Ascents in Coștila

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Showing all 80 ascents.

	Grade	Route	Gear style	Quality	Climber
Sun 5th May 2024 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	Valea Coştilei	Alpine	Crap	Ruxandra V
Retreated at the canyon - a bit too much rockfall going on around me to risk it in the Costila particle accelerator.
Sat 24th Feb 2024 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	Valea Coştilei	Alpine		Marius B
Sat 3rd Feb 2024 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	★★★ Hornul Coamei - with ionut brencea	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
Up to the Window and rappelled back. Dry start, poor ice on the second major obstacle, more snow above (gets kinda shitty under the Window). Not that cold, but 90km/h gusts, and not a lot of space between. Rappel line we used with 2x60: one end of the ropes one from the Window to just above the piton at the entrance in Furcile lui Baticu, one 15m one from that to the bolt, one long but not full length one to a 2-piton belay station (on a ledge to the left of the chimney proper) and another end-of-the-ropes one to a few easily downclimbable m above the start
	4	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal) - with a merry bunch	Alpine	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Good snow, all covered
Thu 28th Dec 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	★★★ Hornul Coamei - with baza	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
Really cool conditions (mostly dry in the lower side, hard ice patches) but after the approach from hell we were out of time. Rapped down from below the Furci icefall (not yet formed).
	1B	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal) - with baza	Alpine	Crap	Ruxandra V
Horribly aerated snow up to Saritoarea Mare. Some sort of unholy marshmallow consistency. Nasty rimaye next to the first obstacle
Sat 16th Dec 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	M2	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal)	Alpine	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Lovely walk on perfect snow. Rock obstacles barely uncovered, easily downclimbable
Sun 22nd Oct 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	Valea Seacă a Coştilei - with marius, elena	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Initial plan was Hornul Ascuns, and this as approach. God, but it was less weedy 2 years ago
	3	Coltul Prapadit - with marius, elena 1 3 Alpine lead by marius 2 2 Alpine lead by Ruxandra V	Alpine		Ruxandra V
We were expecting 100% bushwhacking to get there, so imagine our surpride when we got a relatively bush-free scramble, leading to a great view
	1A	Brâna Caprelor - with marius, elena	Alpine		Ruxandra V
From Seaca Costilei to Malin
Sat 14th Oct 2023 - Coștila
Peretele Văii Albe
	5 ~Ac	★★ Lespezi - with andrei badea 1 3 Second lead by andrei badea 2 5 Second lead by andrei badea 3 1 Second lead by andrei badea 4 4 Second lead by andrei badea 5 5 Second lead by andrei badea	Trad		Ruxandra V
Partner not feeling well. From the Great Traverse, one can retreat down to the Sarutul Pamantului belay on Terenul de Fotbal in 1 55m rap, and then down the line of the route. At least I know the way now.
Tue 26th Sep 2023 - Coștila
Peretele Gălbinelelor
	4+ - 6+ A0	★★ Grotelor 1 Second 2 Trad 3 Second 4 Trad 5 Second	Mixed trad 150m, 2		Cristina Podocea
Sat 23rd Sep 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	2A	★★★ Valea Urzicii	Alpine	Crap	Alexandra Ungureanu
Sat 2nd Sep 2023 - Coștila
Umărul Gălbinelelor
	6- A1	Traseul Roşculeţ - with Andrei Badea 1 3+ 35 Trad lead by Ruxandra V High hopes 2 6- A1 35 Aid lead by Andrei Badea Tried it on lead first. Tried it free, took a cheesegrater fall right back to the belay ledge (the remaining pitons aren't super useful), then couldn't do it A1 anymore either. Switched leads. Had a hell of a time A1 too. The crack went easy, though - beautiful climbing! Touched a sling for a moment but didn't use for progression. 