So after looking at photos of Lviv and the Carpathians, and talking with a friend about how amazing it was, I decided to try and take a weekend trip out to Western Ukraine. Since I couldn’t decide between visiting Lviv and climbing Mt. Hoverla in the Carpathians, I decided to do both. Thus began a super crazy weekend.
My bus left Kyiv at 20:40, so I packed everything in the morning and left for the bus station straight from work, leaving my work clothes in one of the drawers of my desk. The bus was pretty nice… like a charter bus in the US. Around 1am, the bus stopped in Vinnitsa, where Lena Chernova joined me. We served together in Moscow and she seemed to enjoy the idea of a crazy weekend trip, so we headed on for Ivano-Frankovsk, in south western Ukraine. The sun rises here between 4 and 5am, so we woke up pretty early on the bus. Plus, riding the bus was like flying in an airplane with nonstop turbulence. The roads aren’t that smooth here. We passed through some beautiful towns though, with very nice looking homes (when compared with the run down dachas I was used to seeing in the Russian countryside) and beautiful green hills. Around 8am, we arrived in front of the train station in Ivano-Frankovsk.
Mt. Hoverla is located in the Carpathians, which are south of Ivano-Frankovsk, so we had to take a bus to a town called Vorokhta (at least that’s what our guidebook said). So after grabbing some food and water, we went over to the bus stop and found a van going out to Vorokhta. The drive took about two hours, since we stopped all along the way to pick up and drop off other passengers. The countryside was beautiful, and I could tell that we were approaching the Carpathians as the land became more filled with hills. As we stepped out of the van in Vorokhta, we found ourselves sitting on a bench across from the post office in a very small but clean town. We had to go another 20km to get to the trailhead, so we waited to see if there would be another bus that could take us closer. However, only about two cars drove down the road every five minutes, and we found out that the busses only go 6km south, and don’t turn down the road that we need, so we dropped about $20 on a taxi.
The drive to the trailhead took quite some time because once we crossed into the national park, the road turned into a dirt road, and our taxi driver was careful not to bottom out his car. He was also quick to tell us stories of people who had died climbing Hoverla, and all sorts of other stuff I didn’t understand. I guess this is a good time to note that the western half of Ukraine speaks only Ukrainian. They understand Russian, but they are much more patriotic than the rest of the country, and much less friendly towards Russia. Although the languages are similar and I am learning things bit by bit, I still don’t understand much of Ukrainian, so I let Lena do most of the talking.
We arrived at the trailhead and began our ascent. If I remember correctly, I had read somewhere that the trailhead was at 1000m and the summit of Hoverla was at 2061m, and the hike was about 4km. So it sounded to me like it would be pretty easy. Boy was I wrong. The trail starts out following the Prut River and then crosses over it and heads up a pine-covered hill. Instead of using switchbacks like most trails in America, the trail here went straight up the steep hill. We emerged from the pines to a beautiful opening with great views of the snow-capped mountains. The trail continued to go straight up the mountain. It was like climbing stairs, except worse, because the stairs were uneven and sometimes wobbly. But the views were gorgeous!
As we kept climbing, we finally reached the top of a ledge that we thought was near to the peak. However, only then could we see that we were probably only half-way there, and the rest of the trail continued straight up the side of the mountain, crossing through large patches of snow. We stopped often to take pictures and eat because it was thoroughly exhausting. After much complaining from both of us and me repeatedly saying that we were почти there (almost), we finally made it to the top.
The top of the mountain was covered with various markers and monuments. They had a Ukrainian flag, a monument that supposedly had a bunch of dirt in it from different areas of Ukraine, and a sign pointing the direction and distance to other locations. There were also a ton of people. I think there were some school groups up there. In any case, we were so tired that we sat down next to one of the monuments to rest and eat some food. After a little while, we noticed that it was starting to rain. A couple drops quickly turned into a downpour, so I donned my poncho and tried to cover myself and my backpack from the rain. Then it started hailing.
I figured that maybe we could just wait out until the storm died down, but it never did. Eventually, the top of the mountain was covered with water and we were getting soaked. My poncho was not helping much so I took out my umbrella, which helped keep me a lot dryer. Then I saw lighting strike to the north. It struck again and I felt a small shock from the metal button used to open my umbrella. Suddenly, I realized I was doing one of those things they tell you as a child not to do… standing in an open area during a thunderstorm holding an umbrella. Except this was worse. I was on the top of the tallest mountain in Ukraine holding an umbrella in a thunderstorm. I quickly set down my umbrella, using it to shield my backpack from the rain. People always joke about doing something and getting struck by lightening for it… well God had his chance, so I guess I’m doing okay :)
Anyways, we were getting soaked and it was freezing and the rain was showing no signs of leaving, so we decided to head back down the mountain. As I said before, the sides of it were partially covered in snow. And going down a steep, snow covered mountain is usually a recipe for falling. At first I tried to side step my way down, but I quickly fell and slid down the side of the mountain, using the hook on my umbrella as an ice-pick to try and slow myself down. I made it to the end of the snow patch without any bumps or bruises, but I was completely soaked. Lena also made it down, but somewhere along the way, she managed to get some scratches on her arm. Overall, we were okay.
