Ascents in Central Region

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Showing 1 - 100 out of 215 ascents.

	Grade	Route	Gear style	Quality	Difficulty	Climber
Tue 30th May 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	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.
Alpine	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.
Wed 24th May 2023 - Muchia Cheii
Peretele Animalelor
Second	7 A0	★★ Diedrul Corbilor	Trad	★★ Very Good	Suggested grade 7+ Hard A0 Suggested grade 5B	Sabina D.
Trad	7- A0	★ Cangurul	Trad	★ Good	7- 4B	Sabina D.
Trad	6b+	★★★ Acvila	Trad	★★★ Mega Classic	6b+	Sabina D.
Sun 7th May 2023 - Muchia Cheii
Peretele Animalelor
Second	6+ A0	★★★ Mielul cel Blând - with Dana Bazacliu 1 5+ 45m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu 2 6+ A0 30m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu Crux (a traverse on technical slab) wasn't easy even as a second 3 6+ A0 55m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu One of the most beautiful pitchs I've climbed in my life - so varied! Climb a crack, alternating laybacking with hand jams, then traverse on a technical slab to the great dihedral. The great dihedral is the best possible argument for uniting the old 2 pitches in the current single mega-pitch, it has such incredible flow, the initial part is a good rest from the layback crack since your weight is off your hands now, and then it arches for another balancy traverse on underclings ending with a rather bouldery exit beyond its corner, out on easy slab before the end.	Trad 130m	★★★ Mega Classic		Ruxandra V
Incredibly aesthetic
Second	6 A0	★★ Muchia Căprioarei - with Dana Bazacliu 1 5+ 40m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu Slight rain,moving as fast as we can 2 5+ 40m Second lead by Dana Bazacliu By this time the rain had stopped. Ridge is lovely 3 3 25m Second 4 5+ 35m Second 5 6 A0 40m Second By this time we had caught on to another team on the route, and also the rain had started again rather more in earnest than the first time. Since their leader had already passed the now-quite-wet crux just before, they were kind enough to let us hitch one of our half-rope ends to one of them and have us both second it on a long, long chain of half-ropes. Crux is really iffy and unpleasant when wet, a lot of essential feet are smears and you really don't feel like pulling hard on the right slab either, it's not quite neatly attached to the wall. Ended up doing a lot of pull-ups and using the pitons as footholds. 6 6- 40m Second	Trad 220m	★ Good		Ruxandra V
Sat 6th May 2023 - Caraiman
Peretele Albişoarelor
Alpine	2A	Albişoara Brânei	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Solo walk up to the first obstacle (knew I didn't want to continue since the exit is heavily corniched)
Alpine	1B	Albişoara Turnurilor	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Solo. Lower obstacles already partially uncovered. Felt like I needed a belay
Fri 5th May 2023 - Caraiman
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1B	Valea lui Zangur	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Solo. All obstacles covered or almost covered. An easy, peaceful walk. Tried exiting towards Portita Caraimanului, ended up going back because of iffy snow conditions. A small avalanche started in that area automatically a few minutes after I started descending, so I feel this was the right choice
Tue 2nd May 2023 - Coștila
Colţul Mălinului
Alpine	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
Alpine	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
Second	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
Alpine	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
Thu 27th Apr 2023 - Muchia Cheii
Peretele Animalelor
Trad	7	★★★ Lupul cel Rău 1 5+ 40 Second 2 6 40 Trad 3 6+ 50 Second 4 6+ 40 Trad 5 7 30 Second	Trad 200m	★★★ Classic	Hard 7- A0 5B	Sabina D.
Trad	6+	★★ Muchia Iepuraşului	Trad 220m	★★★ Classic	6+ 5A	Sabina D.
Trad	7-	★★ Muchia Căprioarei 1 5+ 40m Trad 2 5+ 40m Second 3 3 25m Trad 4 5+ 35m Trad 5 7- 40m Second 6 6- 40m Trad	Trad 220m	★★★ Classic	7-	Sabina D.
