Piatra Craiului’s North Ridge 24 October 2010

Thanks to the beautiful weekend weather I’ve manage to complete, second time this year, Piatra Craiului’s North ridge. It was a crazy week-end because I had a lot of things to take care of on Saturday in order to have a free Sunday. Saturday evening along with my friend Bogdan, we’ve climbed to Curmatura where we’ve remain over the night with our friends from Salvamont/Mountain Rescue  Zarnesti.  At 7 AM in the morning we’ve got up, had a short breakfast and head to Padinile Frumoase towards Ascutit peak. Basically was the same route as at the end of July.

The weather was surprisingly warm for this period. Although was 8 AM I didn’t need to many clothes, and after 5-10 minutes I toke of my gloves and hat. The climb it’s not too difficult although is a little long. After 20-30 minutes through the woods there is a short portion with a chain (just for caution – I never use it) and you reach some alpine field where is only grass and rock.

A beautiful morning…

Form the alpine field in 20-30 minutes you are up on Ascutit peak (2150 m) if you maintain a constant rhythm. Up on the ridge just below Ascutit there is an igloo type shelter which was recently renovated.

New beds 🙂 in Ascutit

From the ridge I could see a big part og Fagaras ridge and (my personal opinion) Moldoveanu peak (2544 m) the biggest one from Romania. On Fagaras  mountains there are still white parts covered with snow. Unfortunately I don’t have more than 3X zoom on my photo lens so its not that visible from the bellow picture. Anyway I plan a trip on Moldoveanu this year so I hope to have some closeup pictures.

After a short snack break we’ve continue towards Piscul Baciului (2239 m) following exactly the ridge line. We were not the only ones there. We’ve met 3 groups who were also enjoying the beautiful weather on the mountains.  The Piatra Craiului’s ridge it’s not difficult if you avoid some peaks and follow the path of the winter route. If you follow exactly the ridge line you can also climb :). Below are some shots from the hardest parts of the ridge. Some of them can be avoided.

In the last picture you can see my friend Ionel taking a different route on (in my opinion) the hardest part of the ridge. I think that climb is something around 3a. Good holds for both hand and foot. The marked route though is easy :). Just 200 m before reaching Piscul Baciului we’ve met another group of … dogs, or better said climbing dogs 🙂

They followed us till we’ve reached Gura Raului and they were rewarded for their effort with our left overs which were quite substantial :). As we were approaching our objective, the wind coming from the north side of the ridge was getting cooler and cooler. I’ve started from Ascutit with only a t-shirt and by the time I’ve reached Piscul Baciului I’ve was wearing my fleece blouse and after eating the jacket, hat and gloves. I was really surprised by the temperature difference form the two sides of the ridge.

And another one where you can see also Pecineagu dam.

We’ve started from Curmatura at 8.15 and reached Piscul Baciului 5 minutes before 12 AM. After eating we slowly started our descent and reached Gura Raului around 6 PM.

Just before taking the taxi I’ve took another shot with the beautiful Autumn colors.

It was a great trek on a beautiful autumn day.  Thanks goes to Bogdan and Ionel for their company 🙂

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