3 5 30 Second lead by Andrei Badea Tried it on lead again. Lost my whole goddamn nerve after piton 2, since the solution was not obvious, the obvious solution was committing, and I didn't want to fall on that piton since if it'd break, it'd be a pretty big factor fall (the other one is almost at belay height). My partner had whipped on it with no consequences some years ago, but still. Switched leads again. Fell 3 times above piton 2 until I figured out the trick (there's a jug right in the crack, to get you to good holds on the face that get you to where the offwidth becomes body-size). The dihedral on the second part went easy, beautiful climbing. My partner appears to have had too much fun with my cams to care about the bolt Belayed at the official belay due to rope drag (piton at the base of the dihedral needs a longer sling than Andrei could spare at the moment) 4 5 40 Second lead by Andrei Badea We belayed at the official belay, and I didn't want to try anything that could be factor-y, so Andrei got that one as well. The "biscuit" slab is amazing. 5 4 15 Second lead by Andrei Badea Not sure how to make the distinction between leading and following on a no-pro pitch you rappel and then climb a chimney while self-belaying with your rappel gear, but anyway.	Mixed trad 160m, 2		Ruxandra V
Sun 20th Aug 2023 - Coștila
Peretele Gălbinelelor
	6+	★★★ Creasta Coştila-Gălbinele - with AmeB	Trad 510m	★★★ Classic	VladTZ
Sat 19th Aug 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	Valea Priponului - with a merry team	Alpine		Ruxandra V
	1A	★ Valea Scoruşilor - with a merry team	Alpine	★ Good	Ruxandra V
	4	Valea Colţilor - with a merry team	Alpine		Ruxandra V
On lead, which was far more chill than I'd have thought. It's good to have a belay. Great conditions and dry rock btw. First obstacle goes straight on the faace under the first piton rather than following the still wet crack (I took a slide). 3 UIAA, bunch of pitons in the crack, next time I'll only bother with the first one since it's easy terrain and it only makes it more of a bother for the seconds, if going on the same rope. Tallish btw, 20m of rope to the bolt belay. Second obstacle went free on the 'window' half (such a great window, too, all twisty) for everyone. Backpacks were a mess tho. Got belayed on the second part (pinkpoint not redpoint since Meehai also wanted to climb it on lead 😃) and if you're not using the in situ rope ladder, it's a honest 5 I think, that move where you get past the overhanging part of the offwidth by using a sideways 1cm ledge for your right foot, a smear for the left and nothing useful for your hands is quite honest. We did the third optional obstacle as well, it's pretty great. A bunch of slabby 3 UIAA chimney, with a 4 traverse to a window. Make sure to sling the window (120cm sling, dyneema, extend with aan alpime draw) to keep your seconds from swinging into the wall should they fall in the lower part. Preferred not to belay on the string of chockstones above (one goes, all go) but there's a large boulder above that can be slung on a 240 (amd a bit more iffiily on 180 My thanks to a really great team!
Sun 13th Aug 2023 - Coștila
Ţancul Ascuţit
	7- A0	★★ Traseul Căţărătorului - with Mara Miron	Trad 95m		Andrei Verdeanu
Sat 12th Aug 2023 - Coștila
Ţancul Mic
	6+ A1	★★★ Hermann Buhl - with Dana Bazacliu 1 6+ A0 40m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu Split it in two pitches at the intermediate belay since they're not easy pitches anyway. Aided the whole of 1.1, 2 went mostly free. 2 6 A0 25m Second Cool exit over the ridge, very bouldery, airy move I couldn't free the first time tho 3 5 A0 40m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu Bushy slog leads to passing a slab blocking the ledge. That'd have been interesting had I not had heatstroke already Took a really annoying pendulum out of the belay 4 6 A1 40m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu At this point I just wanted everything to be over. Took a pendulum, really flailed passing the crux even on 2 aiders, not my best day.	Mixed trad 150m, 20		Ruxandra V
Note to self, don't climb this in the heat again. Cool route, very varied, got heatstroke
	6+ A0	★★ Fisura Răsucită - with Dana Bazacliu 1 6+ A0 40 Second lead by Dana Bazacliu Rested on the rope a lot to try and clear a stuck tricam 2 6+ 40 Second lead by Dana Bazacliu Pulled on gear on the friable portion and on the face exit 3 4 20 Second 4 6 35 Second	Mixed trad 140m, 15		Ruxandra V
	6+	★★ Fisura Răsucită - with Mara Miron 1 Trad lead by Andrei Verdeanu 2 Trad lead by Andrei Verdeanu 3 Trad lead by Andrei Verdeanu	Mixed trad 140m, 15	Average	Andrei Verdeanu
Did only the first three pitches. Rapped down through Herman Buhl.
