Day 29 ROMANIA Piatra Craiului

Day 2 in paradise. We cooked our first bacon and eggs for breakfast then we set off on hike up to Spirlea Hut and back.
Although only 8km, this hike was rated in the hard category. ¾ of the way to the hut, we almost gave up as it was really hard. The gradient had increased from 20⁰ to 60⁰-65⁰, with still 1.5km to get to the hut. The path was slippery with ice and snow. We could not even anchor our hiking pole into the ground to help with the slippery steep gradient as the ground was frozen. It was one hard treacherous step after another. Every 10 steps or so, one of us would say, "This is getting too dangerous. We should turn back." Yet we still kept on. It took us about an hour to ascend that 1.5 km. We had to remember to whoop loudly and shout every 10 minutes or so to make our presence known to these bears that we were told we not there. Grace was certain she saw bear prints in the snow, but the gradient was too steep to try for a photo.
We were almost face to face with the tops of the snow capped mountains at Spirlea Hut. It was freezing and blustery but magnificent mountain scenery. We sat outside the refuge to baske in our success and to catch our breath. We had every intention to have our lunch outside the refuge. However, it was so cold, we sat in the refuge for lunch, looking out the open door at the mountain peaks that were right in front. We ascended from 900m to 1430m.
Coming down was just as difficult. We came down off track, and took our chances with a steeper gradient, avoiding the snow and ice. The gradient was so steep we had to lean up on a tree to rest and to check our bearings.
Distance walked was a mere 8.3km but half of that distance was uphill.Read more