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| Rebra   | 
| Page Type: Mountain/Rock Location: Transylvania, Romania, Europe Lat/Lon: 47.59745°N / 24.63242°E County: Maramures Activities: Hiking, Skiing Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter Elevation: 7441 ft / 2268 m | Page By: peterbud Created/Edited: Jun 26, 2007 / Jun 26, 2008 Object ID: 305008 Hits: 1286 Loading... Page Score: 90.41% - 25 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Overview
Vârful Rebra (ro) - Rebra-csúcs (hu)
Rebra (middle) and Pietrosu (right from it) from the east, on the main ridge trail |
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 The Buhăescu Lakes far view  The Buhăescu Lakes near view
Located on the north-south side-ridge that connects the east-west main ridge with Pietrosu /Nagy-Pietrosz/, Rebra is the third highest point of Rodnei Mountains /Munţii Rodnei, Radnai-havasok, Rodnaer Gebirge/, after Pietrosu and Ineu /Ünőkő, Kuhhorn/. Its peak is about 1 km away from that of Pietrosu.
Under its northeast face three small glacial lakes follow each other in a row (there is also a fourth one apart from these). These are the Buhăescu Lakes /Taurile Buhăescului, Bukuly-tavak/. The second one from above has a depth of 5.2m, with this being the deepest in the Rodnei Mountains.
Downstream of the Buhăescu Lakes, the 20 m tall Buhăescu waterfall /Cascada Buhăescu Mare, Nagy-Bukuly-vízesés/ can be found.
General information (applicable also to this mountain) can be found on the Rodnei Mountains parent page. Any additional info (sharing your personal experiences, reporting typos, broken links, etc) is welcome.
Rebra (a little right from the center) viewn from Pietrosu |
Routes
Rebra is not a difficult mountain to climb (just a little scrambling and walk-up), yet it is worth to do so for the view of Pietrosu and the Buhăescu lakes' valley. There are two possibilities to approach the summit on marked trails:
1) By leaving the main ridge trail at Vf. Buhăescu Mare on blue stripe northwards.
2) Starting from Borşa /Borsa/, following the blue stripe (described in detail below).
Blue stripe starts east from the center of Borşa town, after the hospital. Crossing the Vişeu /Visó, Wishau/ river, the mark leads on unpaved streets with houses on both sides (with considerable amount of rubbish thrown into the creek by the street...). After a while, the houses get more and more spaced from each other, gradually disappearing. Instead you will find a growing number of shepherd shelters along the cart road the trail follows. While leaving the inhabited area for the green forest, it is hard to escape wondering about the serious waste management problems of those settlements...
Further up on the slope you will find a lot of raspberry and bluberry along the road (depending on the time of year, of course). The best tasting raspberries I have eaten in my life so far! Beware, picking the berries can slow down your pace considerably. Bears also love it, bear this in mind (on the other hand, normally they try to avoid meeting humans if they hear them coming, so talking is generally considered as good "self-defence").
Leaving the raspberry fields, the road will keep winding between pinewoods. After you get out from the forest, you will have a nice view over the Maramureş Mountains /Máramarosi-havasok/. From here, there is not much ascend left to reach the depression where the meteo station (1760 m) is situated (cart road ends). If you plan to stay for more days (which is advised), there is a designated campsite south from the meteo station houses, by the side of the little creek (Pietroasa creek) that originates from Lake Iezer /Lacul Iezer, Mosolygó-tó/ a little bit further up. The meteo station itself is surrounded by a fence and it depends on the mood of the personnel whether they welcome you in their "territory" or not (by default it's better to walk by).
The trail continues along the creek and passes by Lake Iezer. On the 13th January, 1944, a group of 16 young Hungarian men from Salgótarján were hit here by an avalanche - only one of them survived. In 2003, a memorial wood has been erected by the lake to remember them.
Soon after the memorial, the trail starts winding up the steep northeast face of Pietrosu. When you reach the saddle, the path splits into two (both marked by blue stripe). The branch to the west is a short side-trail, leading up to Pietrosu. The one to the south drops down to Curmătura Pietrosului (saddle, Buhăescu Lakes to the east) and continues towards Rebra (in front of you).