Sat 12th Aug 2023 - Coștila
Ţancul Ascuţit
	7- A0	★★ Traseul Căţărătorului P1 - with Mara Miron 1 Trad lead by Andrei Verdeanu	Trad 95m		Andrei Verdeanu
Fri 11th Aug 2023 - Coștila
Ţancul Ascuţit
	6- A0	★★★ Fisura Întreruptă - with Mara Miron 1 Trad 2 Trad	Trad 60m		Andrei Verdeanu
Sat 1st Jul 2023 - Coștila
Peretele Gălbinelelor
	6+ A0	★★★ Creasta Coştila-Gălbinele - with Doru Buzac 1 4 40 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Alternative entrance at the first bolt. Tried uniting the first 2 pitches, rope felt a bit short, so I belayed off a boulder after the initial no-pro part of P2 2 3 A0 20 Second lead by Doru Buzac Can't tag it as aid as a second but pulled on the sling of the piton protecting the downclimb since it's much more annoying as a second. 3 1 60 Trad 4 4 60 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Found the piton I missed the last time (well actually Doru found it). This time around, I didn't run out of rope, we maybe had 10m free? Belayed off crappier trees than last time tho. 5 4+ 40 Second lead by Doru Buzac Lost our way here a bit, and Doru had to downclimb some sketchy shit. 6 1+ 60 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Bushwhacking. 7 6+ 55 Second lead by Doru Buzac The second half of the pitch felt weirder than last time - had forgot about the initial layback, and I didn't figure it out again at first. 8 5 35 Second lead by Doru Buzac Tried it on lead first, forgot how sketchy the pro is after the first bolt on the crack, and didn't have anything that'd fit in it either (it'd be pitons or micronuts...). There's a slightly overhanging move there that's kiss the ledge territory if you fall. The crack on the right looks easier though,and protectable with gear that'd hold a fall... the traverse doesn't really have any pro placements though... 9 3 55 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Bushwhacking 10 5+ 25 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Goes easy on the right side variant if using a small friend under the boulder (can be recovered since there's a piton right after). Also used a medium friend right at the exit before the intermediate belay, not the best placement though (flared, dirty crack, a large offset would have been so much better...). Tried to link it with the next pitch, to skip a piton belay... 11 2 40 Trad lead by Ruxandra V ...and failed, since I ran out of rope 5m before the belay. Since this was easy terrain but the pitch before wasn't, didn't want to ask my partner to simul, so I downclimbed to the last piton, extended it with all the slings draws etc I still had on me, downclimbed some more to that, clipped into it, was lowered to the piton below, clove hitched the rope to that and belayed my partner up. Pictures of the whole setup were taken by my partner for blackmail purposes, but he says they didn't come out right and I shouldn't worry. 12 5+ 20 Second lead by Doru Buzac	Trad 510m	★★★ Classic	Ruxandra V
Fri 23rd Jun 2023 - Coștila
Ţancul Mic
	6+	★★ Fisura Răsucită	Mixed trad 140m, 15	★★★ Classic	Sabina D.
Fri 23rd Jun 2023 - Coștila
Peretele Văii Albe
	5 - 6+ A0	★★ Lespezi	Trad	★ Good	Sabina D.
Fri 9th Jun 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	4	Valea Priponului	Alpine		Ruxandra V
One of the last days the downclimb to the left of the main obstacle can be done, the rimaye is getting big and the snow ridge is getting delicate
	M2	★★★ Hornul Coamei	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Started off where we retreated last time. The 'window' obstacle is uncovered for 5m or so, quite possibly the coolest bit of climbing I ever did on a gully, and made even better by a) doing it solo and b) having my partner on the last attempt on whatsapp offering support (encouragement, jokes, angling for my Totems if I gank it). Thanks mate. Also, there's a piton stack above it on the right as you climb, black cordelette. Above that, the snow is relatively continuous but with big rimayes so sometimes you're climbing snow ridges, and there's a couple rock ridges as well but nothing harder than M2. Below, as far as I could see, the entrance is dry and the technical part is in great mixed conditions, partially uncovered rock and patches of snow. First 2 pitches of Furcile are also snowed up, the icefall has melted tho.
	1A	Brâul Strungii	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Almost entirely dry. The routes on Umarul Galbinele are in summer conditions as well.
	M2	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal)	Alpine	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Mostly continuous snow in the inferior part. Second obstacle pokes out 2m. Above the split with Hornul Coamei, interrupted snow. Above Braul Strungii, it's dry. Solo.
Tue 30th May 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	Valea Priponului - with baza	Alpine		Ruxandra V
On descent. Broken up snow on the upper part, full snow in the valley proper up to the waterfall, which is a waterfall now. Still downclimbable on the left.
	6-	★★★ Valea Urzicii - with baza	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
Love. Inferior part still fully covered up, although we did have quite a bit of fun exploring the occasional rimaye. Some of them are full caves by now. Obstacle over BMC is partially uncovered (just below the crux) - we climbed some swiss cheese of a snowblock to get to rock. Crux below the suspended boulder is pretty awesome, some rather marginal crampon and axe holds on the right face (or, in summer, a bouldery undercling on the suspended boulder + smear feet on the right face) that take you to an offwidth crack used to mantle over the face. Decently protectable, there's a good in situ piton (plus a slab that can be tied off with a sling) above the initial ledge, and a crack that takes medium friends on the left after the crux. Easy terrain there, then another fun exit over a spherical chockstone (in situ and not very good piton on the right of it, room for a small friend on the left, but by the time you're above the pro you're home free) - it's all about the feet. There's a new piton 2-3m above the obstacle to the right, and a crack that takes small/medium nuts 1m above the obstacle, so the second has it easy. Above that, there's an uncovered slab which we avoided on the right due to seeing a bunch of footballs roll down it as we were packing up our gear, and then the valley splits. The rocks had come from the left arm, so we took the right arm (uncovered initial chimney, quite light - there's some red cordelette around a sketchy boulder - probably a rap station - and then pure snow). We first tried a direct exit through the corniche, since it had vastly diminished in size, but we still had 1.5m of snow above, too poorly consolidated to do any overhanging moves on, so we avoided it on the right where a small ridge meant a break in the overhang.
