Category: expert
A tour that was in the planning for quite some time now finally happened on a perfect weather weekend of October 2019: the trails around Cabana Bârcaciu in Făgăraș, The Carpathian Mountains. We are usual guests at Cabana Bârcaciu, we go there often for our hiking, trekking, ski touring trips (more at www.mountainguide.ro). With bikes it is more difficult, as it is located at some distance from our home trails around Brasov city - which are pretty abundant. And it is strategically located at the end of a 5 km…
Alex is a student in Cluj, just about to finish his medical studies. A keen mountain biker, he thought of a short bike trip in the Romanian mountains for him, his dad Martin and his cousin Christian, trying to discover what gems lay hidden in this corner of Europe. For the first day of their adventure they went to the Sinaia bike park, concentrating on clearing various jumps and gaps. For the next three days they wanted some wild, natural trails, so they called us to design a suitable program.…
In a very busy summer schedule we are now and then able to squeeze in a short tour that is part exploration, and part photo and video shooting opportunity. This July we went for a loop in the West side of the Bucegi Mountains for a true joy ride up and down the Strunga Pass. The Strunga Pass descent is one of the highlights of what Romania has to offer in terms of pure, natural trails that can be ridden on a mountain bike. What makes it special is a…
You don't see very often people from New Zealand travelling half the world to visit Romania. Sam had a special reason: his daughter was competing in the NZ team at the Junior World Kayak Championships near the city of Pitești. As a keen mountain biker, he thought he might squeeze in a few days of riding on our local trails before watching the competition. So he wrote us an email. The rest was, as they say, history: we got for Sam a good rental bike, designed a four days route…
On his home back to Switzerland from a ten-days mtb trip in Georgia, Manuel thought he me might be able to squeeze in a few more days of mountain biking. The Romanian Carpathian Mountains were among the options, so he wrote us an email. We were quick to answer, he was equally quick in confirming, so August found us riding together the trails of Postavaru, Piatra Craiului and Bucegi Mountains. Here is a video edit of the last two days, sampling the great variety of natural trails our mountains are…
April is usually one of the best months for riding our local trails. It might sound surprising, so let me explain. The trails are really quiet: not many hikers, not many bikers, as people are still kept indoors by the not-really-gone winter. The temperatures are close to ideal for biking: not too cold, not too warm. The trails are pretty dry, as the trees and the plants are sucking all the moisture from the ground to fuel to soon-to-come explosion of green. Visibility is quite good inside the forest, without…
We've selected the most challenging bits from our traditional programs (Bucegi Circuit, Transylvanian Alps). We've added some extra gnarly trails close to some cable cars. Eliminated the parts where access was simply too difficult. The result is what we consider a nicely balanced, physically demanding but not overwhelming, technically testing but not overkill, pure mountain biking adventure: The Carpat MTB Enduro program. A group of joyful German mountain bikers had the pleasure and the honour of helping us launch this ship to the heavy seas, and in style they did!…
This season we tested extensively the papanași* as a genuine Romanian sports nutrition supplement. They worked wonders before, during and after intense mountain biking riding :). (Hey, some may argue the papanași are a very good substitute for sports itself, but we definitely wouldn't go as far). And what better endurance test than the Transylvanian Alps tour? Intensive climbs, technical descents, single trails riding up and down from 800 to 2500 m altitudes, through forests, pastures, deep into the mountain gorges or on the mountain crests. Plenty of carbohydrates, sugars,…
Our Transylvanian Alps tour is quite a tough nut to crack. Six days of intensive single trail mountain biking, with demanding uphills and descents. The majority of our guests tend to underestimate the level of difficulty, judging the mountains on pure altitude terms. Not the Swedes. Maybe they have a special thing for endurance, with their long and cold winters. Or maybe we were just lucky, being visited only by Swedish bikers able and willing to tame the most demanding mountain trails. Viktor, Martin, Rickard and Elias chose Romania for…
My German language skills are quite limited, especially if the Austrian accent is also involved. However, sometimes translation is simply not needed. “Brutal” and “total” were the most used words by our four guests during our seven-day mountain biking tour across the Carpathians. Day one – warm up in Ciucaș Mountains [singlepic id=1468 w= h= float=none]Due to a very late (early?) flight, the first day was more of a warm-up mission. We started in Cheia and went on some nice trails around Cabana Muntele Roșu. We were lucky enough to…
