, as the group from Dnepropetrovsk did, but the “Simply Maria” detachment did not “train for 10 years” to look for easy paths.

After resting for a couple of minutes, we moved on to another high-altitude climb. The last miserable 100 meters lasted forever. One of the team members began to panic and felt ill, but fortunately everything worked out. Goverla Peak (2061 meters) was an absolute triumph of snow, ice and frost. I had thoughts of taking a photo there, but the fear of freezing my fingers overpowered me. After a moment of rejoicing at the conquest of Goverla, the descent began.

I thought the climb was difficult, but the descent gave him a head start. Ice was added to the deep snow and frosty, knocking wind. Ice-covered and snow-covered stones on the slopes of the mountain tried to throw us down a number of times. One of us was unlucky enough to slip and start sliding down, but the Simply Maria operatives were not selected for this difficult operation in order to lose ground. With a lightning-fast jerk of the stick, Elena was able to slow down and, having risen firmly on her feet, continue her descent. Having gone down and thrown off our backpacks at the weather station, we were grateful to the instructor, all visible and invisible forces (as well as ourselves) for the fact that we were able to climb and descend from the highest mountain of Ukraine in very unfavorable and harsh winter conditions.

Exhausted, but happy, we scattered to our rooms and let ourselves into the long-awaited sleep....

Day four. General Frost

The morning started much later than the previous day. For some it started at 9:00, and for others at 10:00. We relaxed. A well-deserved rest and time to reflect on what had been done gave us the strength to continue our hike.

Having gathered our strength, we said goodbye to the meteorologists and began dropping altitude. We arrived lightly at the tourist site and began setting up tents. The lowland turned out to be convenient in a geographical sense. The wind did not blow here and there was a lot of water from the spring. Darkness fell on the earth and the Holy Evening arrived. It's Christmas! After a little fuss, we got hold of kutya and traditionally divided it among the group members. Kutya was a great success. I have never eaten such delicious food in my life.

But the Carpathians decided to give us another surprise. Farewell kiss.

Throughout the entire hike, during a calm period of time, the air temperature fell no lower than -10 degrees. On Christmas night the temperature dropped to -30. Some of us had thoughts of giving up the idea of ​​spending the night on the street at -30 and going to the checkpoint to see the rescuers, but the members of the “Simply Maria” squad could not be broken by such a temperature! Everyone spent the night in tents and everyone survived until the morning!

Day five. Christmas morning

Christmas morning was like manna from heaven for us. It helped us free ourselves from the frozen shackles and be ready to carry out our tasks again. After drinking tea and gathering their equipment with icy fingers, the “Simply Maria” squad moved to meet the bus in the village of Vorokhta.

After 4-5 hours of walking, we reached our final destination, where “the helicopter took us to the mainland”

Mission accomplished!

Results

The trip went with a bang and I am very pleased with it. There were hardships and joys, terrible frosts and hot baths, icy winds and mesmerizing fires, great company and unimaginable landscapes of mountains and forests. I thank the Outdoor company and everyone who shared with me the positive experience that I received on the hike! Fortunately, my adventures did not end there, but they continued in Lviv the next day, where I visited 1000 and one architectural wonders of this city, went down into coffee mines, climbed the city hall and the high castle, tried Croatian soup (chorba) and spotykach, celebrated a birthday in the basements of the city arsenal, but that's another story....;)

P.S: I almost forgot to write about the name of the squad “Simply Maria”. It appeared when we learned that only our group of 3 was able to cross Hoverla (climb on one side and descend on the other). One member of our squad saw this as a comparison with the ships of Columbus. As you know, there were three of them and they sailed to open the way to India, but stumbled upon America. Of all three, only Santa Maria sailed to the shores of South America. While telling this story we ate a lot of Maria cookies. After consulting, we decided not to plagiarize and named our squad Maria. Columbus had Saint Mary, but we have a simple... “Simply Mary.”