It definitely won't be hot

I bring to everyone’s attention a report on a hike along the Montenegrin ridge of the Carpathians, organized by the guys from OutdoorUkraine, in which I took part. The hike took place from July 3 to July 10. For the most impatient, I will first write the conclusions:

• The Carpathians are beautiful
• The Carpathians (even in summer) are not Crimea for you :) The weather can be terrible, it definitely won’t be hot and you need appropriate equipment from rain and wind
• The hike is not the easiest, taking into account repeated gains and drops in altitude and weather conditions; Beginners should consider whether to go straight there for the first time.

And now, actually, the story about the trip:

Day 1 - Cheerful mood.

I am the last to arrive from Moscow to Ivano-Frankovsk. The whole group is already waiting for me. The group is twins Roma and Tema from Kyiv (hereinafter referred to as “bros” :)), Vasya from Lvov and instructor Sanya.

We pack our groceries and get on the minibus, which takes us to the village. Kvass. The road is beautiful - rivers, railways, villages, etc. Along the way it starts to rain several times. Sanya says that the cyclones that raged in the Carpathians have passed, Ha-ha, he turned out to be a useless prophet :) But so far the weather is generally good and the mood is cheerful. We unload in 3 hours at Kvasy, stock up on mineral water from the source, and move on, or rather upward.

Today the goal is to reach the Menchul meadow, which is not very far, because... It's already late. Which we successfully do, and camp there not far from another group. We have dinner with pasta and stew.

Day 2 - Suspicious clouds.

In the morning the weather is good, but there are some clouds. They make me wary, and for good reason :) Nevertheless, without losing courage, we have breakfast, get ready and run to the Montenegrin ridge towards its first mountain - Sheshul.

The main goal for today is Petros, the first two-thousander. We go around Sheshul on the left and approach the ascent to the ridge. We notice how the weather is rapidly deteriorating. We meet two twin grandfathers who say that nothing is visible on Petros and there is a strong wind. We climb onto the ridge.

We are approaching the ascent to Petros, and it begins to rain heavily. Sanya says that there is nothing to do there in such weather, and suggests going around Petros in the hope of improvement. We walk along the path to the reserve’s house and have a snack there, while at the same time waiting out the rain. For a snack, sausage and cheese with bread, pate, dried bananas - in general, plenty.

The rain is subsiding. Everything is wet. On the left is Petros, on the right is still distant Goverla:

Let's move out. We decide to climb Petros directly along the slope, especially since the weather is improving. Sanya and Vasya want to go downstairs to the Hutsul kolybas for cheese, my brothers and I are grumbling - we can’t wait to go up. The guys still leave, we wait for them for half an hour, they come without cheese - there is none, only milk. We grumble even more - the weather is getting worse again.

Petros and kolyby under him:

Finally we approach the ascent point and - up! The climb is not very difficult, but long. Sanya swears all the time that my brothers and I are running far ahead. Already on the way to the top, we are covered with a cloud, visibility disappears and it starts to rain. Nevertheless, we reach the top and meet our morning neighbors there.

At the top of Petros there is a chapel, the roof of which was torn off, apparently by lightning, and also a cross damaged by lightning.

We happily take pictures, visibility begins to improve.

The descent from Petros, according to Sanya, is the steepest on Montenegro. We go down and make sure of this - on the road slippery from the rain, everyone fell several times :)

We admire Hoverla (in the future this was no longer possible :))

We spend the night in a clearing on the Petros-Goverla lintel. Vasya and I ran to the nearest kolyba and bought cheese from the Hutsuls, which became an excellent addition to buckwheat with stewed meat. In the evening I walk along the slopes and watch the sunset :)

Evening Petros and his “brother” Petrosul:

Day 3 - Legends don't lie.

Today the main goal is Hoverla, the highest point of Montenegro and all of Ukraine (2061 m). In the morning the weather is “tolerable” (gloomy, but no rain or wind). We get ready and move forward - along the road through the lintel, the cordon of the reserve to the foot of Goverla.

When approaching the ascent to the Goverla ridge, the weather naturally deteriorates (as one can later say - forever :)), fog and rain roll in.

We wait out the rain in a house near Goverla. With us there are 3 Hungarians and another group of Poles, very well equipped. The Poles chatter incessantly - Sasha claims that he understands everything (personally, I don’t say a word at all :)).