Sun 23rd Apr 2023 - Muchia Cheii
Faţa Hornurilor
Trad	6 A0	Muchia Panseluţei - with andrei badea 1 4 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Quite friable, especially on grassy bits. Takes some small friends as pro. 2 5+ Trad lead by Ruxandra V Straight up and onward, Bucegi starting to smoke up at our backs. Nearly missed the belay, this seemed to pass like a dream 3 5+ Trad lead by Ruxandra V The airy chimney pitch. I barely remember the moves, just the fear and the moving forward smoothly... Didn't see the downclimb piton so I used a friend instead. Right mess at the belay, rope drag like nobody's business 4 6 A0 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Behind us, Bucegi mountains are in a full storm. Ahead, the crux pitch. Get through this and it'll be fine. The crux is at the start, an unprotected traverse on smears and then a few m of dihedral with no good left holds for hand or foot. Lone bolt in the middle of the dihedral can just about be reached by my taller second, so I do the traverse protected and take 4 tries to get through the dihedral. Long live mobiles even when you don't place any, was digging out a potential nut placement on top of the dihedral and found the perfect left jug. Rest of the pitch went smoothly, not in the least because of me being willing to pull on a draw or two 5 4 Trad lead by Ruxandra V Way less runout than the legend says if using mobiles (make sure you have slings) but beware of rope zig zag, I ran out of rope 2m before the belay tree, improvized something out of bushes and boullders. Storm caught up with us by the time I was done with my little gardening project(all fine, life wet). Should have simulled...	Mixed trad 220m, 13			Ruxandra V
My first serious full lead. Not rotpunkt, not fast, not without enough mobiles for the whole gd wall... not unafraid, tbh... but in control, and holding on to the sharp end even though common sense and the storm at our backs said otherwise
Sat 22nd Apr 2023 - Piatra Craiului
Prăpăstiile Zărneştilor MCM
Sport	7-	★★★ Le Slaubeause — 5 attempts - with gabriel bazacliu	Sport 10m	★★★ Classic	Hard 7-	Ruxandra V
Route is really cool and v psychological. Graded as a 6 in the park topo, really closer to 7-/7 (not only my opinion). Could get to the third bolt, couldn't make it past the crux there. Need to problem solve more
Sat 22nd Apr 2023 - Piatra Craiului
Prăpăstiile Zărneştilor La Refugiu
Top rope	6	★★ Diagonal - with gabriel bazacliu	Sport 25m			Ruxandra V
Tired and a bit off my game after Slabeause. Didn't have guts to lead it, was iffy about following it too but at least I got to the top
Sat 22nd Apr 2023 - Piatra Craiului
Prăpăstiile Zărneştilor Prăpăstii
Sport	5	Memorial Gica Trufasila - with gabriel bazacliu	Sport			Ruxandra V
Tried to play on mobiles with it, didn't really have as many good placements as I thought I would. Ended up doing it as a sport route with 1 shit nut and 1 halfdecent friend
Second	3A	Traseul Începătorilor P1 - with gabriel bazacliu 1 Second lead by gabriel bazacliu	Trad			Ruxandra V
Friable and poorly protected, albeit v easy. Decided it wasn't worth it
Sat 22nd Apr 2023 - Muchia Cheii
Cheile Râşnovului Sector Pintenul Magarului
Trad	5 A0	★★★ Pintenul Măgarului - with gabriel bazacliu	Trad 40m			Ruxandra V
Easy, well protected route (mostly pitons, a few opportunities for slinging horns or hourglasses) with 1 5 UIAA move under the first belay station. Skipped both bolted belays, since I was on 50m halfropes and had a metrick fuckton of alpine draws. The old, far more comfy belay is 2 iffy pitons, but with 1 240cm or 2 120cm slings you can set up a belay on a rock above it and extend it down to the old belay and get minimal rope drag. Nice sunset view from there
Sun 9th Apr 2023 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	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
Sat 1st Apr 2023 - Piatra Craiului
Padina lui Călineţ Văi şi brâne
Alpine	M2	Brâul de Sus - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Hornul N portion, retreated at Saua cu Iarba due to snow conditions
Thu 23rd Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	★★★ Valea Albă - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic		Ruxandra V
Perfect snow, glissaded most of it down (including Saritoarea Carnului, which had a patch of hard snow that nearly gave me a heart attack)