Tue 2nd May 2023 - Coștila
Colţul Mălinului
	WI2 M4	★★★ Hornul Ascuns - with andrei badea 1 WI2 35 Alpine lead by andrei badea Fell on my tools once as I blew a foot when the thin ice I placed it in peeled off. 2 M4 Alpine lead by andrei badea Interesting leftward traverse right at the start of the pitch (we protected it with a small friend a couple of meters above the belay, allowing the leader to do the traverse on toprope, then the leader clipped into the first piton and I went and recuperated the friend while tied in to the belay with just enough rope to reach it,to prevent the rope literally going Z-shaped). Interesting exit to the belay too, in summer you chimney it, leader did a pull-up on tools stuck into frozen turf (taller than me) and I did a summer-winter maneuver where I hooked an icicle with one tool (instead of the summer hold, now iced up), to allow me to layback my feet on the left wall for a couple moves until I could reach the chimneyish part.	Alpine 35m	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
The mixed climbing I've been dreaming of this winter. Unlike the rest of 'em, this is really really good in spring.
Tue 2nd May 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	★★★ Valea Mălinului - with andrei badea	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
On descent. Iffy traverse from Creasta Malinului, then run for downhill/run for your lives since it's high noon and high sun and the corniche is spectacular. Wet firn, easy to move on. Rocks the size of a couple fridges and a van have recently falllen from the chimney on the opposite of Valea Hornurilor
Tue 2nd May 2023 - Coștila
Colţul Mălinului
	5	★★★ Creasta Mălinului - with andrei badea 6 Second 7 Second Bunch of mobiles mostly used so we don't trip on the rope	Trad	★★★ Classic	Ruxandra V
Exit from Hornul Ascuns. High sun, high wind, perfect snow. Traverses even easier than in summer
Mon 1st May 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	2A	★★★ Valea Urzicii	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Solo. Perfect, perfect snow, covering everything under BMC. The major obstacle above BMC is also almost entirely covered - maybe 3m of M2 today. Didn't continue, though, since on such a warm and sunny day there was quite a bit of rockfall, a lot of it funnelled through the obstacle, and considering the visible corniche on the right upper line and that the invisible and theoretically corniche free left upper line involved a rocky friable ridge I didn't yet know if I was ok with unbelayed, I decided against the version of reality where I had a good chance of needing to go down the funnel...err... major obstacle once again 2h later in full noon sun. Easy descent, 90% walking and a bit of downclimbing, on not yet sticky snow, in 1h
Sun 9th Apr 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	M2	★★★ Brâna Aeriană - Creasta Văii Albe - with Gabriel Bazacliu, Dana Bazacliu	Alpine	★★★ Classic	Ruxandra V
On knee high fresh snow and 4/5 avalanche risk, it becomes a completely different route. Pitched the whole rocky part of the ridge, then rapped/downclimbed back on our tracks to avoid the Hornul lui Gelepeanu exit and the associated risk. 18 hours
Wed 14th Dec 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	★★★ Hornul Coamei - with Andrei Badea	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Climbed up to Braul Strungii but I feel comfortable calling this a tick rather than a retreat since it covers the major technical bits. Lovely condition, rock relatively uncovered, ice enough for screws. We pitched the whole of it on account of a rather newbie second (me). Took the Braul Strungii exit on account of likely major wind slabs in the top funnel - right decision, I feel, considering the amount of slabbage we had to dodge on retreat. Somewhere in the middle of this I first started feeling like my frontpoints are part of my feet, rather than weird unwieldy tools I need to place from a distance.
	4	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal) - with Andrei Badea	Alpine		Ruxandra V
We came, we saw, we fucked off. Too much work for an approach route.
	1A	Brâul Strungii - with Andrei Badea	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Short and sweet, had to do a bit of ballet to avoid wind slabs
	1B	Secundarul Gălbinelelor - with Andrei Badea	Alpine		Ruxandra V
On descent. 4 rappels (bolted anchors), downclimbed the last major obstacle (e.g butt-scooted)
	3	★★ Hornul dintre Fire - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Did the whole chimney (including the eponymous chimney) rather than just using it as a detour to get past the main obstacle on Galbinele valley, since the second obstacle on Galbinele valley was, shall we say, not in condition. Friction slab + verglas != love. Loved the chimney, btw. It's precisely me-sized, so felt comfortable trying all sorts of crampon feet without worrying what happens if I fall.
Mon 3rd Oct 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	3 1B	★★★ Valea Mălinului - with edy, dorin vraja	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
Dry rock, climbing a pleasure. First time on a 1B with no help from above.
Sat 1st Oct 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	★★★ Brâna Mare a Coştilei - with edy, dorin vraja	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
From Creasta Malinului to Valea Priponului
	1A	Valea Priponului - with edy, dorin vraja	Alpine		Ruxandra V
So much easier in the daytime. Don't get there before sundown often, it seems.
