Report on a hike in the Carpathians in February 2006

In February 2006, we decided to once again merge with nature. The winter Carpathians were chosen as a testing ground. A winter hike is always serious, but this time the winter was especially snowy and it was necessary to prepare properly. It was decided to go on snowshoes. And of the five participants in the hike, only one had a chance to acquire branded snowshoes.

The rest (including myself) took up folk art - making rigid snowshoes designed by Reznikov. What is this? This is a sheet of aluminum (50 by 30 cm) with curved edges, which is clamped between the boot and the crampon. I will definitely outline our scientific and technical discoveries in the field of metal processing in another article, but for now let’s get back to the hike.

As you already understood, there were five of us and the question arose of how many tents to take. Luckily, I should have taken two. But we didn’t want to carry extra pounds, so we set up a test. We stole all our equipment into one apartment and started shuffling it around... What I love about hiking is the constant work of not only our muscles, but also our brains. In one evening we were so smart that the five of us managed to fit into a tent measuring 200 by 220 centimeters. Moreover, all five of us were in one package of TWO sleeping bags! In the end, we actually split into two groups, but the main principle that allowed us to become so compact remained the same - we were jacks. A simple thing, but extremely rarely used by tourists. Apparently people are embarrassed by the smell of their socks. But in vain, we experimentally established that when many people gather in a small room, the smell is distributed evenly. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re lying near your socks or far away.

Well, okay, I'm tired of writing about preparation - let's move on to the hike itself. We planned to walk about 50 kilometers along the Gorgans (a mountain range in the Carpathians) in one week. In the summer, this route is covered in 2 days, and therefore at first it seemed that we would have to sleep for half a day in order to occupy the time with something. Однако уже на первом переходе (мы стартовали из поселка Быстрица) выяснилось, что глубина снежного покрова местами достигает 2 метров. Even with our shoes on, we fell at least 50 centimeters. As a result, the average speed of movement is less than 1 km/h. We stomped, swaying from foot to foot like bears in the north. Behind, in the snow, there was a flat trench 60 cm wide.

Have you seen how cyclists change during group rides? They travel in single file, hiding one behind the other, and the main burden falls on the first. When he gets tired, he goes to the end of the chain and rests there. So we changed too (every 5 minutes). During these five minutes of tracking, seven sweats disappeared from the first one and he stripped almost down to his underpants while walking (Winter!!) Then 20 minutes of rest and again into battle. By the way, we were lucky with the weather. On the one hand, it was not very cold - no lower than 5 degrees. On the other hand, there was practically no RAIN that was promised for this week!! (strange thaw in the middle of February). The sky was cloudy, but the clouds did not drop low and there was excellent visibility almost all the time (unlike the recent Crimean campaign at the end of January). In the tent at night it was about 8 degrees Celsius and incredibly wet. Every morning we calmed ourselves down, trying to dry a completely wet sleeping bag in the cold in 20 minutes.

About the kitchen.

Since we’re already talking about camp life, I’ll also remember about food. We cooked on three gas burners. Water was heated from snow. A real culinary revelation for us was soup made from dried vegetables. Before the hike, we each dried 2 carrots, 1 beet and half a cabbage in the oven, and now every evening we enjoyed unearthly aromas. Overall, I highly recommend it.

About orientation.

During the Crimean campaign, we traveled a significant part of the route using instruments in conditions of zero visibility. With this in mind, we stocked up on a huge number of batteries for the GPS (satellite navigator) and made an excellent route plan. However, as I already said, visibility was good and orientation was not particularly difficult. Of course, this is not your summer - every step is difficult and any deviation from the route will be costly. And the paths are not visible, which means you have to rely only on your instincts. We encountered the first human tracks only on the penultimate day of the hike; by the way, animal tracks were also found at the same time.

About the legs.

They had snowshoes on their feet and these are not toys. The plate itself weighs about a kilogram, plus crampons, plus boots and shoe covers. Total more than two kilos for each leg. Untying the snowshoes is not difficult, but tying them took 15-20 minutes. Therefore, we wore them almost without taking them off from dawn to dusk. Who wants to fall into the snow a meter from the tent after going out for a moment to relieve themselves? In general, we trained our legs properly. It was only towards the end of the hike that the crampon straps began to rub our feet in the most unexpected places. Therefore, next time I will try to get automatic cats.

Route thread.

Bystritsa village - Lower and Upper Skalki - Pikul - Dovbushanka - Babin Pogar - Bladzhiv valley - Maly Gorgan - Sinyak - Khomyak - Tatarov village.