Ski Touring into the Wilderness

There is plenty of snow on the mountains this winter so I was waiting for ideal conditions for a long distance ski touring. The beginning of February started with very warm weather that made the snowy mountain slopes too dangerous, prone to avalanches. Then, towards the middle of the month the weather got cold again so the snow on the mountain slopes froze and stabilized. It snowed again, but not too much to be dangerous. After a few very cold days the weather got warmer, just perfect for some long tours on skis!

We headed south-east from Brasov, to the Bend of the Carpathians. These mountains are not very high (just few peaks rise above 1900 m) and they have mostly gentle slopes. So the danger of avalanches is low. Moreover, the last snow fall came with high winds that swept most of the fresh snow down in the valleys and the forest below. The heights were covered in the old frozen crust that is ideal for moving quickly across the landscape. On the valleys and in the forest there was a thick powder cover... a skier's dream!

Here are photos from the two long ski tours I did with friends. Some of the mountains we crossed are very wild in winter. We met nobody for most of the time. In the most remote area, there was a stretch of more than 15 km with absolutely no other tracks. Not a single trace of human activity, even on the old frozen snow crust! This remoteness means that such tours need good preparation and good snow and weather conditions. Ski touring is perhaps the only way to visit this places in winter.

A Full Month of Winter!

The winters in the last decades became more and more unpredictable in my hometown. Sadly, I know the same phenomenon is observed in many places all over our planet. The snow and the glaciers are a very good indicator of the climate evolution. After the climate and weather scientists, snow sports enthusiasts are among the first to notice the gradual warming of our winters.

View from Postavarul Mountain, January 2019

Take for example my hometown, Brasov: latitude 45 N, altitude 600 m, far from the oceans, surrounded by mountains. Here the winter used to last for more than three months, with practically uninterrupted snow cover. We did not know what rain was during the winter, except cases when a snow fall would start with rain and then quickly transform into snow. In the last 20 years it all changed. The winter is a roller-coaster. Cold weather alternating with really warm weather. Days with temperatures of +10C, +15C are not uncommon nowadays and can occur any winter month! The days with temperatures below -20C are quire rare and maybe nonexistent during some years... The record low in Romania was recorded n 1945 near Brasov: -38.5C.

The pattern of the winters in Brasov used to be like this:

• November is cold... preparation for winter
• December, January, February: Snowy winter. Occasionally warmer, but the snow would stay until March
• March.. often like a winter month with some sunny and warm days here and there
• April. The springtime starts to win over the winter

The pattern of the winters in the last two decades is like this:

• November feels more like early October, with frequent Indian Summer periods
• December can be warm and snow-less until around Christmas when it becomes colder
• January seems to be the coldest month, the one tat resembles winter most, but warm days are always possible
• February is unpredictable. Some weeks can feel like an early springtime
• March and April are totally unpredictable. Warm weather alternates with short cold spells with big snow dumps on the mountains
• Around Easter time, towards the end of April, beginning of May the weather changes suddenly from cold to almost summer

So It was a pleasant surprise the fact that from the end of December until the end of January we had uninterrupted winter! Well, maybe not quite in the city, but above 700-800 m it was real winter! Mostly below 0C temperatures and frequent snowfalls. For one week it got quite cold, around -15C and lower. But  February started with two weeks of warm weather and all snow below 1300m altitude melted... Colder weather and fresh snow is expected from this night though...

On Postavarul Peak during the coldest day of the winter: Saturday, 5 Jan, 2019

So while many were complaining that the weather is cold... it seems that most people are not used anymore with proper winter weather and clothes... we went out and made most of the abundant snow and crispy cold weather. Skiing is a great way to enjoy the winter and great cross-training exercise for runners.

Here are a few photos taken during these four weeks of winter.