Bucegi Mountains

Before leaving Romania I was able to revisit the Bucegi Mountains. The main road, and railway, connecting Brasov to Bucharest passes right next to the these mountains. I had often seen them when taking the train through this region. Along these valleys, are many small towns and cities, like Sinaia, where I had spent Christmas. Another town was Busteni. It is further North of Sinaia but still adjacent to the mountains. It has a cable car that connects the village to the mountain peaks, but these peaks are different, as they are more like a large alpine plateau rather than the pointy narrow summits I had seen so far in Romania.

Busteni

I walked along the main street of the town of Busteni. This picture was taken from a pedestrian access bridge I used to cross the road. The Bucegi Mountains soared in the background.

To get to the cable car I had to divert from the main road to get closer to the mountains. If you zoom in on the mountain top to the right, just peaking above the clouds, you can see a giant cross (although tiny in the image). This cross is the symbol of the Bucegi mountains and it is on the plateau behind that cross where I would be walking.

I took this picture not long after boarding the cable car. You can still see the village terminal of the cable car in the image. Beyond extends the valley and the town of Busteni.

The slope of the mountain here was so incredibly steep! Large portions of it were sheer cliff faces. The towers for the cable car line didn't need to be very tall as they could be built on outcrops of the mountain, so the slope in large part provided the height from which to suspend the cables. On the steepest part there was a huge distance between towers as the majority of the movement was vertical rather than horizontal.

I had to mostly take these pictures with a vertical frame as nothing else could capture the sheer vertical nature of the views. Also you may notice some glare in these pictures, I took these on my phone looking through the cable car windows.

The last tower before the plateau. After the incredibly steep ascent, it was almost jarring to then arrive to an area that was, relatively speaking, quite flat. From this image you can get a sense just how the cable car line drops of at the end of the plateau.

Bucegi

The cable car continued along the plateau for a few hundred meters before arriving at a station. I had been told about a safe path I could follow from the station to explore the surrounding area, and it was marked by a red cross. This path heads back towards the edge of the plateau, following the contours and staying higher up the slope, and would eventually reach the giant cross (that I had seen from the valley floor) where I was told I could get some amazing views.

The area where I hiked was open and covered in pristine snow. As I walked on the trail I had a good view over the plateau and the cable car line. I couldn't stop myself from taking pictures all along the pathway. There was almost always a good perspective and I simply had to capture it, soon I was walking with my camera around my neck, ready for quick access. These two pictures where taken on that first part of the journey, both looking towards the cable car line and the point where the plateau ends and the cliffs begin. They were taken at different points, and you can see how the perspective changed along the hike. I absolutely loved it.

As I mentioned before, the snow here was completely pristine, absolutely perfect. It was so beautiful that in this image I tried to capture the perfect snow. With the sun shining as it was the snow glittered and I felt like I was walking on a field of a million diamonds. The landscaped seemed to be a beautiful treasure that shined and glimmered, revealing its wealth only with the advent of the sun. Unfortunately, this is something that you can only experience as my camera could not capture this beauty.

As I walked higher up the slope, I had a wonderful view of the mountain plateau. I absolutely loved this view. These snow covered, rolling hills, reminded me of the Australian alps, and for a moment I was transported home. Then there was the clouds, a sea of clouds stretched forth beyond the plateau. The way the white of snow gives way to the white of the clouds, it made me feel like I was in a different world, a kingdom in the sky. Looking over this view I could not always tell where the mountains ended and the clouds began. So beautiful was this scene that I stopped many times to admire it.

I took these picture looking forward on the path I was walking. While at the start there were many footprints on the way, here there were hardly any. I employed my rudimentary tracking skills to figure out who had gone before me. I noticed that there was a light dusting of fresh snow that must have been laid overnight, so any footprint I inspected that had this fresh snow was at least a day old. As best I could tell, maybe two people had walked forward the first kilometer or so that day, and then further there was only one set of footprints that looked fresh enough to have been made on this day, and they were going back, the opposite direction to me. I truly had the mountain to myself, and I wouldn't see anyone else until I returned closer to the cable car station.

Here I had a good view of the plateau edge. I found it amazing just how sharp the rolling hills of the plateau turns into steep mountain cliffs that descends to a valley far below. It's almost as if the landscape was carved up with a giant knife. I love this image for the contrast between the high mountain plain on the right, with the low valley on the left, separated by the cliffs, but united by the clouds on the horizon.

This is one of the best views I had of the valley, with mountains continuing on the other side. The town you can see in the valley is Busteni. As I watched, the wisps of cloud pictured above kept rising and dissipating, with new clouds forming to replace the old.

From here, I had a view of the giant cross that I saw back in Busteni. There are trails that continue down to the cross, so it is possible to walk there, but this was the closest I came. Where I was standing was at the top of a steeper section, that was all covered in perfect undisturbed snow. I couldn't find any footprints to indicate where the safe route was, and the slope angled away from me such that I couldn't see it well. I didn't want to risk climbing or sliding down a snowy incline that then I wouldn't be able to climb back up again. I was running low on time anyway and knew I needed to go back soon.

I looked out over this view for ten minutes or so. The cloud next to the cross was constantly rising, deforming, disappearing and reappearing as the wind blew against the mountains. I felt so blessed to be out here on this beautiful day, experiencing God's nature, I spent the time in silent contemplation and prayer.

I went back towards the cable car by a different route that had views looking to the other side of the mountain. These pictures are of the view looking north, showing the cliffs, and mountain peak there. The views I have previously shown were all mostly looking south. If I had had a full day to explore these mountains I would have loved to hike all the way to that tower, but today I would content myself with seeing it.

Not far from my view of the cross I was able to walk by Caraiman Peak, which on this mountain was more like a rounded hill. These pictures were taken there looking back south towards the main mountain plateau. Again, I was so awestruck by the scenery around me, especially how here I was level with the clouds that extended beyond the mountains. In these images, but especially the second one, you can see, just a little bit, how the snow glimmered in the sun, truly a treasure for the eyes.

Now we come to perhaps my favourite picture from the day. As I was walking back towards the main plateau this low hanging cloud glided slowly over the scene. It changed the lighting and dynamic of the view and I had to capture it, preserving in a small part the beauty of this scene.

As I walked, I realised that the path I was on did not loop back to the cable car terminal the way I thought. The trail made a big detour out towards the cross, but then would continue going north. From here I wasn't too far from where I had walked previously, and I could see where I needed to go (the building in the second image) but there was no dedicated trail. As I was low on time I decided to risk going cross country. Thankfully I always had a clear view of my destination and, with the help of the GPS on my phone, I took the direct shortcut back to the trail I had started on.

While walking off the trail, I had some beautiful views of of perfectly undisturbed snow.

Back near the cable car station, I made a quick detour to this rock formation, called the sphinx. This is one of the big attractions of the Bucegi mountains and apparently from a certain angle this rock is meant to look like a sphinx, although I couldn't see it. There were other rock formations in this area and it wasn't too far from the cable car, so there were more people.

This rock formation was really cool, and I was able to capture it as the foreground to a much large scene. This view is looking west, towards an inner valley of the Bucegi mountains and it was one of the last pictures I took before taking the cable car back to Busteni.

I was running late for my train so I rushed back to the station, only to find out that the train was delayed by 50 minutes. I did this hike on a work day so I pulled out my laptop and continued working while I waited. To fit everything in, I had woken up really early to work a few hours before catching the train, I worked on the train, and then I worked on the return train journey and most of the evening back at the apartment. I didn't finish work until quite late, but it was most definitely worth it to be able to explore the Bucegi mountains, especially on a week day when there were no crowds.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 10th of March 2024

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