Sat 1st Oct 2022 - Coștila
Colţul Mălinului
	3	★★★ Creasta Mălinului - with edy, dorin vraja 6 2 40 Trad lead by Ruxandra V this is so much easier when it's dry... 7 3 30 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Climbed down to the Hornul Ascuns belay station since we wanted to rappel-spy a certain crack	Trad 70m	★★★ Classic	Ruxandra V
In reverse
Mon 26th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Colţul Mălinului
	5-	Muchia de Sus din Creasta Frumoasă (Muchia de Sus din Creasta Frumoasă Linkup Hornul Ascuns) - with edy 1 5- 30 linkup Hornul Ascuns 2 3+ 20	Alpine 50m		Ruxandra V
Start-of-the-mixed-climbing-season, unfortunately for us we were still in summer gear and had 1 icetool between us, brought to use as a piton hammer. Snowed up holds made life a tad interesting. We climbed P1 in a version that felt more like 5 UIAA on account of needing to skip a bunch of good but slippery-when-wet holds (leader needed to do a rather iffy traverse, I went more straight up. Aided my way through the start by means of footloop through the piton since there was no way in hell I was switching to climbing shoes and getting frostnip on my toes as well as on my fingers. For P2, Edy initially tried the Nae Dimitriu crack version, took 3 lead falls on it (the crux is an overhanging move that was tried with a single icetool in a really dirty portion of the crack), then changed plans and traversed into Hornul Ascuns and climbed that. We left a piton a few meters below the crux in the Dimitriu crack, it had been equalized with a DMM #5 wallnut when holding the falls. If using a non-extending quickdraw in the first piton in HA after the traverse, the rope will likely end up in a stone V and make life relatively unpleasant.
Sat 24th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	★★★ Brâna Mare a Coştilei - with edy	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
From Valea Tapului to Valea Priponului. 20-30cm of snow, some ice at the gully crossings. Belayed the more exposed Urzicii crossing - there are 2 old pitons, 1 on a small face right before the crossing, 1 right after the crossing protecting the slight downclimb, and then as you follow the BMC there's a clepsidra that takes a wired nut right before the bend, and a belay boulder (150cm+ sling) right at the end of a 30m rope.
	1A	Valea Priponului - with edy	Alpine		Ruxandra V
On descent. Got a tad lost for a few minutes at one point near the traverse.
Sat 24th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Colţul Mălinului
	3	★★★ Creasta Mălinului - with edy 6 3 30m Trad lead by Ruxandra V Took the lead on this one since it started with 10m of downclimb. Fun traverse, felt significantly easier than Acul Mare. 7 2 40m Second lead by edy Horizontal wall traverse on good holds, with an annoying iced-up portion 30m in. We only had a 30m half-rope, btw, so we ended up doing a 2-stacked-pitons-and-1-icetool belay (not left in place ) right after the icy bit (which we avoided by climbing below it) and then we switched leads for the 10m up to the boulder belay at the entrance in Valea Tapului but that was a 1 UIAA portion where the only difficulty of making sure the snow didn't hide ice	Trad 70m	★★★ Classic	Ruxandra V
After exiting our Muchia de sus din Creasta frumoasa/Hornul Ascuns linkup
Sat 24th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	4	★★ Valea Țapului (Valea Ţapului) - with edy	Alpine 700m	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
On approach to Muchia de Sus a Crestei Frumoase. Inferior part up to the Big Break, then we crossed over on a ledge to Creasta Frumoasa, climbed that for a while, and then followed Seaca Costilei up to Strunga Neagra. Mostly dry with some wet spots, some ice beginning at 1800m
Sun 11th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Umărul Gălbinelelor
	6 A1 ~6+	★★ Traseul Coman - with andrei badea 1 4 40 Second lead by andrei badea 2 3 20 Second lead by andrei badea Friable 3 4 A1 15 Second lead by andrei badea Used an aider to get past the crux. Pro is slightly spicy for a beginner like me (groundfall risk in the crux... not from high, but not nice either. Much easier w/o backpack since the crux is an offwidth that widens to a body jam so if you can enter the jam it'll make your life so much easier. There's a good hand jam in one of the secondary cracks if you can reach it when you'll need it. Above that it's easy chimney on good holds, no fixed pro but mobile opportunities. 4 3 35 Second lead by andrei badea 5 6 50 Second lead by andrei badea Retreated off intermediate belay station from Rosculet due to rain and hearing some thunder in the distance. Crux is fun, an overhanging bouldery crack move. Seems to be a cool feet sequence there but I didn't have the time to work it out so just pulled on draws to get the hell out of Dodge. Splitting the length is a good idea anyway I feel, communication would be iffy otherwise. If you do retreat down Rosculet as we did, the next bolted station is 45m down on a grassy ledge under an overhang (you'll see an hourglass threaded with red 5mm cord on the way - we set the cord but didn't rap it - then a piton (rapped it, moves a bit but stayed fast) and then the bolt). I really really recommend having the last person that leaves the belay be someone who can deal with passing knots on rappel, and pulling the rope before they leave until it passes the grassy ledge, because it's a bit friable and likes to eat knots. 2 ~30m halfropes, frizzy lower ends, free to a good home if you hurry there. 6 Trad	Trad 160m	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Sun 11th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	★ Valea Scoruşilor - with andrei badea	Alpine	★ Good	Ruxandra V