Thu 23rd Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Peretele Albişoarelor
Alpine	M3	★★★ Albişoara Gemenelor - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic		Ruxandra V
Perfect snow up to Braul Hornurilor. Above, boulder problem slightly uncovered (from the red cord piton) and covered with ice on the right. We passed it on full belay (0.5 friend, red tricam, a really iffy blade piton) and simulled up to the final part of the exit chimneys which was again on full belay for me
Sun 19th Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Peretele Albişoarelor
Alpine	M3	Vâlcelul Picăturii - with Gabriel Bazacliu	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Lovely spring mixed conditions: all the jungle is under hard snow, and the major obstacles are uncovered and partially iced up
Alpine	1B	Albişoara Turnurilor - with Gabriel Bazacliu	Alpine			Ruxandra V
On descent. Knee high soft snow, quite stable and a bit moist. Took the top line, on the bottom half the major obstacles are 1m uncovered, right next to the rap stations
Sun 19th Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Vârful şi Creasta Picăturii
Alpine	M4	★★★ Vârful Picătura - with Gabriel Bazacliu	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Part of a whole-ridge attempt we abandoned before Fata Inalta due to iffy snow (v aerated but hard enough to make climbing the rock under it problematic) and a team that wanted to do the last part under star-cross-and-headlight but reasonably speaking shouldn't have tried it that night. Picatura itself is in lovely conditions, decently hard snow and some ice in the chimneys. Approach on Muchia Trandafir is nice and consolidated too, and easily protectable simulclimbing on a 50m rope. On Strungii peak we did about 2.5 pitches on the aforementioned iffy snow, retreated on Albisoara Turnurilor
Sat 18th Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	★★★ Valea Albă	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Walk up to BMC and back. A layer of powder of varying thickness over hard, consolidated snow
Sun 12th Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Peretele Albişoarelor
Alpine	1A	★★ Brâul Hornurilor - with Gabriel Bazacliu	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Somehow the legendarily unprotectable traverse where a slip can peel off the entire team ended up the least sketchy part of the day. We did it like this: simultaneous up until the gendarme (since at least if you fall there the bushes catch you), then we slinged the gendarme with one end of the rope and I went on until finding a patch of hard snow I could at least pretend my Quarks would serve as an anchor in. Then Baza crossed over, reached Albisoara Gemenelor (good, hard snow there) and climbed up a bit to give me a belay for the last portion
Alpine	2A	★★★ Albişoara Gemenelor - with Gabriel Bazacliu	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
On descent from Braul Hornurilor (tagging this as an attempt since the crux of the route in winter conditions is right above Braul Hornurilor). Concrete-hard iced snow, downclimbed the lot of it on belay, without swinging them my tools would often only penetrate if I placed them in my footprints, and the footprints often didn't show any marks for the secondary teeth... Not sure how, but we got to La Verdeata by daylight. Well, dusklight, but you know.
Alpine	2A	★★ Albişoara Hornurilor - with Gabriel Bazacliu	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Polystyrene snow covered by a crust of ice from the rain yesterday. Slippery with a risk of goatfall
Fri 10th Mar 2023 - Morarul
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1B	Valea Adâncă - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Having reached the valley entrance with hours to go, we went back up until 2000m altitude, when the snow got shitty and we got hungry. It's a highway to the ridge basically
Alpine	2A	Râpa Zăpezii - Râpa Mică - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Good snow, only the lower major obstacle was slightly uncovered (bit tricky move there). Crossing over Valea Adanca proved unfeasible due to iffy snow, so we went down the way we came
Thu 9th Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	★★★ Valea Albă - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
On descent. Good snow, a tad sticky.
