Omu and Bucura Dumbravă peaks

October 29, 2020 Kitti Comments 0 Comment

Hotel Piatra Arsă (1950m) – Babele Chalet (2238m) – Sfinx and Babele (2292m) – Șugar Saddle (2305m) – Cerbul Saddle (2308m) – Omu peak (2507m) – Bucura Dumbravă peak (2503m) – Baba Coștila – Coștila peak (2490m) – Valea Albă Saddle (2405m) – Caraiman peak (2384m) – Crucea Eroilor Neamului – Babele chairlift – Hotel Piatra Arsă

Travel time: 10 hours and 30 min Distance: 26 km Level difference: 1029 m Qualification: easy, but long hike

If you are thinking of an easy hike for the weekend, and want to do over 2000 m elevation, I can recommend the Bucegi Mountains, which is the busiest alpin mountain tourist attraction in Romania. We also had similar expectations for the weekend of August 7-9. We wanted to train before climbing Moldoveanu peak, but we didn’t want to ruin ourselves either.

We left quite late on Friday afternoon, but we were lucky enough to not catch the traffic. After Brasov we were moving slower, but we didn’t have to stop in a traffic jam. The road through Predeal, Azuga, Busteni, Sinaia routes are often clogged. Immediately after Sinaia we turned off on Transbucegi, we drove up to the Hotel Piatra Arsă. AWe spent the night in the car (so it was planned).

USEFUL INFO:: The Transbucegi is a surfaced route, but it is busy even at night.

USEFUL INFO: Camping is prohibited in the Bucegi Mountains National Park, you can only camp near the Mălăiești Chalet or near the Zănoaga Chalet. If you definitely want to sleep in a tent, which is not recommended because of the bears either, bivouac can be an option. (where the evening comes, put up your tent and with the dawn you move on, leaving no trash behind).

Early Saturday morning we woke up to the fact that the cars were arriving and arriving, all full of tourists. After we prepared for the full day hike, we set off on road 713 (car / bike path) which takes us to the Babele Chalet, on this route it is forbidden to drive. The road ascended very slowly, we passed near the Cocora (2191m) peak. The weather was clear and the view was great.

USEFUL INFO: The great advantage of the Bucegi Mountains is that there are several chairlifts, which makes it easier for tourists to get up.

Next to the Babele Chalet are the famous motifs of the Bucegi Mountains, the Sphinx, Babele and the stone mushrooms in various shapes. These are shaped by the frequent and strong winds. The characteristic wind still blewed tirelessly on that day. After admiring the stone curiosities we continued on the yellow lane sign towards the Omu peak.

The hiking trail was wide and well trampled, “paved”, I understood why it used to say that it is possible to go to Bucegi in high heels. We passed near the Big Baba (2292m), Salvamont Chalet, Obârșiei peak (2405m) we passed the Șugarilor Saddle (2305m), where we could choose to continue on the winter or summer route. We chose the summer route. This road was narrow and in some places sloped steeply towards the valley. At the Cerbului Saddle the two routes met. Approaching Omu Peak, the trail widened again and started to rise a little better, and we soon saw the Omu Chalet, which is located exactly on Omu peak (2507m).

After lunch we continued our hike to the Bucura Dumbravă peak 2503m.

Backwards, for the sake of variety, we chose the winter route. At the Șugarilor Saddle we turned onto the red cross sign that passed near Baba Coștila. Soon making a small bypass, we deviated from the marked road to take a closer look at the huge radio-tv tower at Coștila peak (2490m), then continued our way at the red cross sign all the way to Caraiman peak (2384m), passing through Văii Albe Saddle. At the top of Caraiman peak is Crucea Eroilor Neamului, the Cross of Heroes, built between 1926-1928, located at an altitude of 2,291 m and 36 m high.

Back, we continued to follow the red cross mark, which led back to the Babele Chalet and Babele Chairlift. Here, we followed the s yellow lane sign all the way to the Hotel Piatra Arsă.

At the end of the day, I didn’t want to believe we had done 26 km and 1029m level difference. The easily accessible attractions, the flat and slowly rising terrain and of course, the view that distracted us thought made the hike easier. On the other hand, the all-day wind, which turned into a sharp cold wind in the afternoon, made its impact. We resigned our hike planned for the second day and went down into the valley for the night.