Above Strunga Galbinele, to Brana Mare a Costilei
	4	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal) - with andrei badea	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Skipped the main two obstacles on Hornul dintre Fire. Mostly free, had my leader hold my arm on the exit of one problem as I switched feet on a hold but next time that shouldn't be necessary
Sat 10th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	4	Valea Coştilei - with andrei badea	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
Skipped the first obstacles on grassy right, was belayed thrice in the canyon, continued on the left side, mostly between gullies. Retreat on Brana Mare a Costilei. As imprecise as Romanian alpine grades are, this is definitely more than 1B if going straight up the fall line. Sustained UIAA 4 'problems' throughout the lower canyon
Sun 4th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1B	★★★ Valea Mălinului - with edy	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
On descent, after failing to find the right crossing point for BMC (10m visibility, we found ourselves lower than we should have been) and deciding that'd take too much time anyway. Absolutely lovely gully, must be a complete delight to climb dry, however, we were downclimbing it wet which is a different type of fun. 5 raps out of which 2 very short ones off boulders above Lespezi to avoid unstable-feeling downclimbs, 2 off the regular rap stations and 1 off the top bolt of the chain-equipped lowest obstacle (iffy bolt btw, it's a homemade one with a painted hanger where the paint is showing twist stress lines)
	1A	★ Valea Scoruşilor - with edy	Alpine	★ Good	Ruxandra V
Pleasant walk from Strunga Galbinele to Braul Mare al Costilei
	1B	★★ Valea Hornului - with edy	Alpine	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Lower portion (we traversed to Coltilor valley after the crux, then ridge walked between Strunga Coltilor and Strunga Galbinele). Wet but not overflowing, made the crux a bit distressing since the exit tilts you to the right without a footsmear and the rock wasn't exactly in smearable conditions. The traverse to Coltilor is a 50m long grass ledge that starts out narrow (protectable with pitons, or small/medium nuts - we didn't leave anything in situ tho) then widens out and fills up with shrubs.
Sat 20th Aug 2022 - Coștila
Peretele Gălbinelelor
	5 A0	★★ Grotelor - with Andrei Badea 1 3 lead by Andrei Badea 2 4 lead by Andrei Badea 3 5 A0 lead by Andrei Badea 4 4 A0 lead by Andrei Badea 5 5 A0 lead by Andrei Badea	Mixed trad 150m, 2	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
First time on a wall route I didn't aid my whole way up on (and tbh, I'm not sure Suhardul Mic counts that much as a wall). Love. Spoilers ahoy Approach was on Galbinele valley and Hornul dintre Fire. Pitch 1 is a classical alpine chimney, fun stemming, not really any useful pro but this isn't really fall territory either. Pitch 2 also an easy slab crack, nothing much to say. First two are approach, really. Pitch 3 is where the fun begins. After a start that's either bouldery (official version) or a bit of a finesse traverse to the right (our version) you do a slabby traverse to the right to an oblique overhanging crack where a big old peg is visible. We clipped into it, creating mucho rope drag for the rest of the pitch, then downclimbed the traverse and headed straight up on less pumpy terrain until the bolt at the beginning of the second crack. Then started the pumpy overhangy part (topo said good holds, I broke a couple of them before saying screw it and starting to pull on quickdraws). Crux is a slightly bouldery exit out of the overhang using a crack to the right, that we felt is a bit spicier than the claimed 6/6+ . Can easily be aided through with the use of a 0.5 friend, however (the only mobile we ended up using). After that, it's easy terrain up to the belay Pitch 4 is long and well protected (about 20 pegs/bolts) and we only had 13 quickdraws on us so we ended up splitting it in 2 (there's a belay station from Don Corleone accessible from it). Pitch 4.1 was lots of slabby crack, basically, with a few careful traverses, and pitch 4.2 started with an easy slab walkup to the left and then a well-protected few meters up with an exit between a few boulders that would make linking this with p5 a bit iffy, I think Pitch 5 is short but not easy - after a slab traverse to the left you head up on a system of cracks on a slightly overhangy background. Secondary crux of the route - it's far less pumpy than the initial one, but unlike p3 this isn't on jugs but requires balance, finesse feet and some rather sinuous dance steps. Had we but worlds enough and time, I'd have loved to work this out like a sport route since it's right at the limit of my rotpunkt ability and very much my style, but I had a train to catch and the whole of Galbinele valley to descend on a still iffy ankle so if a move wouldn't go on the second try I pulled on the quickdraw for the third and moved on. Retreat was by rapping down (I had left my trekking sticks at the Costila refuge and had to get them back) - first 3 raps would've worked on a single 60m rope, if a bit on the edge of it, 4th one needs maybe 70m of rope, and 5th needs 2 60m ropes stretched to the limit and reaches a peg one can also do a not-very-standard short rap off non-vertical terrain to the valley bottom to avoid a bit of downclimbing. Then we descended off the Galbenele Valley main line, which is pretty full of scree from this year's earlier rockfall off Tavanele de Argint
