This article is all about the saying that the best times come when you least expect it!
It’s already a given that this winter season in Europe has been very tough on us, skiers, splitters, snowshoers, you name it…
You see, there is no better feeling, when winter arrives and good ole’ H20 starts acting up (molecularly OFC) and turns into snow.
Chasing those forecasts early in the season and eyeing up a couple days of generous snowfall, in the hope of finding that blissful pow stash, is just like waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Even though this year hasn’t had a lot of those yet, in the spirit of Eastern-Europe, we marched on and hoped for the best. And hallelujah, our prayers were finally heard!
Our plan was mostly to scout out some areas in the Bucegi Mtn. Range, hoping we might find a few decent spots to ride.
With a really good weather forecast, although really warm for this period, we hopped in our car and drove to Pestera. This spot makes for a very good backcountry home base, situated right in the heart of the beautiful Bucegi Mountains.
Once we reached the cabin, right next to Baba Mare peak, our grins were up to our ears.
This small chimney like feature that went all the way down to Sugari valley seemed to have some beautiful snow, quite different than everything we’ve seen until then. After a very quick transition we just went for it.
A full foot of fun, sugary, light snow on top of a pretty firm base ment the best turns of the season until then. Since the area is pretty much untouched, and very diverse topographically, a constant assessment of the terrain is a must.
After, maybe 10 minutes of really fun turns + eyeing out some sneaky little terrain traps, we reached Sugari valley, in the most beautiful blue bird sky one could hope for.
Needless to say we were keen to give it at least another go so we rode all the way down to Pestera cable car.
That’s when we realised the jackpot we hit that day. Not only that the snowpack was super shallow on very other side of the mountain but it also looked like very heavy, wet snow.
Round 2 - Babele
Back up to Babele, skinned up to our initial spot and started brainstorming some alternatives, no point in going in the backcountry without exploring a little bit.
Very close to our previous line, on a much wider slope, we, surprisingly, found snow just as nice as before.
Because of the smoother, larger face, with little to any terrain traps, we just shredded all the way down, making it as flowy as humanly possible!
At the bottom we turned our skies and splitboards upside down and had a downright feast. Snacks, sandwiches, cookies, hard liqueur in a tooth-paste like tube (don’t ask…), nothing was sparred.
Our gigantic intake of calories proved essential since it was past 3 pm and there was no point in riding to the cable car again because it was closed by then.
So we finally reached our actual skinning/physical effort portion of our story.
Round 3
Since it really was winter, although it felt like spring, we decided that our max time before we’d turn around would be 4:30 pm. With that in mind, we eyed up this beautiful, technical looking line that led to this spicy little couloir, right on the left side of our 1st descent.
Heea led the group with great ease through the tricky terrain.
The thing about going uphill 1st is that, one, you have to break tracks, which means significantly more effort than following afterwards. And secondly, you have to have a keen eye for the way the slope flows and figure out which is the safest and, also, easiest way up.
To our surprise, after just 75 minutes we got to our last transition of the day. Off we went, through this narrow and short couloir BUT packing the deepest snow of the day!
Then it was a real feat of reading out the slope, that took the efforts of all three, to find the best and safest line down. A few nice jumps, some lovely flowy turns through everything from small gullies, bushes and pillows and back we were, to our homebase for the day.
After some well deserved selfies and a dozen very excited fist bumps (hugs also happened) it was time to ride back to Pestera.
To top off this rad 1st season pow stash infused blue bird day, we rode all the way down to the car with the most beautiful pinkish, fiery, sunset known to man!
Get in touch with us for more info about our Massif range of tours.