Thu 9th Mar 2023 - Caraiman
Peretele Albişoarelor
Alpine	2A	★★★ Albişoara Crucii - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Great conditions. Under Braul Hornurilor, perfect snow - hard but not impenetrable. A small chimney was partially uncovered. Above that, snow got bigger and softer, plus lots of polystyrene under slabs, but you could still choose a safe line. Rope only used for the small chimney and an area around it, I feel I could easily have soloed it. And perfect, perfect weather. One of those lines that just flows up like honey in antigravity
Sun 15th Jan 2023 - Piatra Craiului
Valea Ciorânga Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	Vâlcelul cu Smirdar - with Andrei Badea, Radu Hera, etc	Alpine	Average		Ruxandra V
This is when the snow started getting shitty. The bushes are still partially uncovered so we weren't worried of anything big taking off, but we did crack a bunch of windslabs (still too small to slide much). Above Acul de la Amvon, the situation was clearly going to get dangerous on the usual linkup (top of Canionul Cioranga) so we did some careful crossing to Muchia Timbalului Mare (on bushes and a secondary ridge), which was possibly the best part of the climb - a snowy M2 ridge, reasonably exposed at times, we shortroped
Alpine	M3	★★★ Vâlcelul cu Fereastră - with Andrei Badea, Radu Hera, etc	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Short and sweet. 30cm of powder snow over bare rock. Mostly on a single Quark, used 2 on the penultimate obstacle for the slightly overhanging topout.
Sun 8th Jan 2023 - Făgărașului Massif
Sâmbăta Slănina
Alpine	M3	★★★ Muchia Slănina - with Marian Anghel	Alpine 280m	★★★ Classic	Easy 2A	Ruxandra V
Perfect conditions, hard snow on the snowy parts, a bit of ice on the cruxes. Perfect weather. Easy but at times very exposed climbing. We simulled most of it (pitched the two cruxes), which took 3h with a relatively slow second (me, extremely under the weather), starting from the lower saddle. Cruxes might be closer to M4 for a larger climber than I - the chimney was precisely me-sized, and I was small enough to climb between the horns on the go-right-over-3-almost-horizontal-horns bit, rather than have to avoid them on the outside. No fixed pro and mobile opportunities are rare (rock exfoliates easily, most cracks are insecure) so hornslinging is the name of the game. Routefinding pretty obvious - whenever not sure of the line, aim for the most dramatic horns.
Wed 14th Dec 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	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.
Alpine	4	Valea Gălbenelelor - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
We came, we saw, we fucked off. Too much work for an approach route.
Alpine	1A	Brâul Strungii - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Short and sweet, had to do a bit of ballet to avoid wind slabs
Alpine	1B	Secundarul Gălbenelelor - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
On descent. 4 rappels (bolted anchors), downclimbed the last major obstacle (e.g butt-scooted)
Alpine	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.
Sat 10th Dec 2022 - Jepii Mici
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	Brâul Mare al Jepilor	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Retreat from Comorile Branei to Jepii Mici. 10cm wet snow on the northern slopes, clean on the southern ones.
Alpine	M2	Valea Comorile Brânei	Alpine 600m, 1	Average		Ruxandra V
1 major obstacle that is avoidable on the grass face to the right. Didn't feel like trying it directly (it's a 5-6m wide chimney, not that bad) because there were 2 teenage bears following me around very curious and friendly-like and I had just gotten them to back off from 5m away by insulting their mother and demonstratively hitting a rock with my iceaxe, and I didn't want to be stuck in a chimney if they decided to come back in the following minutes.... especially solo. Lots of dead trees make obstacles avoidable in the middle part, and the upper part all works by chimneying, so the Romanian 1A is very fair. Conditions were still summery, discontinuous wet snow near the top, some ice but it was avoidable and it wouldn't hold metal anyway. Mostly used 1 ice axe to be half a meter longer, ended up using 2 for the grass face traverse going around the main obstacle. No crampons.
