攀登 in 罗马尼亚 as Tick 或 First ascent

Repeat (all free)

Up to the belay above Grota, then we rapped into Grota to maybe do the Tunnel pitch before realizing we weren't in the mood any longer. Thanks to whoever helped us with the rope pull

On descent. Some minor avalanches going on in the upper caldera (above the entrance point from Bucsoi), then reasonably uninterrupted good snow down to a bit above the canyon upper end, where I took off my crampons and descended on dry paths to the bottom. Got super lost for a while on the valley exit (fresh, springtime vegetation) and while this is pretty normal for me the group behind me got super lost too, so I dub the "estuary" below the intersection with Rapa Zapezii the Morarului triangle

Perfect snow, little cracking, all obstacles covered. 10-15cm fresh snow above 2200 or so, but really stable. Should be in conditions for another month lol.

At above 2000m, right above Turnul cu Jnepeni, there's a far steeper bifurcation to the right I took for a hundred meters or so. Really cool chimney with two chockstones, and a still-barely-continuous snow ridge in it that led to some pretty fun mixed climbing. above the chockstones the snow disappeared and it all looked quite gravelly and bushy so I downclimbed back to the main line. Pretty sure this is the entrance to Valcelul de sub Varf, but need to read up more on it.

Snow, good. Traces of major rockfall at 1900, with microwave-sized boulders still flying around, not good. Our initial plan had been Albisoara Rasucita, but between that and there being less snow than we hoped for....nah.

Primu' sesar

All belay stations (now ~30m apart) were upgraded to bolted anchors.

Amazing conditions, perfect snow and just the right amount of drytooling

Three years from the mountaineering class that started everything. The most "wow" thing there, for me, had been toproping a frosty boulder and ....can't believe I'm here now, rather than in five years' time. Granted, it helps that this is the babies' route, with bolted belays and everything, rather than the "leader must not fall, second must not fall either" style of the rest of the wall.

Conditions aren't really optimal btw,hard friable ice. P1 has enough of it, and P5 has bonus ice up to the first bolt, but the crux of P4 is hollow-sounding in points and a bit too thin to protect properly even with short screws.

Descent in 4 raps (we united p2 and 3). Watch out for the p3 rappel, it's easy to get your ropes stuck in grass

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

Good snow, all covered

Good snow up to Saritoarea Mare, snow deposits and some windslab above. Most obstacles partially uncovered. We roped up for the last big obstacle (my head not in it that day) and descended the way since climbing nontechnical terrain on shit snow in high winds didn't sound fun

Worst approach-to-technical terrain ratio ever. 2 very short pitches, at most M2, on friable bullshit that the new bolts improve but can't fix, and you do about 1500m altitude diff on trail and grass face for it. The company was lovely though, and at least it was good cardio, am not feeling v peaky these days

On descent, horribly loose avalanche boulders under the Blid

Almost no snow

Good snow up to the Amphitheater, almost none after. Obstacles covered in the lower side, above we had a fun lil bit of drytooling, and an ice chimney that unfortunately mostly had ice on the exit

Love.

My first winter lead (as opposed to winter gully solos, which are far lower responsibility). 4/5 avalanche risk (thankfully the wind that had created it had blown mostly westwards) so we kept to the rock more than the first documented ascent, which avoids the notch on the last portion of the ridge by a gully on the left... which we avoided since we wanted to not be found in early summertime with flowers growing out of our mouths, and took the ridge proper except for one sketchy downclimb and snow ledge traverse when the ridge got committing enough that I wasn't sure I could downclimb back if it turned out the V notch wasn't easily downclimbable/rappellable. Well, I say sketchy, but it was easy secure and protectable M2, it was just that I wouldn't have setup a 8m downclimb for a beginner second if I could have helped it without getting in worse trouble.

It was all easy terrain, somehow you could find a M3 version of anything as long as you were willing to accept the zigzags and the runouts. Mostly shortpitched, with a bit of shortrope on the snow bits and full belay on the last portion of the ridge where shit gets weird, Lots of rime, 30cm long blades in many places, could play havoc with your rope if you weren't careful. Dull Sarkens far better than sharp Darts for this sort of terrain since they stick well in such shit. And such an adventure, the easy rock and good weather made doable a lot of alpine fuckery. Classical Fagaras schist pro only for babies like me

I'll think about this climb for a long time. All I knew was the grade, a line drawn in Paint on a picture of Vaiuga west face, and one of my guide friends saying I could handle it on lead. He was right.

Love.

Horribly aerated snow up to Saritoarea Mare. Some sort of unholy marshmallow consistency. Nasty rimaye next to the first obstacle

Lovely walk on perfect snow. Rock obstacles barely uncovered, easily downclimbable

Full start-of-season mixed conditions: wet in the lower third, snowed up in the middle third (I put on my crampons before the second window, later than would have been best), some ice in the upper third (2-3cm thick, easily separable from the rock below, we had some warm days before this). Made for easy but surprisingly cool climbing, esp somewhere in the middle where Baza decided against the classical, pitoned up traverse solution, free soloed some M4 mostly direct, then since I was on toprope and the M4 thing looked a)swingy and b) built for tall people I tried an overhanging direttisima version, maybe M5? There's a really bouldery fit-in-a-tight-box-and-then-do-a-long-move-over-the-overhang bit. Loved it.

20-30cm powder. Snowfall looking lovely in our headlights

A completely different fucking experience in unconsolidated winter snow. Our initial plan had been climbier, but blizzard conditions meant we decided to stick to easy alpine. Was ... not super easy. Also managed to take a tumble into the bushes near the bivy spot, lol. As the poem says, "agatat in vid de-un jneapan" XD

Did the bit from Scara de Fier to Amfiteatrul Coltilor Gemeni. Small detour on what was probably a portion of Braul cu Scorusi (we saw a mouse!) .Wanted to do the median portion of Valea Podurilor, but the entrance traverse would have been too sketchy (and impossible to protect) in the current conditions. Having nothing better to do, we tried to see if you can get from the lower saddle of ACG to the upper one on the ridge rather than by descending and ascending. You can, it's 1 40m pitch of M2 with marginal pro opportunities (climbing the "fang" itself is sketchy AF due to super chossy rock and the aforementioned shit pro, but there's a ledge to be taken left after the initial chimney) and 1 rap down off a tree near the ledge (red cordelette now on it)

On descent. Alpine rope technique class. 10-20cm snow

Alpine rope technique class. Straight up unti the traverse to Anghelide canyon, rather than taking any of the right chimneys.

Up to the Portita. Beachtime, and vibing away with the mountain goats.