A day high in the mountains although snow prevented me from reaching the Koziakas Refuge, and forced me onto an alternate route.
Having survived the night without a bear attack I headed off up the track, which was awash with water from melting snow higher up. Foolishly, I thought the Koziakas refuge was an hour or so from where I camped, and indeed it was not that far away in a straight line, however the straight line route involved a very steep climb up a path I could not find among the trees and undergrowth. Instead I followed a dirt track that wound around the mountain, switching back and fore up the steepest bits. The climb was still an effort and there were several fallen trees across the road. Above around 1500 metres I was wading through snow drifts following occasional bear prints. I saw no bears but frightened a few deer.
By the time I approached the refuge the path was covered with snow, locally several feet thick. In addition it ran along a steep slope and I risked injury if I slipped down it. As the snow on these higher steep slopes was so hard, my boots made little impression even when I kicked into the snow. With crampons and an ice axe it would have been easy, as I had neither at a particularly steep and hard area of snow above a possible cliff I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and turned back maybe a 100 metres from the refuge (I was not sure of the exact distance as the maps I had gave slightly different positions for the refuge). Google Earth showed there was a clear track under the snow and a few weeks later I am sure I would have made it. As it was I followed a back up route from Spazieren.de which took me down a path through the fir trees to a road. Most of it was well marked with a variety of waymarks including many stuck up in 2018 by the mountain association. The downside was that I had to walk along several kilometres of two lane road to reach the village of Elati. It appeared much favoured by people on motorbikes, leaning into the bends.
Elati is very much geared towards tourists with many tavernas, hotels, gift shops with carved walking sticks and stalls selling honey (although with few tourists around to buy it).
I am comfortably installed in the Hotel Kroupi, glad of a shower, a view of the mountains from my bedroom window.
Later in the evening I met George, a local hiker and his friend, in a nearby cafe. He gave me advice on the condition of the tracks I will be following in the next few days. They didn't sound too difficult...
21.4 km today excluding my attempt to reach the refuge, and an ascent of 930 metres.
A GPX file of my track can be downloaded from wikiloc.com or you can download my route onto your smartphone from myviewranger.com code johnpon0041.
Having survived the night without a bear attack I headed off up the track, which was awash with water from melting snow higher up. Foolishly, I thought the Koziakas refuge was an hour or so from where I camped, and indeed it was not that far away in a straight line, however the straight line route involved a very steep climb up a path I could not find among the trees and undergrowth. Instead I followed a dirt track that wound around the mountain, switching back and fore up the steepest bits. The climb was still an effort and there were several fallen trees across the road. Above around 1500 metres I was wading through snow drifts following occasional bear prints. I saw no bears but frightened a few deer.
By the time I approached the refuge the path was covered with snow, locally several feet thick. In addition it ran along a steep slope and I risked injury if I slipped down it. As the snow on these higher steep slopes was so hard, my boots made little impression even when I kicked into the snow. With crampons and an ice axe it would have been easy, as I had neither at a particularly steep and hard area of snow above a possible cliff I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and turned back maybe a 100 metres from the refuge (I was not sure of the exact distance as the maps I had gave slightly different positions for the refuge). Google Earth showed there was a clear track under the snow and a few weeks later I am sure I would have made it. As it was I followed a back up route from Spazieren.de which took me down a path through the fir trees to a road. Most of it was well marked with a variety of waymarks including many stuck up in 2018 by the mountain association. The downside was that I had to walk along several kilometres of two lane road to reach the village of Elati. It appeared much favoured by people on motorbikes, leaning into the bends.
Elati is very much geared towards tourists with many tavernas, hotels, gift shops with carved walking sticks and stalls selling honey (although with few tourists around to buy it).
I am comfortably installed in the Hotel Kroupi, glad of a shower, a view of the mountains from my bedroom window.
Later in the evening I met George, a local hiker and his friend, in a nearby cafe. He gave me advice on the condition of the tracks I will be following in the next few days. They didn't sound too difficult...
21.4 km today excluding my attempt to reach the refuge, and an ascent of 930 metres.
A GPX file of my track can be downloaded from wikiloc.com or you can download my route onto your smartphone from myviewranger.com code johnpon0041.
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| Snow close to the point at which I gave up my attempt at reaching the Refuge |
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| View towards Elati |
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