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Report on a trip to the Carpathians at the end of October 2008. An ordinary August day. We are standing at the Simferopol train station, meeting a new group... Suddenly Kirill suggests going to the Carpathians in October. I had never been to the Carpathians before, and on that fine summer day I had no idea that it could be cold in October.
By that time I still had a lot of strength and energy. Then I could not even suspect that already in September I would begin to feel wild nostalgia for my home lands and some kind of ridiculous fatigue from driving groups through the Crimean mountains for six months...
Later
The tickets have been taken, all the circumstances have been agreed upon, the three of us are going on a hike - Me, Kirill and Taras, we are flying by plane, everything is very beautiful, the flight attendants are offering a lot of different things, we are flying with Taras, Kirill will catch up with us along the way... On the plane I was forbidden to use the GPS navigator, I don’t understand how it could harm them...
Night of getting to Ivano-Frankivsk.
Train stations, homeless people... everything is not very nice and cozy. We agree with Taras that he should remain silent until we reach the mountains and generally not open his mouth much. I speak easily, both in Russian and Ukrainian, and in the future, when meeting with locals, the role of communicating with them fell to me...
Morning smoothly turns into Day.
Kirill finally arrived, brought a bottle of condensed milk, HURRAY!!!... It was here that I realized that we definitely wouldn’t have girls and this is reality and the hike will be harsh, 20 km a day at least + spending the night in a tent with two guys + getting up at 5 am... I tighten my belt, getting ready for the tests...
We spend half a day on the bus together, then we get a pass to the border zone with Romania.
Finally the hike began.
Hooray!!! We gradually leave the village of Delovoye and go deeper into the MOUNTAINS, we go into the Carpathians, away from people, especially from the homeless... but let’s not talk about them anymore... it seemed to me that there are a lot of them everywhere... the road is wide and for now smooth, rutted with something and therefore swampy and dirty. We walk along the river. Compared to the Crimean rivers, the Carpathian ones are simply huge, they make noise all the time and rush into the distance in a stormy stream. The Carpathians, it seemed to me, are somewhat similar to Caucasusif you cut off everything above 2 thousand, remove glaciers and all that... Very wet mountains... and wooded with such beautiful and cool valleys. We reach a fork in the roads and rivers, further up, so it’s worth stocking up on water... The road up turned out to be terrible, wide, but since bulldozers were driving along it, it turned into a swampy mixture in which our feet sank very deeply.
But soon we saw the tracks of a bear and, out of impatience to see him, we rushed off even faster... The climb was long and terrible, but as a sign, six months of preparation were given and I ran ahead all the time.. By the evening we found a dilapidated hut-hut-house and decided to spend the night in a tent. The wood burned wonderfully, it was quite warm and cozy. We went to bed early and the alarm clock was for 5 am...
Next morning
It started with Kirill, as expected, setting an example and being the first to get out of the tent and already starting to fuss. I didn’t want to set an example of weakness and therefore shouted: “Day!!!”, but I didn’t find the strength to get up right away, in general, the process of awakening was difficult. Awakened Taras was muttering and indignant all the time... This is exactly what the next mornings looked like...
Breakfast and forward We continue to climb for a short time, we meet a border hut but there is no one in it, further into the forest deeper we now see a shepherd’s shelter and... and a complete dead end. We searched and went back a little, found some kind of animal path up and ... and climbed along it for a long time and tediously until we came out onto the human-machine road. We are getting close to the border, everyone is silent and expects wild delight.
The first people.
We continue walking, roads, clearings with abandoned huts, we meet tourists for the first time. And the first disappointment is that they do not respond in any way to the shouts of good afternoon. Apparently they were Romanian tourists or just Romanians. Then we meet a crowd of Vuyks on a truck, I was talking as the rest were speechless and stood like pillars, politely refused the vodka and moved on... then it turned out to be again not very much on the road and again we go out to where we need to go. Having a navigator allows you to find your way when you start to wander. And here we are again at a dead end... there are many further options. Kirill explains that real dudes from here go off-road to the right and up.
Dissimilar Carpathians.
Our goal is Pop Ivan, he is the one who separates Ukraine and Romania. Here, in general, the landscape is very little similar to the Carpathians, pointed ridges with rockfalls and moraines. All this is the Marmarosh massif. But we see a path along the cliff and it’s clear that we can’t restrain ourselves. We quickly pass and have a meal on a sharp ridge under the gentle and warm Carpathian sun. We admire the views. It's beautiful here. There are cliffs and a ridge with a narrow path all around. Let's get ready and crawl...
Climbing-traverso-bush clinging
The path continued for about 15 meters, then only the direction. Kirill climbed in the wrong direction, I followed him, Taras was watching us, but stood still. We go back 5 meters, here three people can still stand. We decide to go down... holding on to the thickets of grass and, due to the absence of any directions, we go down very carefully. For some reason, I decided that without a backpack it would be easier for me to go down... I see Taras running to save my backpack, it didn’t work out... I flew far down. I'm following him, order... We see a path, more like a path, or maybe someone just walked along the sloping grass... below is a moraine. Well, we traverse the slope... our glasses fog up, we can’t see a damn thing, we crawl, catch up with the guys, we continue to climb... everything smoothly develops into climbing-traversing-bushes, rocks, bushes, impressions... we crawl, from ridge to ridge, there’s nowhere to go back, it’s impossible to go forward, it’s far down, there’s no belay, we’re crawling using instruments. And now, having overcome the last stones and bushes, I come out onto a grassy slope, then I can only crawl... I came out, stood on my feet, hoo... priest Ivan. I see a normal path nearby that we didn’t take...
