Hiking in Eastern Carpathians with Nikon 1 V1

stratokaster

Top Veteran
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Name
Pavel
Earlier this month, my friends and I were on a hiking trip in the Ukrainian part of Eastern Carpathian mountains. We travelled to the village of Kvasy by train, ascended the Bliznica mountain and then walked along Svydovets towards the Apshinets (Trojaska) lake. After that we walked from Apshinets to Chorna Tysa and finished our trip in Yasynya (a small town in Zakarpatska oblast).

It was my first mountain trip. It was rather difficult for me because we walked about 15km on the second day and about 20km on the fourth day. But the beauty of Carpathians is, frankly speaking, nothing short of astonishing. The trip was worth it in terms of scenery alone.

We also met some locals. Those people lead amazingly simple lives. They have no internet and sometimes even no electricity. We met an elderly shepherd who lives in Chorna Tysa during winter but spends his summers up in the mountains. He doesn't have electricity or running water in his summer home but he has a solar panel for charging his mobile phone which is rather amazing if you ask me.

My main camera during the trip was Nikon 1 V1 because it's very small and light and has a very good battery life. I used two lenses — a standard zoom (Nikkor 1 10-30 VR) and a telephoto zoom (Nikkor 1 30-110 VR) — because they are small, light and sharp. The camera was attached to my backpack with Peak Design Capture clip which turned out to be very convenient. I can't recommend it enough. I also used iPhone to take some pictures when using the camera was inappropriate.

But enough words. Some photos taken during the trip:

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Bliznica was the first mountain we climbed:
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We had a short rest at the top of the mountain:
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The view from there is breathtaking.

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This beautiful cow was very much intrigued by our lunch.

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This mountain is called Velyky Kotel ("Great Pot"). There is some snow in the crevices...

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We climbed Gerishaska and then proceeded to Trojaska.

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At the top of Gerishaska mountain (1762m)
by Pavel Urusov, on Flickr

From Trojaska, we descended towards the Apshinets lake. It's a popular tourist spot, we saw four other groups during the 2 days we were there and two of those groups actually had a fight over an attractive camping spot :coco:

There are lots and lots of glacial erratics there. Those are the stones left behind by retreating glaciers during the last ice age.

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The stones are covered by colourful lichen.

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There are sedge and wild thyme growing on top of some (not all) glacial stones.

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The weather was very good and we decided to take a swim. The water was VERY cold (about 10 degrees centigrade).

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The were some sheep grazing in the mountains near our camping site between the glacial stones:

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The next day we packed our tents and left the camping site about 8:00AM. Our destination was the village of Chorna Tysa situated on the eponymous river. There were two roads: one was short but difficult and very scenic and the other long and relatively boring. We decided to take the short route. Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative, it was raining constantly and the road had become VERY unpleasant.

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I had not one but TWO rain covers on my backpack but by the time we arrived to our destination, its content was wet :dash2:

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We were so exhausted that we decided to ask the locals to give us a ride. We travelled the final 4km in this lovely contraption:

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Boy, it was a wild ride.

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We spent the final night in a local vacation hotel. It was ridiculously cheap (about $4/night per person) and there was hot water! Wow! The next day, we boarded a regional train going from Yasynya to Ivano-Frankivsk:

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The ride was 4 hours long, so we decided to have some fun... :D

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It was a great trip. We decided to repeat it next summer. I'm already looking forward to it...
 
Luke, thanks for featuring my post! Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your kind words! My role in taking those photographs was rather humble, it's almost impossible to take a crappy shot when the scenery and the light are so beautiful.
 
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