Epic exploring – Buila Vânturarița, Romania

Bogdan reached out and asked if I’d be interested in exploring Buila Vânturarița. I instinctively answered yes without knowing what, where, how much or anything else. He was clear on the fact that it was for exploring and not ridden by the crew before. Well, exploring it was… with all its beauty; the joy of a new mountain, new trails, new encounters but also the exposure to navigation mistakes, unridable trails, weather changes and all that stuff that makes such a ride unforgettable!

The whole thing became a 9 hour adventure of 53km and 2700 meters of climb.

This is where it’s at:

Before getting there we messed up the meeting point with another Bogdan. He waited. We waited. Until we sorted out that we had totally misunderstood him and he got into the car and caught up with us. Waiting close to Râmnicu Vâlcea…

Finally we get going all together and get ourselves ready in the village of Bărbătești.

Pretty much the only asphalt we did in those 9 hours

A snap shot of what is coming

A lot of climbing early on but we get the job done – riding and pushing

As in any good adventure there is a dark backdrop to keep us focused

On the edge…

And beyond the edge we get onto the other side of the mountain ridge with a new scenery and a new backdrop

Pushing gets into carrying but the spirit is on top

We escape the clouds but not the pushing

The three musketeers

The pushing awards us with some technical trails but mixed up with pushing and carrying between

The rain is finally catching up with us but we are fast in the amazing downhill through this forest

Until a tire comes off the rim and I get another argument for not riding tubeless – old school as I am

Rain, tired, high elevation, cold and fixing these immaculate tubeless tires… the moral is somewhat lower even though we of course know that any epic exploring is always having a glorious recovery with food and beverage popping out of nowhere before you know it. And yes, there it is – the Cabana Cheia. The guy let us know that they are out of food but still manage to pull out one delicious thing after the other and of curse some shots with it

We are energized and cross the Rubicon

After another climb. The Bogdans are happy that it was the light in the tunnel and not the train…

A lot of the climbing gets wasted on a downhill on gravel but after yet another climb we get to enjoy these nice trails close by the monastery (and through it)