We continued the slow descent, “skiing” down snow patches by sliding in my shoes, and trampling over all sorts of vegetation, because the trails had now become small streams of water. But it’s okay… this area gets tons of rain and is known for it’s black soil, so it’s not like the plants are going to die or anything. Fast forward about an hour of tedious climbing, slipping, falling, lots of mud, really cold, it’s still raining, I’m soaking wet, etc. and we finally made it down to the bottom. I rewarded myself with a Pepsi from one of the vendors selling souvenirs at the bottom. Other than the three or four booths, there were a bunch of cars and a hotel that looked like it was closed, but I’m not sure (the area is popular for skiing, so maybe it’s a seasonal thing… or maybe it just looked like it was closed). No busses come up here, so we just headed towards the parking lot, hoping to find a ride back into town.
Lena asked one bus driver, but he was with a school group that was camping there for the night. Finally, a big van was leaving and I went up and asked the driver if we could ride with them at least to the main road. He agreed, but when he saw that we had wet pants, he got a little concerned. Lena said that we could just stand, so we wouldn’t get the seats wet, and that seemed to be okay with him. So we hopped onto a bus full of teenage girls in bikini tops (I am assuming they were drying off) and two guys, the driver, and another guy who was copying everyone’s photos from their memory cards onto a laptop. We set our stuff down and stood in the aisle, holding on as we bounced around the dirt road for 14km. As we got closer, they asked where I was going and I told them we were headed to Vorokhta, so they took us the whole way there, which was really nice, since busses didn’t seem to pass by very often. On the way, we got to listen to lots of fun Russian and Ukrainian music. Huzzah!
So they dropped us off at the “bus stop” in vorokhta (aka a bench) where we attracted the stares of everyone around. We were soaking wet and covered with mud. Good times. There were a couple women who worked at the store that had come outside to smoke and seemed amused to see us sitting there, so I went and asked one of them where I could find a bathroom to change. I changed into the pair of shorts I had with me, and by this time, my shirt was drying out on its own. But my socks and shoes were still soaked. Lena’s pants were a lot more muddy than mine, so she changed into my jeans (think skater girl wearing guys pants that need to be pulled up every now and then so they don’t fall off) because we were worried the bus driver might not let us on if we were covered in mud.
The storekeeper said the bus would come around 8pm, which would mean that we would be waiting for about an hour, but it came after about 20 minutes, which was fine with me. We arrived in Ivano-Frankovsk at about 9pm (maybe later). The bus stop which was filled with busses in the morning was now practically empty (not a good sign), so we headed into the train station to find out if there was any way to get to Lviv. The next train wasn’t leaving until 12:40am, so we went back outside to platform 5, where a bus driver told us that the busses to Lviv would come, “if they come.”
We waited around for about 30 minutes until we finally realized that there was a bus ticket office where we could find out if a bus was coming (don’t make fun… we were cold and tired and probably not running on all cylinders). The next bus wasn’t leaving until just before 1am, so we went and bought train tickets. The trip from Ivano-Frankovsk to Lviv is about 3 hours by car. However, it turns out that this train we were taking somehow turned that 3 hour trip into 7 hours, and would arrive in Lviv at 8am. This was great news for us, because otherwise, we would’ve been wandering around Lviv at 3am looking for a place to stay.
Tickets in hand, we hopped on a bus looking for the center of town (a.k.a. a place to get some normal food). Please note that the center of town is conveniently hidden behind a bunch of buildings, so the busses actually go along the street that runs parallel to the main street of town. Luckily, the bus we took passed the center and then looped back and returned to it, so we made it to a little pizza place just before they closed. The pizza was actually pretty good, and I used the opportunity to try and dry off my feet. I changed into a dry pair of socks, hoping that my shoes wouldn’t make them too wet. After finishing our pizza and dessert, we headed back to the train station to wait for our train. When the train finally came, we hopped on, found our places, and I vaguely remember the train leaving the station as I was falling asleep.
Next stop… Lviv!!!
For more pictures from the Carpathians, there's an album on
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