Tue 6th Dec 2022 - Muchia Cheii
Cheile Râşnovului New Dry-tooling Crag
Top rope	M4	12 - with Marian Anghel	Ice 12m			Ruxandra V
Can do the moves (cool left layback traverse!) and, now that I've figured out that feet exist, could probably do it toprope. Am quite mentally tired after 4 days though, and controlling tiny holds or not blowing feet isn't happening anymore
Top rope	M7	10 - with Marian Anghel	Ice 12m			Ruxandra V
Thought it was the M5 next to it and faffed a bit on the initial overhang
Top rope	M4	2 — 2 attempts - with Marian Anghel	Ice 10m		Hard M4	Ruxandra V
Tried a face only version, to protect my wrist. Feels significantly harder than either the dihedral official entrance or the face part above. Can do the moves, but come out of it pumped out.
Top rope	M3	1 — 2 attempts - with Marian Anghel	Ice 10m			Ruxandra V
Asta merge
Mon 5th Dec 2022 - Muchia Cheii
Cheile Râşnovului New Dry-tooling Crag
Top rope	M5	3 - with Marian Anghel	Ice 10m			Ruxandra V
Cool crack with a sneaky face exit near the top. Really fun (and better feet than the M4 ladder next to it - cooler, more varied moves) but unfortunately I need to work with my right wrist at an angle for most of it, and it's an angle on a messed up tendon. Not going to try it again any time soon.
Top rope	M4	2 — 4 attempts - with Marian Anghel	Ice 10m		Hard M4	Ruxandra V
Baby's first real drytooling experience. Life is significantly easier in the alpine where you do a couple moves between rest and full rest, even if the moves are harder. I have no idea how to make my feet stick well enough to not run out of gas halfway through a 10m route
Sat 3rd Dec 2022 - Morarul
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	★★★ Brâul de Sus - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Southern half, from Sistoaca Acelor to the marked trail. Snow patches
Alpine	1A	Şistoaca Acelor - with Andrei Badea	Alpine		Hard 1A	Ruxandra V
The branch between Acul Crucii and Acul de Sus. 10cm of good,slightly wet snow
Sat 3rd Dec 2022 - Morarul
Colţii Morarului
Alpine	M3	★★★ Traversarea Acelor Morarului P5 - with Andrei Badea 5 Alpine	Trad	★★★ Mega Classic		Ruxandra V
Since we were doing a traverse, we only did Acul Crucii - it has a north aspect, so was the only one in condition. We did the non-direct version. Snowed up cracks and top half of the Needle. Made finding pro quite difficult
Sat 3rd Dec 2022 - Morarul
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	M4	★★★ Râpa Zăpezii - Râpa Mare - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Portion above Braul Acelor. Start of winter mixed conditions, ice formed on some boulders,60cm of semiconsolidated snow. Pitched it entirely, 2 pitches. First was protectable with mobiles (including pitons - not left in plaxe). M3, 50m. Second was a no-gear chimney with a sketchy snowcap exit. Got to place my first cammed tool there. M4, 35m-ish. Not sure I'll be ready to lead stuff like that anytime soon.
Alpine	1A	★★★ Brâul de Sus - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
From the end of Creasta Ascutita to the intersection with Rapa Mare. Knee deep snow, not consolidated
Alpine	1A	Brâna Mare a Morarului - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
Slight snowy patches, mostly dry
Sat 26th Nov 2022 - Bucşoiul
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	★★★ Creasta Balaurului - with edy	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic		Ruxandra V
On descent. Windblown snow. Blizzard and whiteout for the first part, then the fog broke and got sunflooded. Just what I had hoped to see - glad my partner could be persuaded to switch the initial plans. This had been my first alpine ridge ages ago...
