Conquering fears on Piatra Craiului's crests

Dear traveler,

Time came again for me to let my parents adventure alone in a hiking trip. I knew they wanted for some time to get to a place which was not appropriate for me. Actually, not just for me, but for anyone who had fear of dizzy heights. 

Somebody like Mamarmot. Well, yes, Mamarmot is quite scared when it comes to heights and narrow crests, with chasms as far as your eyes can see. I don't blame her, Piatra Craiului's crest is not actually a walk in the park.

Still, even though she's not a friend of heights, she's always trying to become friends with them, to tame them and see their beauty.

And for taming fears, Piatra Craiului's crest is the best. At least this is what she says. It's not the first time she hikes the heights of Piatra Craiului, she climbed a peak or two, sometimes she stopped halfway as she could not continue anymore, sometimes she reached the top and realised it's actually not that bad. 

All that Mamarmot knew about Piatra Craiului's crest was from the stories her father told her as a child, about how you walk on a path as narrow as your palm with gorges to your left and right. These stories fascinated her as much as they scared her, but later she found out, that her dad never walked the paths of Piatra Craiului, but just heard stories about it.

And just like that, a dream started to grow in my parent's and their hiking friends minds, to climb the trail La Lanțuri and walk Piatra Craiului's northern crest trail.

They needed the appropriate weather for this, so, they found just the perfect weekend, and the four hikers gathered with another friend of ours and hit the road to Plaiul Foii in a hot summer day.

The weather was excellent until 6 in the morning when they started to hear the sound of rain on the tent. They planned to start walking at 8 and at 7 and a half it was still raining cats and dogs. 

-"In 17 minutes the rain will stop, that's what Mountain Forecast is saying", says our friend happily.

Well, at 7.47 the rain did dtop..so at 8, the hikers were hitting the road as planned..under a drizzle of rain that started as they set foot on the road towards Șpirlea refuge. 

-"It looks like a summer rain, let's go up to the refuge and if it doesn't stop we return."

The trail up to the refuge tires them a bit but they reach it quite fast. The rain has already stopped and the sun starts to show up. 

The hikers continue to climb up to Zăplaz, and afterwards, up to the point where the first cables appear. Up to this point I climbed once with Mamarmot and I saw how they looked like. The first cable segment, at least, was pretty serious. Then, neither me nor Mamarmot know what's next. 

Mamarmot tells me that she takes some time to think here. A small break, to take a deep breath. Thinking that this is it and there's no turning back now. That if it's difficult for her to climb them, it will be much more difficult to descend on them. But she is aware that this is just her mind playing tricks on her and she is safe, she has the necessary experience to be here, now, and to get to the end of the trail. 

The first cable segment is harder, this is what Mamarmot tells herself as she climbs above the Zăplaz rocks. It wasn't so bad.

The trail continues to climb through the boulders and Mamarmot is just counting the cable segments, without looking up. Yes, she doesn't have any problem looking down and see the world getting smaller and smaller, but looking up. Yeah, she's silly like that. 

She slowly starts getting excited and tell herself that it's not that difficult after all. It's actually easy. She might even get used to trails of this kind. She could actually look up confidently...but until then..in her way she notices a curved boulder that she somehow...has to jump over in order to move forward. She didn't thought about this..

She takes a deep breath and, careful at every step, not to the left nor to the right, she passes this bump. It wasn't that bad. 

With every boulder and cable, she starts becoming more confident. Although from time to time she reaches segments that seem dangerous, she manages to overcome her feelings. And just like that, slowly, the five hikers reach Piatra Craiului's crest, at Șaua Grindului refuge. 

It's done, Mamarmot cannot believe that she reached this point.

They take a short break at the refuge and then they continue towards La Om peak also known as Piscul Baciului peak. She tells herself that from here it's very easy. Even if she doesn't know how the trail looks like between La Om and Ascuțit peak, Mamarmot knows that from now onwards she will do just great. La Lanțuri is the most difficult marked trail in Piatra Craiului, right? At least this is what she remembers from what she read.

From La Om's peak, you cannot really tell how the path goes. All you see are ridges and lots of stone and it seems like no path is there. The hikers are moving forward accompanied by a dog. 

At some point, the dog cannot move forward as the path climbs through some sort of trough. The doggy gets scared and stays behind.

On a narrow path, Mamarmot has to walk with her face to the boulder, and this gives her a misbalance feeling. She reminds of the doggy and she thinks about how small she is next to this mountain and that only one wrong step is enough..and she just freezes.

-"And what did you do, Mamarmot?"

-"Marmot, I felt like sitting just there and waiting for someone to get me down from the mountain. But I realized that even if someone comes, I'm still the one who needs to walk on these paths, so I took a deep breath, I cooled off a bit and continued further. " 

The Țimbale peaks and the path between them seemed the harder. Especially when she had to descend with her back to the gorge, on the Piatra Craiului's limestone rocks.

-"Marmot, I wondered dozens of times while walking this trail if I actually belong here. And then, the mountain answered."

-"How come, Mamarmot?"

Mamarmot tells me about a chamois family that they saw after the Țimbale peaks. All ran away, except one that stood still for a few seconds and starred into Mamarmot's eyes. It seems as she was telling her that she is welcomed and she is safe here, in their home.

Ohhh, how much I would've wanted to see a chamois!

A few difficult segments followed up to Ascuțit peak, but Mamarmot was confident now that the mountain welcomed her with arms wide open and she was safe. And moreover, she was not alone. Besides her friends and the chamois family, she felt the powerful presence of her dad and his stories about Piatra Craiului's crest.

Thinking about him, her steps carried her lightly up to Ascuțit peak, enjoying the views, edelweiss flowers and yellow poppies. 

From Ascuțit peak, she could even walk with her eyes closed as she knew the path by heart. 

Curmătura cabin greeted them with something warm to eat and then the hikers found their way through the forest towards Botorog's well.

Reaching the car, the hikers drive back to Plaiul Foii to get the other car. In Plaiul Foii, Mamarmot gazes at the starry sky and the crest that boldly shines in the moonlight. A few tears are streaming her cheeks just at the thought that she was there. And she made it. 

I see Mamarmot still emotional. I'm proud of her.

-"Mamarmot, I cannot wait for you to take me in Piatra Craiului's crest."