‘There is more to see for those who listen’ stated the banner flying by the cobbled ramp up to the so-called Dracula’s castle at Bran. I’ve no idea why these words of wisdom were there but they made me smile. They also reminded me of Harley’s father’s adage ‘The wise old owl sat in an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke, the less he spoke the more he heard. Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird’.
Anyway. What about the skiing?
We started off at Balea lake in the Fagarash mountains, arriving in a windy white out. That afternoon the clouds parted to show steep slopes loaded with fresh, wind-blown snow. We enjoyed several laps in the powder on the gentlest part of the bowl. The following day was perfect with blue skies, sunshine and wonderful cold, undisturbed snow. Magical.
Sadly for us that was it for the good weather. The wind picked up and blew for the remainder of the trip, stripping the snow off the tops and blowing it who knows where? We did enjoy one long sunny day traversing the Bucegi summits but in a howling gale and on blasted snow. What with the winds and stripped snow up high and terrible ankle breaking sludge low down it was a struggle to find sensible things to do. So, at Poiana Brasov and Azuga we skinned up through the trees then descended the pistes which worked out just fine.
Didn’t Shakespeare write something along the lines of ‘one should not be old before one is wise’!?