One foot in the European Union.
Rested. I swear at everything that happens, but in my heart I understand that this will definitely be remembered for a long time. "Romanians are fools!" I shouted with joy that we were right on the border and ran around Romania and on our side. But this is already the European Union. So we made a great journey through the bush. I calm down with a nut bar and move on. I understand that on a commercial trip, I would not allow myself to walk such paths, but here there is no one to blame, it’s our own fault. We are walking along a good path along the ridge, Romania is visible, Ukraine is visible... we are walking and according to the instruments it turns out that there is already so little in Romania... but there are no trails on our side. We go down the grassy slope, fortunately we’ve already trained, we go down quickly. Overnight at the border, it's cold here. There is almost no firewood, but the dinner is delicious, well-earned after the difficult climbs. Instant sleep...
Along the border.
The day, as always, begins at 5, the clocks have been changed so we get up at 4. A gasoline burner saves the situation and we have breakfast before dawn. Fortunately, Kirill finds the strength to wake up on time, which cannot be said about us, we are trying to get up for breakfast. I understand that it’s unfair when one person is on duty all the time, but after six months of working as an instructor, I really want to be a simple participant and, as expected, face a huge temptation... today they promised rain and the sky is gloomy, I’m preparing myself for the worst. We spend the whole day walking along a wide road along the border with Romania. There are bollards of Soviet origin and remnants of barbed wire everywhere. There are also small old stone posts from the Czechoslovak-Romanian border and then from the Czechoslovak-Polish border. First we walk through the forest, then along a gentle ridge, and so on all day... The day is boring and not amazing with impressions, but I find a horseshoe and realize that I’m still carrying this extra weight with me. Somewhere we turn off the border and go deeper in our direction. It's getting dark. We find a Poloninka and an incredibly cool house.
The stove warms the soul.
But I'm still getting water. This is a problem; the design of a drinking bowl for animals is very complicated and takes a lot of time. Kirill appears and says that they have found normal water and have to throw out everything that took so long to collect. Stove, pile of firewood. We cook on the stove, eat at the table, we are inside the house and we really have fun. It becomes warm and cozy... I can’t believe this happiness but it’s reality. We’ll even sleep on the shelves today... it was so nice and cozy there, we didn’t really want to leave this place, we ate soup with garlic out of joy and happily dragged ourselves to bed. Later, I still got up to add firewood and take the burning log outside. Thank you hut for being there on time.
Night. Dreaming about girls is a good sign...
Next day
Everything is early as always, but with the stove it’s nice and warm, you don’t want to leave here. But it is necessary, because we have big plans for today. We also go out to Ivan’s priest, the Black Mountain with the observatory.
The path was great, the trail was marked, the weather was great, there was no rain. The views are wonderful. We conquer the black mountain, walk around the observatory... there are a lot of jeeps with Poles around, also traveling. What a terrible impression it can be when you take so long to climb to the top and there you go in cars, you don’t even want to remember... it’s cold, we continue along the main ridge, it’s beautiful and cool here. All views open up. True, the wind was terrible. There were rests and snacks in the trenches, of which there were plenty, apparently at some point someone was preparing for war. Somewhere after lunch, Goverla, a pointed pyramid, opened up to our eyes, and somewhere inside me, bewitching and mysterious music began to play... everything inside me was drawn to it. Let us cling to our soul and body to reach the top of Ukraine and we will accomplish this feat tomorrow.
In the meantime, we turn to Lake Nesamovite. Well, Taras and I see that Kirill wants to take us down the roadless slope again, and we quickly offer options for getting around. The answer is a simple phrase: “don’t piss.” We are really going down a tolerable path. The evening is very cold and the mermichel cools down very quickly. Good sleep as always. We fall asleep in anticipation of tomorrow's conquest... good night!!!
Last day
It’s not so easy to conquer Hoverla; we only succeeded at 11 o’clock. And the path to it turned out to be long. From a distance it is still more mysterious, but after conquering the mystery disappears. This is a big problem for me. I really love places I have never been before. And after visiting them, not so much. In general, to feel good, I always need the feeling of something new... When we met the tourists, they were also silent, apparently they were also Romanians. Political peak, a lot of monuments. Good weather and visibility, we decide organizationally where to move next... it turns out that today we are going home... a constant descent and now the Carpathians end, we go out to the village. We prepare dinner right at the station. There are a lot of people on the train, but I still don’t like them in such numbers... then the train and night, homeless people...
Morning in Lviv
We arrived in Lviv at 4 am and knowing that we didn’t have much time, we immediately began our walk... Lviv turned out to be a very beautiful city... there are traces of many mysteries on its buildings. Statues and pedestals, bas-reliefs - all this says something and you just need to hear what they want to tell you. We ran around all of Lviv in a few hours and then we came across a very interesting person who took us around and told us the secrets of Lvov...
P.S.
Now, when I’m sitting at home on the couch and drinking tea in the warmth and comfort, I happily remember all our adventures... it’s really interesting and possible. Only this year I realized that you need to take as much as possible from life, because the opportunity may not turn up again... Go for it, luck only smiles on the brave...
Andrey Gipich, Pervomaisk