Sun 31st Jul 2022 - Coștila
Ţancul Ascuţit
	7- A0 Hard Hard Hard	★★ Traseul Căţărătorului	Trad 95m	★★ Very Good	Maier Horatiu
	6+ - 7 A0 Hard Hard	★★ A.T.P.	Trad	★★ Very Good	Maier Horatiu
Sat 30th Jul 2022 - Coștila
Ţancul Mic
	6+ Hard Hard	★★ Fisura Răsucită	Mixed trad 140m, 15	★★ Very Good	Maier Horatiu
Sun 10th Jul 2022 - Coștila
Peretele Văii Albe
	5 - 6+ A0 Hard	★★ Lespezi	Trad	★★★ Classic	Maier Horatiu
Sat 9th Jul 2022 - Coștila
Peretele Gălbinelelor
	6	★★★ Creasta Coştila-Gălbinele (Creasta Coştila-Gălbenele) - with Andrei Badea 1 4 25 lead by Ruxandra V 2 5 20 lead by Ruxandra V 3 1 4 4 65 lead by Ruxandra V 5 4+ 40 lead by Ruxandra V 6 1 7 5+ 30 lead by Ruxandra V 8 6 25 lead by Andrei Badea 9 5 35 lead by Ruxandra V 10 3 55 lead by Andrei Badea 11 5+ 25 lead by Andrei Badea 12 2 35 lead by Andrei Badea 13 4 60 lead by Ruxandra V	Trad 420m	★★★ Classic	Ruxandra V
Chickened out on the lead attempt, but what I did end up leading is still way more leading than I ever did in my life on non-sport terrain up until yesterday At least I didn't pull on any draws except one on my abandoned p11 lead attempt. Mostly used in situ pro (it's quite good, a mix of chemical bolts, old pitons and trees). Carried some friends (to look cool in pictures, according to my partner ), ended up placing a #1 on p7, could have used some on p8 and 11 had I led them. Pitches 1-6 are easily doable in boots, with 3 and 6 being just non-roped bushwalking. P1 is an easy and straightforward conglomerate slab, to get you used to the style - artificial pro is a bit sparse but the terrain is easy and there's plenty of trees. P2 is mostly a traverse, and the UIAA 5 crux is very well protected and smear-based so don't lose the boots just yet. The P4 belay apparently is on bolts somewhere but we belayed off a tree - this makes it a bit longer than 60m and required a few meters of simulclimbing to get to the P5 bolt belay, but that was on easy terrain on both ends so nbd. P7 is where the real climbing starts, nice balancy vertical crack, well-protected. On 60m ropes, it's easily linkable with P8, which is another, slightly harder, vertical crack right above it (there's an easier looking crack to the left but there's no in situ pro). This gets you out of needing to use the piton belay between them, but I chickened out - a bit shamefully, since I ran it clean and quickly as a second, which means that it should have gone French-free with a bit of patience and testicular fortitude Back on the lead for P9, fun traverse, passed the lead back to Andrei for P10 to save up on time (it's UIAA 2-3 but long and bushwhacky, so, on an already quite-slow lead, better pass it to the guy that's been there before ). Attempted to lead P11, ended up chickening out at the crux and passing it to Andrei as well. Here's what went wrong: the pitch starts with a slightly more airily protected dihedral than the previous vertical or close-to-vertical portions, and while it's easier than the rest, it'll still stick to the back of the mind of baby leaders like me. Crux has 2 alternatives. Left is a 45deg friction slab, right is an underclingy boulder move that existing topos and my partner described as 'harder, but the one you should try'. I get to the piton that marks the roads diverging and rather freak out as for some reason my backbrain decides it doesn't trust this particular one, I don't see any existing pro on the boulder move and it's apparently the harder one, so let's try the friction slab but the 3m to the next piton seem infinity so I make a couple of moves, turtle back to the piton, then Andrei asks me to get back down since we're kinda late already and I do so. The solution for this shit would have been taking a rest of a few good breaths at the piton, sticking with the initial undercling plan, using one of the small friends I had on my harness to protect the move if I really worried and then busting the move (which is easy) and finding a gd piton right after it lol. In close enough range that I could have back-cleaned my friend to minimize drag, too. Anyway, Andrei linked this pitch up with the following (a straightforward UIAA2 slab) and passed the lead back for the last pitch, which is a bit friable but easy climbing even in boots. Existing topos say UIAA 5+ but it's really, really not.
Fri 1st Apr 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	4	★★ Valea Gălbenelelor - with Marian Anghel	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Descent from Strunga Hornurilor. Heavy but stable snow, annoying to go waist deep occasionally though. Some snow hollows in the middle part so stay roped up, ending up with your feet treading air can be interesting
	1B	★★ Valea Hornului - with Marian Anghel	Alpine	★★ Very Good	Ruxandra V
Good snow, rock nearly entirely covered. We only used a real belay on the first rocky bit, and everything was easily climbable on a single non-technical ice axe
Sat 11th Dec 2021 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	Brâna Caprelor - with Marian Anghel	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Partial (from Valea Seaca a Costilei to Valea Malinului), as retreat off Valea Seaca a Costilei.
