Rock Climbing in Brasov area

Since 1’st of April I haven’t been hiking anywhere. The reason is my right knee. I’ve woke up one day with a popping knee just like that. No effort, now accidents… just out of the blue. I’ve got really scared because my stability in the right knee was very poor. I went to the doctor and it seems that either my anterior cruciate ligament was stretched or my meniscus was thorn. In both cases an MRI was needed. Living in Romania, this really basic investigation takes time. After 1 month and 1 week finally tomorrow I will have my MRI. In the mean time because I didn’t forced my knee in any sporting activity (except rock climbing) the popping is gone but I still feel some pain near the patella.

Anyway because the mountain was off limits my attention was redirected towards climbing. So in the past 1,5 months I spent my week-ends climbing in Brasov area… which was quite nice 🙂

Pietrele lui Solomon / Solomon Rocks

This is a very nice area very close to Brasov. You can reach it with your car or with the bus and the cliffs are few minutes away. This time we’ve tried Merisor cliff. There are few routes here from 6a to 7a grade. First I’ve tried Merisor (6a).

This is the crux…

This is also a tricky part, but after that it’s easy terrain.

After Merisor I tried Pizda Bunicii… I know, funny name :). Anyway it’s quite difficult – 6c+. This route I wasn’t able to finish without the help of the clipping. The lower part is difficult but there are some good hand holds. You need pretty good fingers and some good feet moves. After this there is a resting place and than comes the crux :). It’s a long reach at the equilibrium limit with almost no hand holds (or nothing that I saw 🙂 )

One more push before the resting place…

Now comes the hard part

There are a lot of bolted routes in this area and I’m looking forward to come back.

Tamina

This climbing area is located in Piatra Mare massif and you have to walk about 6 km from DN1 on a forest road. It was my first time in that area and I enjoyed it. First route – Fat Boy Slim 6a.

It’s a nice route suitable for warm up. It’s a 5c in my opinion but the grading system is quite subjective. After this route I’ve tried the left neighbor ->Veverita Polara 7b+. This route was really difficult and was not actually my grade :). I gave it a try but the crux was too much for me. The problem was also the water on a foot hold (which was reeealy necessary). Anyway I will try it again in a couple of months when I’ll get stronger :).

On Veverita Polara before the crux… in the right side Fat Boy Slim.

After that we’ve moved upwards. Next stop Easy Go (5c), Gossip (5b) and Ratatouille (6b). In my opinion the first 2 are 6a, but again is debatable. The first route is beautiful. The crux requires some equilibrium moves. The second one … well I didn’t like to much. In the middle section there is a hold covered with mud and grass. Ratatouille is very nice. Difficult for me. Luckily it shares the top with Gossip :). I’ve manage to do it in the end but not fluently. Maybe next time …

Easy Go(left) and Gossip (right)

My partners… 🙂

On Gossip…

Making a strategy for Ratatouille … 🙂

Here I was reaaaly pumped

Tamina is a nice refugee for the week-end and I need to come back to try more routes here.

Coming next … Cheile Rasnoavei and Prapastiile Zarnestiului.

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