This is one of my hardest and most beautiful hikes I’ve gone through over the years.

Day 1

Aug 16. 2020. Sunday.

The team consists of 3 members: my boyfriend Csabi, myself, and our friend, Tomi. Everyone was concerned about the weight of our backpacks. Mine weighed 18 kg. 

We arrived at Lake Bâlea around 10:30, narrowly avoiding the heavy traffic, just half an hour later, the car line was already on the serpentine 500 meters down. 

We picked up the backpack and we fought our way through the crowd to the north-eastern corner of Lake Bâlea, from where we headed for the blue triangle  to Lake Capra. This stretch of pathway rises slowly, the upper part is steeper and more slippery, especially with 18kg on your back, but as soon as you get in the saddle you forget the loads. Unfortunately, this was not so idyllic in our case, we only saw white fog instead of the wonderful view of Lake Capra.

USEFUL INFO: you can camp at Lake Capra.

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This stretch of pathway is quite busy, many people climb to the saddle or even to the lake in slippers, but after the lake you can only meet real tourists.

We rested for 10 minutes at the Lake Capra and continued our way on the red lane which is the main ridge route of the Făgăraș Mountains, the road from the lake at first goes on the level line, then starts to descend steeply. The sloping part was followed by a narrow hiking trail trampled on the hillside, keeping the level curve quite well. Sometimes the wind opened a window in the fog and we could see the valley. Soon a steep ascent followed, and our hike slowly reached the Dragons Wondow (Fereastra Zmeilor). 

Looking through the Dragons Window, the long-awaited Făgăraș Mountains landscape unfolded.eSteep hillsides, spiky mountain peaks where anybody would feel very small.

It should be noted, that you can get from the Dragons Window to Lake Podragu on 2 hiking trails. One is the red lane pathway, that leads on the ridge, you have to climb fewer total elevation, but on some sections there are chains and ravines and the other is the blue cross pathway, that doesn’t lead on chains, but you climb more, the path passes through the Portița Frunții (2153m), descends to the Arpașu Mare stream, then climbs over the saddle, Strunga Podrăgelului (2152m), descends again to the Little Podragu Lake, then climbs to the Saddle between Lakes (2269m) and descends to the Lake Podragu, which is our destination.

We chose the blue cross mark preferring not to climb vertically with the big backpacks. As I wrote the blue cross path went down and went up, but we were compensated by the long-awaited sunlight and the wonderful landscape, we could see all the way to the Transylvanian basin.

Tired, around 19:00, we finally reached our last mountain and saw the Podragu Lake with the Podragu Cabin next to it. We tried to climb down quickly and look for a place shielded from the wind for the tent.

Tired, hungry, cold, we pulled up the tent, put on all our clothes and ate hot soup we cooked on the small gas stove.

USEFUL INFO: You can camp near Podragu Lake. You can also get accommodation and food in the Cabin, but due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, we skipped that and tended to carry the tent and food. Not far from the Cabin is a spring with clean, potable water.

IMPORTANT! After eating, we put ALL OUR FOOD and PERFUMES, CREAM, DEO in an airtight bag and hid it further away from the tent, under 3 large stones. The garbage was also placed in an airtight bag and also hidden under two medium stones. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT because of the BEARS!

USEFUL INFO: In the high mountains, even in summer, the night temperature can cool down to 0 grade C. Layered, warm clothing and a good sleeping bag are important. Personally, I slept in underpants and sky pants. The comfort zone of my sleeping bag is -20 grade C and I can say that I just didn’t get cold.

USEFUL INFO: If you are going hiking with a tent, it is worth investing in a lighter frame tent (aluminum), that you need to carry. These tents are usually also formally designed to withstand winds.

My first day Strava trail recording:

Day 2

Aug 17. 2020. Monday.

In the morning, we were not in a hurry, because we knew that the trail planned for today would be easier, because we didn’t carry the backpacks, moreover, the weather didn’t look good either, again everything was covered with fog. After breakfast at about 10:00 o’clock, we set off to attack the peak.

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We followed the red triangle pathway up to the Podragu Saddle, where we switched to the red lane pathway, which continued on the ridge and passed near the peaks of Tărița 2407m, a Podul Giurgiului 2358m, Corabia 2406m, Ucea Mare 2434m, Ucișoara 2390m. The narrow path ran on the side of the giant mountain, or just on the one-meter-wide saddles whose names are the same with the peaks, sometimes with deep ravines on either side. Anyone who fears heights, before going to this trip, think twice about this. Unfortunately for us, the depths remained obscured, as was the desired view.