	1A	Vâlcelul Ascuns - with Marian Anghel	Alpine		Ruxandra V
On descent. 15-20cm sticky snow over moderate amounts of tree detritus. Crossing from Valea Verde a tad tricky - small wall with v. friable dirt + v. friable trees
	1B	Valea Seacă a Coştilei - with Marian Anghel	Alpine		Ruxandra V
10-20cm of soft snow. Retreat at 1700m (crossing Valea Verde and Malinului and descending on Valcelul lui Teodor) due to bad weather and late time. Single, nontechnical axe (fine as second if avoiding the main obstacles)
Mon 29th Nov 2021 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	Valea Priponului - with Marian Anghel	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Descent off Tapului. Slight snow, no ice
	M4	★★ Valea Ţapului - with Marian Anghel	Alpine 700m		Ruxandra V
Dry up to 1600m, mixed higher. Single, nontechnical axe (as second, leader used two in some areas), went around some of the main obstacles including the Big Break so quite a bit of bush climbing in the end Exited on BMC, descended via Priponului
Sun 19th Sep 2021 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	4	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal) (Valea Gălbenelelor)	Alpine		Ruxandra V
	4	Valea Colţilor	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Fri 27th Aug 2021 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	1A	Valea Priponului	Alpine		Ruxandra V
	1A	★★★ Brâna Mare a Coştilei	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic	Ruxandra V
Sun 18th Apr 2021 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
	4	★★ Valea Gălbinelelor (principal) (Valea Gălbenelelor)	Alpine		Ruxandra V
	4	Valea Colţilor	Alpine		Ruxandra V
Thu 16th Aug 2018 - Coștila
Peretele Văii Albe
	8+ A1 8+ A1	★★★ Fisura Albastră Directă - with Cherecheș Cristian	Trad	★★★ Mega Classic	Bercean Ioan
Beautiful route. It took us 14 pitches. Couldn't figure out how to enter the overhang (and we didn't have a lot of time to try it). Cristi did the rest of the route clean. I took 2-3 falls and a few rests. We switched the lead. Took us around 11-13 hours, I think. Adding walking we ended up back to the refugee after around 15 hours. First pitch is very easy but only have one piton and the top. Second still very easy Third is the football field (a big chuck of grass. We didn't use the rope here since it was useless) Next 2 lengths still pretty easy. At some point (I think around pitch 6-7) we got confused and we did a length from Emilian Cristea memorial by mistake (going straight up instead of right trying to avoid missing the overhang). Before the overhang we decided to link to pitches because the intermediate top from bivouac 3 wasn't in the best shape and we read that with 6-7 quickdraw you can get to the next one which had 3 spits. We didn't had twin ropes so continuing with only one rope I feel like it was questionable, but also I am not sure if regrouping there would have been better. Anyway I took a 6-7 meeters fall because I got tired and the rope was really hard to drag, but after some rest we got to the "big ceil". We could enter it free climbing so we used a quickdraw as a hand hold to enter the overhang, the rest is not very hard, but it is quite tiring (as any overhang). Needed a quick reset before exiting the overhang but just because I don't have the best endurance when it comes to overhangs. Would suggest to the lead to out the next good quickdraw after the top of the ceil before belaying to avoid factor 2 falls (about the 3rd one) Next length is the only one with pretty unsafe pitons. A lot of them are moving, one even came out with the quickdraw. But is not life threating since there are a lot of them, and some are stable. The climb is also pretty easy. Next pitch is the last. Up to first quickdraw can be scary, because you start from a ledge and it is about 4-5 meters up to it. But is easy and stable rock. Close to the end you have a small decent (~1 m ) to a traverse called "the wooden leg". The lead might be tempted to move the same quickdraw from a piton to another because you are stuck in a crack, but I would advise to avoid it because the second rope might take a bad fall if he falls at the beginning of the traverse.
Mon 13th Aug 2018 - Coștila
Peretele Policandrului
	6+ A1 6+ - 8- A1	★★★ Fisura Mult Dorită - with Cherecheș Cristian	Trad	★★★ Classic	Bercean Ioan
Nice route. After the crux there is a travese followed by a small vertical portion where we couldn't find any bolts for about 7 to 10 meters. Not hard though. I think is harder for the second because the rope is going to the right, and there is still a small struggle to get on the ledge after you recover the quickdraw. However I it isn't very technical or anything. Rest of the route is pretty well equipped (not like sport climbing, but at the very least decent). The ending is a basically going on some pretty steep grass, and you don't really have a lot of options to place gear, but is so easy that we didn't mind. At the end there is a bolt a little out of sight, on the side of a rock a little to the left, from where you can belay.

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