Ardașcheia peak
10 April, 2022
Time: 6 h with rest Distance: 10 km Level difference: +750 m Difficulty: medium
Last year, my birthday with the hike was so successful that it was held again this year. (You can read about my last year birthday here.) Our accommodation was again the Ekevár of Moldovenesti, which is owned by the Transylvanian Carpathian Association. https://www.eke.ro/rolunk/eke-var/
Mountains of Trascău hold so many beautiful places for us, that there will be new places for a long time to admire. This year, I chose the Ardașcheia peak.
All week, 18 people were worried about Saturday’s weather, but in the end only a couple of drops of rain fell.
On Saturday morning, from the centre of Rimetea, from the fountain, we set off in one of the small streets, following the red lane mark
. After a few metres, it started to rain. Leaving the village, the raincoats came out and someone suggested turnin back and visiting a pub.
Of course, we didn’t turn back, but continued to ascend the road between the fields. Our trail reached an intersection, resting here, the raincoats were already back in the bag. The Piatra Secuiului peak opposite was increasingly visible from the cover of the farmhouses in Rimetea. We continued on the red lane mark, going up under the forest. The sun was shining in some places, but most of the time he could hide behind the clouds, which could not overshadow the cheerful footsteps of the company. After a steeper ascent, we took a rest at a nearby spring. The terrain was dotted with protruding rocks, and the ridge above us was already visible, but was overwhelmed by clouds.
USEFULL INFO: On this route, there is a source of potable water.
We continued on the path marked with a red lane, and at a certain point this widened and turned sharply to the left, here we deviated from the marked path and continued straight up towards the ridge following the unmarked path.
USEFULL INFO: It is an unmarked path, but it is well trodden. Once upon a time, this road was marked, we find pallid blue dot marks
on trees, but who knows why it wasn’t maintained and lost in oblivion.
Our path ascended steeply up the meadow, then into the woods and finally up the ridge. The wind was stronger here, we were looking for a more sheltered place to rest and to have lunch before the summit. The view was great, snacking and observing the valley in front of us, including the Piatra Secuiului peak, Cheile Valisoarei, vârful Data, Coltesti and Coltesti castle. Food and drink poured new energy into the already tired company.
After resting, we set off in quick steps on the ridge towards the summit. We didn’t have much of a view of the valley next to us, in our opinion it rained there. The path was wide at times, narrow at times, stepping on stones, hiding under a tree.
We reached the snow line near the summit, so whoever felt like it could even play with snowballs. Reaching the 1249m high summit, the joy was immense. We haven’t soaked yet, and we did it! We had a panoramic view, but we tried to snap the pictures quickly as the raincoats reappeared.
Going down the rays of the sun were already warming us. If you’ve been hiking for sure you’ve felt that the way back is somehow always faster. We felt the same way. Almost half the time on the same route, we descended back to the cars.
In Rimetea, after everyone arrived, we headed to the accommodation to start the traditional goulash for dinner.
The gang was a bit tired, but it’s no wonder, after approximately 700m level difference and 10km. Thank you very much for the company and for persevering! I hope it remains a pleasant memory for everyone, for me sure!
As Brigi wrote, Ekevár is waiting back!