The rain finally stops, we go to Hoverla in the fog. The climb is not difficult, there are several groups at the top and unfortunately nothing is visible.

We all take pictures together at the top of Ukraine. It's raining again. From that moment on, it started and ended constantly for 3 days.

Let's go down. Visibility is poor, and we still need to get to Lake Nesamovity.

We walk along the ridge. We climb Breskul in a strong wind, go around Pozhizhevska, Dancisz, and go around Turkul on the right. On Turkul there are beautiful scatterings of stones - kurumniks.

We are approaching the lake. We watch a funny picture of how the clouds cannot overcome a high ridge (then they unfortunately succeeded :))

We get tired of parking. We have dinner with rice with fish and leftover cheese. We walk to the lake. We see a certain pepper bathing in it - according to legend, after this there will be a strong deterioration in the weather (it was so :))

Day 4 - It started raining again

Heavy rain since early morning. Sanya shouts from her tent - “We’re sleeping!” Then he prepares breakfast in the vestibule of his tent. I put on my waterproof clothes and run between the tents, bringing food to the bros - everything is wet, and they can’t get out at all :)

By lunchtime the rain subsides a little, but visibility is still poor and windy. Sanya says that we can spend the whole day. My bros and I are arguing – we really don’t like this idea. The rain completely subsides, and Sanya, grumbling, decides to go out. We quickly pack up and climb out onto the ridge. Along the way, we turn slightly to the left and find ourselves on the Spitz ridge - a very beautiful place with rocky outcrops.

Despite poor visibility, we arrange a photo shoot.

We go back to the town of Rebra. We meet our neighbors from the first day - their guide reports that at the village. Dzemberonya r. Cheremosh washed away the bridge and there is no way out. This is news - according to the plan, we are going down there tomorrow! We are thinking what to do. Sanya offers 2 options - if the weather is good, tomorrow we will go to Pop-Ivan and go down to Transcarpathia, the village. Goverla, and if it’s bad we just go down somewhere. Let's move on. We go to the mountain of Rebra - 2001 m. Imbued with the desire to visit all the two-thousanders, with terrible visibility and rain we go to the mountain of Gutin-Tamnatik (2016 m).

Then along a long but not steep path we go down for the night to the lake. Brebeneskul is the highest mountain lake in Ukraine at altitude. 1800 m.

The rain has subsided, but visibility is poor. Well, at least we ate properly :)

As soon as I climbed into the tent to sleep, the rain started pouring again.

Day 5 - It’s warm and there’s no wind.

Rain all night. In the morning we prepare breakfast according to yesterday’s system, in the vestibule. Added to this is a terrible hurricane - I watch in panic as the arcs of my tent bend and it is almost crushed into the ground. I strengthen the arches with sticks from the inside - it gets better.

Nobody even thinks about going to Pop Ivan. Sanya gets out, and we walk with him along the slope in search of a path down to Transcarpathia. We don’t find it and decide to cross the ridge and go down through Shpitsy to the Ivano-Frankivsk region, to the Verkhovyna – Ivano-Frankivsk highway.

We get ready in the wind and go out. We climb a steep path that we didn’t dare go down yesterday. We pass yesterday’s rocks on the Spit, but now we can’t see them at all – it’s foggy. We gradually descend through the zherp thickets.

We find ourselves in a beautiful Carpathian forest. It's warm here and there's no wind :)

Along the path, which in some places turns into a stream, we go down to the road to the Zaroslyak camp and the Prut River.

The river has overflowed its banks in places and is flowing straight through the forest.

On the road, the bros suddenly decide to speed up and leave for Ivano-Frankivsk today. We say goodbye to them, and in the annoying rain we slowly walk to the checkpoint of the national park and stand in the fishing line behind it.

Day 6 - In Frankovsk.

In the morning we reach the highway and drive first to Vorokhta, and then to Ivano-Frankivsk.

After which I spend the whole day waiting for my train in Frankovsk. This was the end of the trip.

Conclusions again.

• The Carpathians are beautiful
• The Carpathians are not Crimea for you :) The weather can be terrible, it definitely won’t be hot, and you need appropriate equipment from rain and wind
• The hike is not the easiest, taking into account repeated gains and drops in altitude and weather conditions; Beginners should consider whether to go straight there for the first time.

Ivan Bobrovich, Moscow.

PS. All my photos can be viewed here: http://picasaweb.google.ru/ivbobrovich/201007#