musala

everything went to plan, and even better. i woke up before 7 and was at the trail head before 10. against my expectations of being almost alone on the mountain, after a couple minutes of walking, i ran into vladimir. he was romanian and here with 4 friends to do the same thing as me, but all in one day. he invited me to tag along, and i was happy to do so.

going with the group was more comparable to trail running than hiking. turns out these guys were the real deal - vlad told me that he had summited aconcagua just a month ago and was now in preperation for ama dablam. most of them were also ultramarathon runners, which explained the pace. i was really impressed by all this and eager to keep up, but the camp gear in my backpack made it hard. i ditched most of it after 7 kilometres, halfway up the mountain. alone, i wouldn't have dared to do the whole tour all in one day (meaning descending in the dark), but so far, the pace worked well for me and i thought it possible.

that changed just a couple of minutes later when the snow depth went from ankle to hip. we were the only ones ascending that day, so the trail wasn't stomped out and we had to wade through the snow. it was hard, hard work and it took us two and a half hours to cover 3 more kilometres. the video i have on instagram shows adrian, the most seasoned of the team, plowing his way through the snow and making a path for us. without him, i would've surely turned around at this point. thanks to roxy giving me her spare pair of snow gaiters, i still managed to stay dry.

after about four hours, we arrived at musala hut, which was, to the surprise of everyone, open. i had called two days earlier to see if i could get a sleeping place there, but nobody answered, so i had opted for the tent. it was now just 3 hours until sundown, so it would've been foolish to attempt a summit push. because of this, after resting for a couple of minutes, the romanians unfortunately had to turn back because some of them had to work the next day. but i had no problem staying the night and attempting the summit the next day. roxy actually insisted for me to keep the gaiters, because i'd need them. i also got an invitation for them to show me around the romanian mountains. what can i even say, just amazing people.

i was the only guest - apart from me, there were just two women, one man, one baby and two cats up there. i was dead tired and went to bed at six, slept two hours and was wide awake by eight. through the window right next to me i could see right up to the summit, where a light shone from the weater station. watched some netflix to calm my nerves (i can't lie, i was quite excited) and slept four more hours before waking up at 3:50. packed up and was out the door by 4:15.

the following hour was by far the hardest of the tour. this time, there was nobody to follow, no tracks, just deep snow. i had to go on hands and knees for hundreds of metres because i would've disappeared into the snow otherwise. if the terrain hadn't changed after that one hour, i would've had to give up. luckily, i didn't, and finally laid eyes on everest shelter 300 vertical metres below the summit. from here, i scrambled my way to the top across an exposed ridge. the wind was picking up a lot, but there were cables to hold onto.

i finally reached the summit after 3 exhausting hours of climbing, just in time to watch the sunset. took videos and photos, met the guy from the weather station, ate my summit snickers and fucked off as quickly as possible, because with daylight came even more wind.

on the way back, i chugged down a can of monster energy at the everest shelter. it took me 3 more hours to get all the way down to borovec again and i was completely in zombie mode for the last part. almost fell asleep standing while waiting for the bus, but was back in the hostel just 3 hours later.Læs mere