Alpine	M4	★★★ Valea Bucşoiului - with edy	Alpine	★★★ Classic	Easy 1B	Ruxandra V
Mixed climbing conditions up until Turnul cu Jnepeni, snow above (all major obstacles buried except the Window, which is 1m above snow). Wind slabs in formation, currently soft and collapse locally with no propagation, but unlikely this will last long. Roped up (second) for obstacles 1 and 3, soloed the rest
Sat 19th Nov 2022 - Muchia Cheii
Cheile Râşnovului Sector Creasta Generalului
Sport	5	Iris - with Marian Anghel	Sport			Ruxandra V
Easy dihedral with good holds, with a grassy face exit
Top rope	6+	★★★ Crida — 2 attempts - with Marian Anghel	Sport 22m	★★★ Classic	Hard 6+	Ruxandra V
One of those classical limestone face 6 UIAAs on jugs but with the jugs sparse enough that you need to do some long moves. Some footsmears are useful, and at 2 points life gets positively balancy. Have figured out the moves more or less, can't yet connect them
Top rope	5	★★★ Cezar Manea P1 - with Marian Anghel 1 5 Top rope	Trad	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Balancy, easy crack, lots of natural threads so bring slings if you're leading it
Second	4	★★★ Creasta Generalului - with Marian Anghel 1 4 Second lead by Marian Anghel 2 4 Second lead by Marian Anghel 3 3 60 Second lead by Marian Anghel 4 2 15 Second lead by Marian Anghel	Trad 75m		Suggested grade 4 A0	Ruxandra V
Alternate first 2 pitches
Sun 13th Nov 2022 - Muchia Cheii
Bolovanul Prostului
Top rope	5+	Traseu de Iniţiere - with Andrei Badea	Sport 10m		Suggested grade 5	Ruxandra V
Rope rescue class
Sun 16th Oct 2022 - Piatra Craiului
Poiana Închisă Văi și brâne
Alpine	1B	Brâul de Sus - with Andrei Badea	Alpine		1B	Ruxandra V
Partial, from Umerii Pietrei Craiului to La Lanturi
Sun 16th Oct 2022 - Piatra Craiului
Vâlcelul Căldării Ocolite Văi și brâne
Alpine	1A	★★★ Brâul de Mijloc - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★★ Classic	Hard 1A	Ruxandra V
On descent - one of my first real encounters with Piatra Craiului scree. Honestly got pretty scared a few times. 1 short rappel to avoid a 3 UIAA downclimb (had an iffy knee at this point, and wasn't super confident anymore)
Sun 16th Oct 2022 - Piatra Craiului
Valea Vlăduşca - Vâlcelul Căldării Ocolite Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	Traseul Anghelide - with Andrei Badea	Alpine			Ruxandra V
On descent from Braul de Mijloc
Sun 16th Oct 2022 - Piatra Craiului
Poiana Închisă Umărul de Jos
Alpine	3+	★★ Umerii Pietrei Craiului - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Rope never left the backpack, did the route in less than 2h with plenty of time for sunbathing. We avoided the initial '&&(%^$%^$%' chimney on the right, and the rest of it was either not exposed or very very easy
Sat 15th Oct 2022 - Jepii Mici
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	2	Brâul Mare al Jepilor - with friends	Alpine			Ruxandra V
First time leading it - fixed a rope across a more exposed 2 UIAA step for my newbie friends, other than that a cakewalk.