The marked trail does not lead to the top, instead it goes around the western side of the peak. Leaving the trail on the south side of the peak, it is just an easy walk up (from other directions you have to walk on rockpiles). If you come from Buhăescu Mare (main ridge trail), you will be already approaching Rebra from the south side. Once you are up there, and the weather permits, enjoy the closest high-altitude view on Pietrosu!
Pietrosu viewn from Rebra |
Getting thereMain ridge trail
This is covered on the own page of the main ridge trail.
Getting to Borşa
By train
At the moment there is no direct train access, but you can get to Vişeu de Jos /Alsóvisó, Unterwishau/ (located on the Beclean /Bethlen/ - Sighetu Marmaţiei /Máramarossziget, Siget/ line) from Cluj-Napoca /Kolozsvár, Klausenburg/ or Braşov /Brassó, Kronstadt/ (and perhaps Satu Mare /Szatmárnémeti, Sathmar/ as well).
From Vişeu de Jos there is a bus that waits behind the train station and goes towards Borşa. Just follow the others who get off the train. It can happen that tourists might be charged a higher fare for the bus than what the real price is (it will not cost much anyway, though). Get off at Borşa center, buy food if you haven't brought enough with you.
For up-to date information about available trains I recommend using the DB website to check actual situation (see External Links section below).
By car
From Cluj-Napoca /Kolozsvár, Klausenburg/ take road 1C to Dej /Dés, Desch/, from there road 17 to Beclean /Bethlen/. Then road 17D to Salva /Szálva/, from there road 17C to Moisei /Majszín/ and finally road 18 to Borşa, which is the next settlement.
From Satu Mare /Szatmárnémeti, Sathmar/ take road 19 to Sighetu Marmaţiei /Máramarossziget, Siget/, from there road 18 leads to Borşa (and on). Optionally you can leave road 19 at Livada /Sárköz/ and take road 1C to Baia Mare /Nagybánya, Frauenbach/ and from there take road 18 to Borşa through Sighetu Marmaţiei.
The easiest way of planning your trip is to use a route planner (one of them is listed in the External Links section below).
By Bus
Bus services are operated to a great extent by numerous small private companies. The best thing is to ask about the possibilities wherever you are at the moment.
Car issues
If you decide to go by car, be aware that road toll has to be paid for the usage of main roads in Romania. You shall buy a vignette (called Rovinieta) at the nearest petrol station after entering the country. Vignettes are available for 7 days, 30 days and 1 year. Fees vary according to vehicle type. In June 2008, a 7-day vignette for a passenger car was 11 RON.
HINTS:
- After crossing the border, people (I'm not talking about officials) might try to stop you for exchanging Romanian money and selling Rovinieta. Do NOT buy vignette from these "roadside" people because the purchase has to be entered in a computer system and they apparently do not have that... (I've met this situation at the Nagylak/Nadlac HU/RO border station, do not know whether this is a general phenomenon everywhere or a "local speciality"...)
- Think over how much time you'd like to spend in the country, because once you get away from the border, it will be hard to get new Rovinieta.
The remark about parking on the Rodnei Mountains parent page is a bit overcautious. Of course you shall not leave anything "tempting" in the car (better not to leave anything there at all). If you sleep in some pension in Borşa (or in villages nearby), ask the owners of the place about where they recommend parking and where not (probably you'll have the opportunity to leave the car in a closed yard). If you plan or have to park somewhere in public place, leave the car at a busy spot. Foreign licence plate is not uncommon in the area - lot of Romanians who work in Western Europe have cars with Italian, German and other foreign licence plates. But, of course, there is no guarantee ever... (thanks to SP member visentin for sharing his personal experiences with me)
Red Tape
Vf. Rebra and its vicinity are part of Munţii Rodnei National Park (see External Links section), and more specifically, Reservaţia Pietrosul Rodnei. Latter is part of UNESCO world biosphere reserves. There is no entry fee.