AIn front of the Viștea Mare peak, the pathway winds up a good chunk, and then we see the summit sign: Viștea Mare 2527m, the third highest peak in Romania. For us, this rising was a big challenge, we could barely see each other in the fog, which was not fog, but standing water droplets in the air, we were soaked, the wind blew incessantly, at a certain moment we discussed that we were not going forward, but the nearest shelter was from 2-hour walk away, so we went further. Everyone had dry clothes in the bag so we changed.

USEFUL INFO: You should bring dry clothes for the trips.

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We were lucky. The weather didn’t clear, but the wind on the other side of the peak didn’t blow. We rested for a few minutes and headed to the Moldoveanu peak.

The distance between the peaks of Viștea Mare and Moldoveanu is not far, the pathway leads on the ridge, through to Spintecătura Viștei Saddle (2500m), sometimes rocky, where chains help the tourist not to fall into the gap of hundreds of meters. Usually, especially on weekends, people stand in line to the peak. There was no need to stand in line. In terms of weather conditions, there were still a lot of people, about 20 people turned up during the little time we spent at the peak.

Arriving at the 2544 meter high Moldoveanu peak I was at once very happy to finally reach the highest peak in the country, and sad to see nothing. We took the top picture, ate chocolate and wrote our name in the memory book. It was an uplifting feeling. We waited a little longer and we headed back.

At the Viștea Mare peak, we took a picture and we were already on our way back to eat hot soup and a hot tea as soon as possible. We went back on the same pathway where we came, at the red lane and then red triangle , in the same weather. Very rarely a gust of wind blows away the wind and we could see a little from the landscape, a hillside, a valley, a ravine. 

The valley of Podragu Lake began to clear on our return. By the time we reached the tent, a little sunshine stroked our tormented soul. The sunset promised to be very beautiful.

In the evening, as the day before, we packed everything in an airtight bag away from the tent. We went to sleep, we didn’t even know the day wasn’t over….

I wake up at night at noise. Then I hear the bag tear and something chews.

A BEAR! 

I was very afraid. We listened for a good few minutes as the bear licked the cans in the trash….

Luckily, the dogs at the Cabin also noticed the bear and barked, then the bear went away. Later I heard again that the bear was walking around the tent and then the dogs were barking again.

It was a long night.

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My second day of Strava trail recording:

Day 3

Aug 18. 2020. Tuesday.

Getting out of the tent I saw the most wonderful weather a tourist could wish for, beautiful clean sky. I would have climbed the Moldoveanu peak again. We assessed the damage caused by the bear, cleaned it up (collected the scattered trash), packed it up, and headed home.

Due to the good weather and the ease of the bags, we decided that the way home we take the chain pathway. We climbed to Podragu Saddle on the red triangle and then at the red lane pathway we headed to Bâlea Lake. We passed near the Podragu peak (2462m) and Podu Giurgiu Lake (2140m), then climbed to the Mircii peak (2470m).This was followed by a very narrow ridge pathway section, which passed near the Arpașu Mare peak (2468m), Vârtop Saddle, Păru de Fier peak (2316m), Monumentul Nerlingerso we had the opportunity to take a good look at the landscape.The last ridge section in front of the Dragons Window, was densely covered with chains, in some places we had to climb out on a completely vertical rock wall with our backpacks, the name of the place also suggests its difficulty, Three steps from death (La trei pasi de moarte). Arriving at the Dragons Window we already knew the pathway, we still followed the red lane mark.

Time passed quickly as we said goodbye to the mountains. Arriving at Capra Lake, we rested for the last time, then descended from the saddle on the blue triangle pathway to Bâlea Lake.

Among the many and varied people, we found how much better it was in the mountains, where we were far from this often exaggerated civilization.

My third day Strava trail recording:

It is possible to complete the hike we have traveled in one day, but this is conditional on extremely good physical endurance and high-altitude hiking knowledge. We would have liked to enjoy our time in the Făgăraș Mountains, so we were in no hurry.

IMPORTANT! no matter how experienced you are, you must always take care in the mountain, not underestimating the power of nature!

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Cue

The Moldoveanu peak climb has been checked off from my bucket list, but the Moldoveanu peak climb in good weather has been added.

I can only recommend to everyone these wonders of the Făgăraș Mountains!