Fri 14th Oct 2022 - Piatra Craiului
Padina lui Călineţ Padina lui Călineţ
Second	5	★★ Creasta Frumoasă - with Andrei Badea 1 4 40 Second lead by Andrei Badea We found an extra peg on the right, 2m above the start (not the one on the left that makes your ropes drag). First time on Piatra Craiului limestone, long and balancy moves for the grade, I feel. Utterly lovely. Would have liked a sling around the horn at the chimney exit since the move is unprotected for the second (there's a piton under it for the leader) and falling on it means a 5m pendulum, but there comes a point in a woman's life when she needs to accept that she doesn't fall on 4 UIAA moves on dry sturdy rock in perfect conditions. There's an argument to be had against slinging that horn since it'd need a pretty long sling not to introduce some rather gnarly rope drag (we didn't have anything longer than 120cm, and not many of those either), I think a good compromise would be slinging it but not clipping the rope in it on lead, so when the second reaches the Move they can clip into it beforehand and remove it 15 seconds later - voila, no drag! 2 5 40 Second lead by Andrei Badea Meat of the route, two cracks with good holds and long and balancy moves - such a different style than my native Bicaz, I feel. Crux is supposedly on the first, pitoned-out crack (a balancy snaky layback on a stuck flake to reach from 1 set of good footholds to another set of good footholds) but I felt the move on the no-fixed-gear second crux was harder - think there's better beta than the balance-on-one-high-foot-and-reach-up thing I did though. We used a bunch of small friends (BD 0.4 to 1) and slings for pro 3 2 45 Second lead by Andrei Badea From here on up it's an easy scramble on the ridge, with little pro possibility (sling the occasional bullshit, but life's pretty friable here) but on super easy terrain. Belay when you find a good rock. 4 4- 55 Second lead by Andrei Badea Most of it is more UIAA 1 easy scrambling, with a small chimney at the end (easy, obvious moves)	Trad 180m	★★★ Classic		Ruxandra V
Crux of the route was a boulder problem on the approach, which we found dripping wet, with moving boulders on the top-out (would have been great holds otherwise, this way I had to chimney it). Also, our initial anchor was a pretty crap boulder. Above that on the actual ridge, the rock was dry and lovely. Gear used: small friends, 6 alpine draws, 4 120cm slings
Mon 3rd Oct 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	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
Alpine	1A	★★★ Brâna Mare a Coştilei - with edy, dorin vraja	Alpine	★★★ Mega Classic		Ruxandra V
From Creasta Malinului to Valea Priponului
Alpine	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
Trad	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
Alpine	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
Alpine	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.
Alpine	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
Second	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
Alpine	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 Gălbenelelor
Trad	6 A1	★★ 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	Suggested grade 6+	Ruxandra V
Sun 11th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	1A	★ Valea Scoruşilor - with andrei badea	Alpine	★ Good	1A	Ruxandra V
Above Strunga Galbinele, to Brana Mare a Costilei
Alpine	4	Valea Gălbenelelor - 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 - Caraiman
Peretele Albişoarelor
Alpine	1A	★★ Brâul Văii Albe - with andrei badea	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Easy walk
Sat 10th Sep 2022 - Coștila
Văi şi brâne
Alpine	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
Alpine	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)
Alpine	1A	★ Valea Scoruşilor - with edy	Alpine	★ Good	1A	Ruxandra V
Pleasant walk from Strunga Galbinele to Braul Mare al Costilei
Alpine	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 Gălbenelelor
Trad	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
Fri 19th Aug 2022 - Făgărașului Massif
Arpășel
Alpine	1B	★★ Creasta Vârtopelului - with Andrei Badea	Alpine	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Shortrope on lovely weather
Trad	5	★★ Creasta Arpășelului (V-E) - with Andrei Badea 1 4 lead by Andrei Badea 2 5 lead by Andrei Badea 3 3 lead by Andrei Badea 4 4 lead by Andrei Badea	Mixed trad 18	★★ Very Good		Ruxandra V
Relatively good pro, with the exception of a slightly spicy diedre on p2.
Fri 19th Aug 2022 - Muchia Cheii
Cheile Râşnovului Sector Creasta Generalului
Sport	6+	★★★ Crida	Sport 22m	★★★ Mega Classic		Pal Andras
Wed 17th Aug 2022 - Pârâul Rece
Faleza Mare
Sport	6+	★★ Nea Caisă	Sport 20m			Rihards Zauls
Sport	6	★★ Clasic	Sport 37m			Rihards Zauls
Sport	6+	★★ Nea Caisă - with Rihards Zauls	Sport 20m	★★ Very Good		Hermanis Verhoustinskis
First clip a bit high and spacing on bolts a bit scary for beginners. But all around good climb just find the rests.
Sport	6+	★★ Nea Caisă - with Daniels	Sport 20m	★★ Very Good		Rūta
Sport	6	★★ Ţancul Retezat - with Rihards Zauls	Sport 20m	★★ Very Good		Hermanis Verhoustinskis
On-sight it is not very clear where the intended bolts are and if they are so far in-between. Commitment to the bulge is too much.
Sport	6	★★ Clasic	Sport 37m	★★ Very Good		Hermanis Verhoustinskis

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