Please respect the mountains by taking your garbage back down with you. Also, if you are descending towards Borşa and have an extra bag, you might do some voluntary service by taking trash left behind by others at the refuge on Pietrosu or the meteo station campsite.
Camping
As there are no tourist huts around in the area, camping is the only way to sleep up in the mountains.
However, camping is only allowed in some designated places in Rodnei Mountains. The following three of them are near to the Pietrosu area, where Rebra is located:
- by the meteo station (under the north face of Pietrosu)
- at Tarniţa Bătrânei (saddle, west on the main ridge trail)
- at Şaua Între Izvoare (saddle, east on the main ridge trail)
There is a small wooden shelter (painted yellow) by the meteo station (these two are different). I guess the shelter belongs to a specific tourist club, and it is open only when there is staff.
As for the meteo station itself: tourists are generally not welcome inside the territory of the meteo station (fence), although in case of emergency they would let you sleep in the small building.
When to Climb - Mountain Rescue
Though both directions are possible around the year, in winter the north side can be dangerous because of avalanches. Perhaps approaching from either the valley of Dragos stream (west from Borşa) or the valley of Repede stream (east from Borşa) offers a safer, yet not much longer journey. These are not marked routes, but the marks would be covered with snow anyway. I have no winter experience here, though.
If you consider a winter trip, contacting Salvamont (Romanian mountain rescue service) could be a wise idea. The phone of Salvamont Borşa is: +40/(0)262/342322
Romanian mountain site carpati.org provides two further numbers for the western part of Rodnei Mts.: +40(0)740/651941 and +40(0)263/364094 (Buia Stefan, in Năsăud city)
See also the Mountain Conditions and Mountain Rescue sections of Rodnei Mountains parent page.
Weather Conditions
Online weather information for Borşa (idea borrowed from Nanuls):
Please note that these are data for a town at the feet of the mountains, they're good to get a general feeling of what's around. In the high regions the situation may be quite different.
Actually, the data of the meteo station is available online here (on the right side of the page, under "IEZER"). This is the direct situation in the Pietrosu area, where Rebra is located.
Maps
Paper maps:
- Munţii Rodnei/Radnai-havasok/Rodnei Mountains (1:50,000) by Dimap, with guiding text on the backside in English, Romanian and Hungarian. Can be ordered online from Dimap here (8 €) or from Map-info here (online shop > maps > mountain maps).
- Munţii Rodnei/Rodnei Mountains (1:50,000) by Bel Alpin, with guide. Can be ordered online here for £8.00.
A navigable online map can be found at alpinet.org (Romanian mountain site, see External Links section).
An overview map of Rodnei Mountains in black&white can be found online here.
Miscellaneous
Acknowledgements
Thanks to SP member visentin for sharing some of his pics here!
Time zone
Romania is in the Eastern European time zone (GMT+2)
Currency
The new Romanian leu (RON) was created in 2005 from the old leu (ROL) by chopping off the last 4 zeros (so that 10,000 old lei - plural of leu - is 1 new leu). While nowadays the banknotes in use are the new ones, sometimes it happens that people tell you prices in old lei, but doing it in units of thousands, which can be quite confusing. An example: "80" can easily mean 80,000 old lei, which is actually 8 new lei... What really helps is to convert the amount to a currency that is familiar to you (exchange rates can be found on xe.com, for instance) and compare it with "Western European" prices for the same thing. The Romanian price should generally be less (or about the same but never higher).
External Links
Homepage of the Rodnei Mountains National Park (in Romanian only)
Video panorama from Rebra (zooms to Pietrosu peak at 0:50, and to Buhăescu Lakes at 1:10)
Munţii Rodnei page on carpati.org:
only in Romanian, but with good huts ("Cazare") and trails ("Trasee") info, plus an extensive photo gallery ("Fotografii")
Munţii Rodnei page on alpinet.org:
only in Romanian, but has news section ("Ştiri"), topo map (with a list of GPS coordinates - "Puncte GPS asociate") and some huts info
Train search: DB search engine
Driving directions: ViaMichelin
Images
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